This strengths-based two-evening workshop with Lisa Ferentz offers a practical science-backed approach to treating addiction through the integrated lens of attachment, trauma, and affect regulation. Grounded in compassion and clinical insight, it explores how early attachment disruptions, caregiver betrayal, and dissociation underpin addiction. Lisa will guide participants to see clients within the context of their family of origin and help them develop strategies to stabilize, regulate, and heal.

Evening 1: Understanding Addiction as an Adaptive Response
Addiction is rarely about the substance itself—it’s a symptom of deeper struggles. This session examines how addiction functions as an adaptive strategy rooted in trauma and insecure attachment. We will cover:

• Addiction as Adaptation: Understanding how early relational trauma and parental addiction set the stage for addictive behaviours.
• Family of Origin Context: Examining coping strategies that children evolve—including self-blame, dissociation, and numbing—to survive caretaker perpetration, unavailability, or betrayal.
• Dysfunctional Dynamics: Identifying specific cognitive distortions, inappropriate boundaries, and relational templates that fuel addiction cycles.
• Dissociation as a Survival Tool: Exploring the evolution of dissociation, recognising hypo-arousal states, and strategies to empower clients with greater “choice” around their dissociation.
• Assessing Dissociation: How to administer questionnaires that assess dissociation and use these tools to build therapeutic understanding and connection.
• Unmetabolised Trauma and Comorbidity: Addressing the intricate relationship between addiction and unresolved trauma, focusing on how the desire for continued numbing perpetuates addictive behaviours.

Evening 2: Healing Beyond Abstinence
Sobriety is only the beginning for trauma survivors. Recovery requires addressing the unmetabolised trauma and emotional dysregulation that drive addictive behaviours. This session focuses on equipping therapists with practical tools to help clients move toward sustainable healing. We will explore in depth:

• Affect Regulation Skills: Resourcing clients with tools to stabilise and regulate emotions, particularly during the early stages of sobriety.
• CARESS Protocol: This transformative model moves clients away from “white knuckling” sobriety and provides concrete strategies to replace addictive behaviours. CARESS focuses on:
  • Identifying the emotional relief clients sought from addictive behaviours
  • Developing healthier ways to achieve that relief, free from shame and self-blame
  • Helping clients establish a sense of safety, grounding, and emotional stability without resorting to self-harm or substances
• Grounding and Stabilisation: Practical tools to help clients re-ground and regulate during dissociation or flashbacks, including the application of Milton Erickson’s Flashback Halting Protocol to provide reliable re-grounding techniques.
• Trauma-Informed Recovery: The safest approaches for addressing the co-morbidity of addiction and unresolved trauma, ensuring clients feel empowered rather than retraumatised.
• Navigating 12-Step Challenges: Supporting clients through triggering aspects of recovery programs, such as “character defects” and “higher power” concepts, while promoting empowerment and self-compassion.
• Attachment Repair in Therapy: Using the therapeutic relationship to help clients rebuild trust, address shame, and create a foundation for healthier relational patterns.
• The Human Side of Recovery: Exploring real client narratives that reveal the profound resilience and adaptive strategies underlying addiction. These stories bring to life the challenges clients face and the transformative potential of trauma-informed care.

Case Example: Sarah’s Journey

Sarah* (not her real name), a 32-year-old teacher, came to therapy after being arrested for driving under the influence. Beneath her polished exterior was a life unravelling—a battle with alcohol addiction that she described as her “only escape from the pain”. Sarah’s childhood was shaped by constant fear and chaos as she cared for her alcoholic mother, who oscillated between neglect and harsh criticism. To survive, Sarah learned to suppress her needs, blamed herself for her mother’s behaviour and when she couldn’t cope, began to numb her emotions through dissociation. As an adult, her reliance on alcohol grew as it became her primary means of quieting the relentless shame and feelings of abandonment that haunted her.

This case will demonstrate how using the CARESS model and trauma-informed strategies, therapists can help clients like Sarah rebuild trust, regulate emotions, and find healthier ways to cope with their pain while embracing their innate resilience.

*This case is illustrative only. During the training, Lisa will discuss similar cases drawn from her own clinical practice to highlight key concepts.

Why This Workshop Matters
This workshop redefines addiction recovery through a trauma-informed, attachment-focused lens. Therapists will gain a deeper understanding of the reverberating effects of parental addiction, neglect, and betrayal while learning to help clients integrate practical tools for lasting regulation and sobriety. By focusing on strengths, therapists will empower clients to replace harmful behaviours with healthier strategies that support emotional relief and connection.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Reframe addiction as an adaptive response to trauma rather than a moral failing.
• Identify how insecure attachment, caregiver unavailability, and relational trauma contribute to addiction.
• Understand the role of dissociation in perpetuating addiction and how to empower clients with choice around dissociation.
• Explore specific family dynamics, including cognitive distortions and inappropriate roles, that fuel addictive behaviours.
• Administer dissociation questionnaires and use the results to inform therapeutic interventions.
• Resource clients with affect regulation skills to stabilise early sobriety and prevent retraumatisation.
• Navigate the challenges trauma survivors face in traditional recovery programs, offering alternatives that foster empowerment.
• Implement the CARESS protocol to provide clients with effective strategies for emotional relief without resorting to self-harm or addictive behaviours.
• Use attachment-focused therapeutic interventions to rebuild trust, normalise healthy relational patterns, and address unresolved shame.
• Apply Milton Erickson’s Flashback Halting Protocol to help clients re-ground during dissociative episodes or flashbacks.
• Share real client narratives that highlight the adaptive strategies underlying addiction and demonstrate the power of trauma-informed care.

Transform Your Approach to Addiction Recovery
Whether you are new to trauma-informed care or seeking to refine your skills, this workshop offers the insights and practical skills that help you to meet the unique challenges trauma survivors face in addiction recovery. Join Lisa Ferentz for an empowering and transformative exploration of strengths-based healing that moves beyond sobriety toward lasting change.

© nscience UK, 2025 / 26