At this practical and clinically oriented workshop which would be relevant for all practitioners working with Trauma (including PTSD, Complex Trauma and Dissociative Disorders), Miriam Taylor highlights the case for therapists to adopt a trauma-oriented mindset, while explaining the neurobiological bases that maintain fear (and the resultant dissociation). She explains how this core understanding can then be used to inform trauma sensitive interventions, including working with the body to open up the possibility of gaining control over distressing symptoms. The workshop considers fear as a natural consequence of extreme experience and explores the ways that this can manifest in clinical settings. Through experiential elements and case vignettes, the workshop helps us comprehend:

• Fear as a hard-wired response and The Fearful Body
• The neurobiology of trauma – the triune brain, the vagus nerve, HPA axis and the window of tolerance; Hebb’s axiom
• The neurobiological processes that explain why response to threat involves visceral, sensory and motor elements, making the experience of fear a whole-body phenomenon
• The hierarchy of defensive responses (including heightened orienting responses, Attachment and social engagement systems) that we, as therapists, are tasked to reverse during the therapeutic process
• The ambiguous relationship many trauma victims can have with fear and how we can work with somatoform dissociation
• Positive and negative triggers that elicit a fear response and how we can assess for states of arousal
• Working with self-states, attentional shifts and intervening at a somatic level
• SOS: the fear of Self, Others and Situations

© nscience UK, 2020 / 21