CTI Summer Training Institute

Treatment of Complex Trauma in Adults: Component-Based Psychotherapy
Presented by Joseph Spinazzola, Ph.D. and Jana Pressley, Psy.D.

Component-based Psychotherapy (CBP; Grossman, Spinazzola, Zucker & Hopper, 2017) is an evidence-informed framework for clinical intervention with adult survivors of complex interpersonal trauma, particularly those with histories of prominent childhood emotional abuse or neglect. CBP represents the culmination of four decades of extensive clinical practice, supervision, training and research at our Center. A core-components treatment model, it provides intervention targets, strategies and techniques designed to address four primary components of this work: relationships, regulation, dissociative parts and narrative. More than any other trauma treatment model, CBP bridges trauma-focused, psychoanalytic, feminist-relational, humanistic and mind-body theories of therapeutic action. Perhaps unique among contemporary approaches to evidence-based trauma treatment is the extent of CBP’s attention to the clinicians’ personal internal and interactive challenges, movement and growth within and across the components of the model as the work unfolds and the relationship evolves between client and therapist. As such, heavy emphasis is placed on the supervisory role in CBP treatment as well as on constructively working with and through the enactments that inevitably emerge.

This comprehensive 2-day training will intensively explore the four primary components of the CBP model: building relationships, enhancing regulatory capacity, working with dissociative parts, and developing client and clinician trauma and life narratives, identities and meaning-making. It highlights key targets of each component and provides detailed examples of specific strategies and techniques used to advance the clinical objectives of each model component. It emphasizes clinicians’ awareness and use of self and of relational enactments as vital points of therapeutic engagement, as well as the pivotal role of supervision in the treatment process. It provides numerous brief clinical case excerpts that illustrate conduct and integration of CBP components. It offers and reviews a number of tools (e.g. clinical decision-matrices) that have been developed to aid CB implementation. This workshop will include live demonstration and practice of strategies and techniques to advance each of the four model components. Participants will also engage in case conceptualization and treatment planning of one of the central clinical vignettes interwoven through the CBP book as a primary teaching aid. Finally, this workshop will addresses cultural and contextual considerations that frequently emerge in adult trauma treatment.

 Learning Objectives: (11 CE hours over two days)

Participants who complete this module will be able to:

1. Describe the theoretical rationale for component-based complex-trauma informed treatment for adults, particularly those with a history of psychological maltreatment.
2. Demonstrate understanding of the client-therapist parallel process, as applied to case examples.
3. Illustrate the concept of an enactment in the therapeutic relationship, and how this applies to the relational component of CBP.
4. Describe the principles underlying the use of specific stabilization techniques for affectively dysregulated adults.
5. Identify strategies for developing and strengthening regulation capacity.
6. Identify the distinction between the window of tolerance and the window of engagement.
7. Demonstrate understanding of the continuum of dissociative symptoms in complexly traumatized adults.
8. Describe the three levels of parts work in CBP.
9. Discuss the relevance of timing and pacing in trauma processing.
10. Identify the three levels of trauma processing and clinical decision-making process when working with complexly traumatized adults.
11. Identify various therapist identity narratives that impact clinician intervention approach

*** Both days are required for Track 1 ***

 Schedule:

Wednesday, July 23

8:30-12:15 Joseph Spinazzola, Ph.D.

8:30-10:00
10:00-10:15    Break
10:15-12:15

Lunch (12:15-2:00)

2:00-6:15 Jana Pressley, Psy.D.

2:00-4:00
4:00-4:15        Break
4:15-6:00

Thursday, July 24

8:30-12:15 Joseph Spinazzola, Ph.D.

8:30-10:00
10:00-10:15    Break
10:15-12:15