NOTE: The seminar manual, CE information, and CE test are contained on disc #1 in PDF format. To access these documents, play disc #1 in your computer. For the video presentation, begin playing disc #1 in your DVD player. Attachment failure is inevitable and inescapable in trauma clients, leaving behind a lasting imprint on all future relationships, including the therapeutic one. Janina Fisher, Ph.D., international trauma expert and instructor at Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s Trauma Center, will teach you how to make therapy and the therapeutic relationship a haven of safety. You will learn how to first address your client’s disorganized attachment, traumatic transference, and disturbances in the capacity to self-regulate preventing therapy from becoming stagnant or unstable. Explore the effects of traumatic attachment from a psychobiological perspective and learn to work with both the somatic and relational legacy of attachment interventions drawn from neuroscience and attachment research as well as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a body-centered talking therapy for the treatment of trauma. Utilizing a combination of lecture, video, and experiential exercises, Dr. Fisher will provide you with a neurobiologically-informed understanding of the impact of trauma on attachment. Understanding the latest somatic interventions for challenging trauma-related relational patterns, and how to use ourselves as “neurobiological regulators” of the client’s dysregulated emotional and autonomic states, will help you improve treatment outcomes with your traumatized clients. OBJECTIVES Identify and discuss trauma-related attachment patterns
Describe disorganized attachment behavior and its effects on affect regulation
Explain the theory and practice of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Utilize Sensorimotor Psychotherapy techniques to address attachment and trauma-related issues in psychotherapy
Describe somatic interventions to address preoccupied, avoidant, and disorganized/unresolved attachment styles
Employ interactive neurobiological regulation to address affect dysregulation OUTLINE The Neurobiology of Attachment Formation An evolutionary view of attachment patterns
Early attachment as a somatic experience
Attachment styles and brain development
Autonomic arousal and affect regulation
Effects of traumatic threat on the body and nervous system Disorganized Attachment and Trauma When the source of safety is the source of threat
“Frightened” and “frightening” caregiving
Disorganized-unresolved attachment as survival defense
Statistical predictor of Borderline Personality Disorder
Long-term impact on affect regulation/dysregulation Effects of Disorganized-Unresolved Attachment on Transference Phobia of therapy and the therapist
Traumatic transference and disorganized attachment
Affect dysregulating effects of psychotherapy
Safety and dysregulation
Induction of the therapist as affect regulator Stabilizing Traumatic Attachment Responses Mindfulness-based treatment models
Introduction to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Increasing regulatory ability in therapy
Nonjudgmental self-observation and awareness
Non-attachment to thoughts, feelings, and memories
Ability to shift focus
Developing somatic resources in the relationship
Right brain-to-right brain communication The Therapist as a Neurobiological Regulator Dysregulated states and psychotherapy
What does it mean to be a ‘neurobiological regulator’?
Lessons from attachment research
Minimizing negative affect
Maximizing positive affect
Playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy
Successful experiences of feeling regulated while in relationship ABOUT JANINA FISHER, Ph.D. Janina Fisher, Ph.D. , is a licensed clinical psychologist and instructor at the Trauma Center, an outpatient clinic and research center founded by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. Known for her expertise as both a clinician and consultant, she is also past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association CE provider, a faculty member of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher has been an invited speaker at the Cape Cod Institute, Psychotherapy Networker Conference, Harvard Medical School Summer and Winter Conference Series, EMDRIA Annual Conference, University of Oslo (Norway), the University of Westminster in London (UK), the Esalen Institute, and the Psychotraumatology Institute of Europe. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities. | 
