Training Opportunities

TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

For details of training and professional development opportunities within our network, please click here

For other training opportunities, please click here

For updates of training opportunities for ISVAs (Independent Sexual Violence Advisers), please click here

TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN OUR NETWORK

Dissociation, Trauma and Time-Travelling ...
... or Living and Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder

a joint Deep Release & TASC Training Day with Hazel Barton, Jane Potts & Carolyn Spring

Saturday 11 December 2010
9.30 am-5.00 pm
Felden Lodge, Hemel Hempstead

£50.00 per person
Suitable for counsellors, therapists, survivors, partners, pastoral workers, Rape Crisis Centre staff, and anyone else interested or involved in the field of sexual abuse, trauma and dissociation.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Carolyn Spring worked therapeutically with children for nearly ten years. And then all of a sudden, at the peak of her career, she had an unexpected and debilitating breakdown. From working as a professional in a multi-agency team, she suddenly found herself unable to sleep, eat, think or work. At times she was barely able to speak, and when she did so it was in a four-year-old's voice, pleading not to be hurt. She began what felt like a series of 'time-travels', back into the past, then suddenly forwards again into the present. She would realise that she was miles from home, with no memory of how she had got there. She felt like she was stepping in and out of the TARDIS in Doctor Who.

What had happened? Had she gone mad? Where had the competent professional gone, and was this regressed child-adult here to stay? Could she get better? What would happen to her?

That was over five years ago. Carolyn is now walking down a path of increasing healing, having been diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder as a result of extreme childhood sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Using her story as a basis, and expanding out into the experiences from 'the other side' of two leading therapists, this training day will explore the mechanisms of dissociation and DID, the effect of trauma on the body and brain, the reality and therapeutic minefields of disorganised attachment, and how healing and recovery can be possible through appropriate therapeutic work.

The training will be led by Hazel Barton and Dr Jane Potts, two therapists experienced in the field of trauma and dissociation, as well as by Carolyn herself. It will be a fascinating day full of insights into both living and working with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Please note that some content may be triggering for survivors but attempts will be made throughout the day to give advance warning.

For further information or to book online, please go to http://www.tasc-online.org.uk/tasctraining

BRISTOL CRISIS SERVICE FOR WOMEN
WORKING WITH PEOPLE WHO SELF-INJURE WORKSHOPS

On Tuesday 28 September and Wednesday 06 October 2010 we are running informative and participative one-day workshops:

• Of interest to workers from statutory and voluntary sector agencies, who work with people who self-injure or who want to learn more about the issue
• A chance to discuss and share experiences
• An opportunity to learn from our extensive work with women who self-injure

Topics covered will include:
Why do people self-injure?
What are their needs?
What issues does self-injury raise for workers?
Responding helpfully

Cost: (Includes lunch and refreshments)
£125 statutory, independent and large voluntary organizations (10+ employees)
£95 other voluntary organizations and individuals

Please complete attached booking form and email to: bcsw@btconnect.com or contact for any other information: 0117 927 9600.

Bristol Crisis Service for Women offers a helpline service to women experiencing emotional distress, particularly focusing on self-injury. The helpline is a confidential and non-judgmental service for women in crisis.

We have an information service for women struggling with self-injury, their families, friends and professionals working with them.

We also provide training for professionals and organisations who work with people who self injure.

Eaves' Scarlet Centre in south London offers advice, support, counselling, and other services to women from across London. We've got an exciting range of free workshops and events coming up this autumn, including:

• Free and low cost qualifications advice - Hillcroft College at Eaves
• Understanding and managing panic attacks
• Complementary therapies for women affected by violence
• Communicating with confidence
• One to one computer training for beginners
• Weekly yoga and meditation
• How to access health services
• Moving on and managing change
• Healthy body, healthy life - Health day extravaganza
• Scarlet centre grand launch party - details to be announced!

Full details can be found by clicking here, call 020 7840 7142 to book now!

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES OUTSIDE OF OUR MEMBERSHIP NETWORK

European Society for Trauma & Dissociation, UK Network
Practical Training for People in Practice

Reaching for Relationship : An attachment-based approach to work with dissociation
A 4 day continuing professional development course designed and led by Sue Richardson, UKCP registered Attachment-based Psychotherapist.

Is this course for you?

This course is designed for practitioners of any discipline who are already working with dissociative clients and have some prior training in this area of work. It aims to help people to enhance their practice by exploring ways of working with complex issues and sharing creative interventions. Some prior knowledge of attachment theory is helpful but not essential: pre-course reading will be suggested and the course will begin with an overview and refresher re attachment concepts. Numbers will be limited to 12 participants.

This CPD course will appeal to those of you who:

• would like to sharpen and extend your ability to work with dissociative clients
• work with clients who have suffered particularly severe childhood trauma
• enjoy developing your own synthesis of theory and practice
• would like to reflect on your own role as a professional caregiver
• welcome peer feedback and support
• are excited when something you have read sheds light on your work
• would like to further develop your ability to connect creatively with clients
• value the unique perspective of experts by experience
• are happy to learn from your mistakes!

Aims
1. To explore the application of an attachment framework to work with trauma and dissociation.
2. To review the use of other therapeutic modalities with which practitioners may be familiar in the light of clients who have suffered severe attachment trauma.
3. To integrate consideration of organised and extreme forms of abuse throughout the course e.g ritual abuse. [over]

Outline of course content (Details on UK page of the ESTD website (www.estd.org)

• Traumatic attachment
• Dissociative system as an attachment system: Assessment and repair.
• Reaching for relationship: Attachment to the perpetrator, the therapist and significant others; exploring internal attachment.
• Using creative interventions to repair attachment trauma.
• Our needs and issues as professional careseekers and caregivers.

Learning outcomes. By the end of the course, participants will:

1. Be familiar with the nature and impact of attachment trauma.
2. Have been introduced to the concept of the internal attachment system
3. Have undertaken an in-depth exploration of the attachment trauma suffered by a specific client(s), its assessment and repair.
4. Be able to devise therapeutic strategies for individual clients.
5. Have critically reviewed some of the relevant literature.
6. Have gained knowledge and insight from experts by experience.
7. Have considered the therapeutic implications of organised/extreme abuse.

Method

The main emphasis is on drawing out and sharing practice experiences and putting them in an attachment framework. Sessions will include theoretical in-put, exercises/discussions, application to participant's own cases, case presentations and hearing from experts by experience. Participants will be expected to undertake some reading as part of their learning.

About the trainer: Sue has over 30 years experience in the helping professions and is a member of the John Bowlby Centre. She has integrated her extensive knowledge of child abuse into her work with adults who have suffered attachment trauma. Sue has a special interest in the study and treatment of dissociation and has been instrumental in the formation of UK networks in this field. She is a regular presenter at national and international conferences, the co-author of two books and the author of a number of published papers. Sue is in independent practice, providing training, consultation and supervision and is committed to collaborating with experts by experience.

Further details: See UK page of the ESTD website ( www.estd.org) or phone or email Sue ( T: 01642 817658 E: SueRichardson1@compuserve.com) to discuss your interest.

Dates: Friday 15 & Saturday 16 October and Friday 12 & Saturday 13 November 2010.
Venue: The Brewery Conference Centre, 116 Micklegate , York.
Cost: £380 ESTD members £440 Non ESTD members inc. lunch and refreshments. Bursaries : Available. See application form on UK page of ESTD website.
Applications: Please email a brief description of your work with dissociative client(s) and prior training in this area of work to Sue at the above address. You will be sent a booking form once your application has been accepted. More information re applications on ESTD website.

CPD Programme re working with complex trauma and dissociation
Compiled by ESTD UK Training Faculty

Overall aim: To collaborate with relevant organisations in the development of CPD training in this specialist areaof practice .
Overall learning objective: To enable practitioners from a range of disciplines and levels of experience in the helping professions to provide trauma-informed care for persons suffering from complex post-traumatic conditions and dissociation.

If you would like to see any of the courses detailed below run in your locality or organisation, please contact Sue Richardson by phone ( 01642 817658) or email SueRichardson1@compuserve.com

Courses

2 day workshop on dissociative processes and therapeutic use of self: Part 1
Trainer : Val Wosket
Learning objectives: By the end of the course, participants will:
• Understand the links between trauma and dissociation
• Be able to identify and respond to a range of dissociative presentations
• Understand the basic psychophysiology of trauma and dissociation
• Understand the stage oriented approach to working with trauma and dissociation and practise a range of stage one strategies for stabilisation and symptom reduction
• Develop awareness of issues impacting on the establishment of an effective working alliance with dissociative clients
• Explore the impact of the therapist's self on the client's process and develop ways of enhancing the intentional and effective use of self with dissociative clients
• Understand the limits of their own competence and the importance of attending to their needs for supervision, training and support in working with trauma and dissociation

No previous experience or working with complex stress and dissociation is required for this course.

1 day workshop: Understanding Dissociation
Trainers : First Person Plural
Learning objectives:
By the end of the day, participants will have:
• Raised their awareness of dissociation and its role in surviving trauma
• Considered the impact on the survivor of non- recognition
• Been introduced to screening tools
• Gained practical ideas for supporting person suffering from dissociation
• Expanded their understanding of all of the above from the survivor's perspective
This course can be freestanding or act as a linking course to Val's Stage 2 . No previous experience or working with complex stress and dissociation is required.

1 day workshop: Introduction to dissociation in children
Trainer: Renee Marks
Learning objectives:
By the end of the day, participants will understand:
• The development of self in the infant.
• The impact of the disorganized attachment on the developing self
• The impact of childhood trauma with specific reference to complex trauma.
• How children defend themselves against the disorganized attachment and childhood trauma.

No prior knowledge and experience of dissociation is required for this course. It is complements all the introductory level training and is suitable for:
• anyone wanting to an introduction to the origins of dissociation in childhood
• those who work with or care for traumatised children
• those who work with or care for traumatised adults
• those who work in fostering or adoption.

3 day workshop on dissociative processes and therapeutic use of self: Part 2
Trainer : Val Wosket
Learning objectives: By the end of the course, participants will:
By the end of the day, participants will:
• Understand and be able to recognise different degrees of trauma and dissociation
• Make an informed judgement about whether a client would benefit from a formal assessment for complex dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder (DID)
• Understand the importance of establishing and maintaining an effective therapeutic frame
• Explore boundary issues and understand the importance of maintaining appropriate therapeutic boundaries with trauma clients
• Recognise patterns of secure and insecure attachment central to the client's experience
• Identify and respond appropriately to commonly experienced transference and counter-transference experiences, including the use and mis-use of self-disclosure
• Explore how to respond appropriately to issues of touch, holding and sexual material when working with dissociative and trauma clients
• Facilitate negotiation and communication between split off parts of the person (including alter personality states)
• Gain knowledge and understanding of how to effectively pace trauma narratives
• Gain a working knowledge of the SIBAM model of integrating traumatic memories
• Have some understanding of when the client may have sufficient experience of integration and/or co-operative communication with split off parts to move towards the third phase of therapy.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of their current arrangements for supervision, self-care and further training and think proactively about enhancing these where necessary.

This course is for participants who have undertaken workshop 1 on ‘dissociative process and the therapeutic use of self' or who have good understanding, experience and/or training in the phase-oriented approach to working with trauma and dissociation.

1 day workshop on assessment of dissociative conditions
Trainer : Remy Aquarone
Learning objectives:
By the end of the day, participants will:
• be able to evaluate the severity of dissociative symptoms in clients/patients
• diagnose any of the 5 Dissociative Disorders under DSM IV
• make realistic recommendations for treatment based on the assessment.
This course is for participants with or without prior experience of working with trauma and dissociation. It complements all of the introductory training courses above and is especially suitable for those whose role includes the assessment of mental health conditions .

1 day workshop on the supervision of complex trauma and dissociation
Trainer : Sue Richardson
Learning objectives:
By the end of the day, participants will have:
• Explored an attachment -based perspective of the supervisory process
• Examined the impact of traumatic material on professional caregiving and careseeking as a supervisor and/or supervisee
• Considered challenges to ethical and practice frameworks posed by work with complex trauma
• Been provided with peer support and consultation
Some experience of working with or supervising work with complex stress and/or dissociation is required for this course. No previous knowledge of attachment theory is necessary.

1 day workshop on working with complex trauma and dissociation: Impact on the practitioner
Trainer : Sue Richardson
Learning objectives: By the end of the day, participants will:
• Understand the concept of secondary traumatic stress as a natural response to working
with traumatised and troubled clients.
• Be able to explain the differences and similarities between secondary traumatic stress
compassion stress, compassion fatigue, burnout, PTSD and vicarious traumatisation.
• Have undertaken a self assessment
• Have tools for preventing the development of secondary stress symptoms

This course complements all of the above proposals.

1 day workshop: Attachment and Dissociation
Trainer : Sue Richardson

Learning objectives: By the end of the day, participants will:

• understand the developmental origins of dissociation in childhood from an
attachment perspective
• have explored different attachment patterns common to traumatised children and adults
• be able to identify attachment patterns in a dissociated person
• informed their practice with an attachment-based definition of dissociation
• Been introduced to ways of repairing attachment trauma by:
- therapeutic approaches to the dissociated self as a careseeking and caregiving system
- ways of addressing effective and ineffective external and internal careseeking and caregiving
- working with attachment to the perpetrator(s)

This course is for participants who have undertaken some prior training in working with trauma and dissociative process. It complements the 4 day training on Affect Regulation and the Use of Self (below). No previous knowledge of attachment theory is necessary.

4 day course : Affect regulation and the use of self ( 2 x 2 day blocks)
Trainer : Remy Aquarone
Learning objectives:
By the end of the course participants will:

• have a sound clinical framework for working with dissociative clients.
• understand fundamental issues of boundaries, transference and counter transference
reactions
• be able to facilitate internal communication within a dissociative inner world.
This course extends the workshops on ‘dissociative process and the therapeutic use of self'. It requires participants to be working with a dissociative client.
Complementary training resources available in collaboration with the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation ( ISSTD) and members of its UK training faculty

Note: These training modules are usually restricted to 12 -15 participants

ISSTD introductory seminar course: Complex PTSD
Length: 6 x 2.5 hour seminars at monthly intervals
Trainer : A member of ISSTD UK Faculty ( Sue Masters, Sue Richardson or Val Wosket)
Learning objectives:
By the end of the course, participants will have:
• Reviewed the history of trauma studies and explored the effects of abuse, terror, captivity, and neglect on the developing mind.
• Reviewed diagnostic categories and symptoms of acute and post-traumatic stress disorders and the dissociative disorders.
• Surveyed the neurobiology of trauma and dissociation and the role of infant attachment in developmental trauma and dissociation.
• Reviewed trauma and the organization of a dissociative self.
• Understood memory in the aftermath of trauma, phase/stage oriented trauma treatment, and working with delayed recall of memory of abuse.
• Described typical transference and counter-transference constellations, vicarious traumatization, enactment and therapist self disclosure and non-disclosure.
• Learned how to identify and maintain clinical boundaries and manage suicidal and parasuicidal behavior.
• Surveyed the legal and ethical issues in trauma treatment.
• Been provided with a brief overview of specialized treatment methods: cognitive-behavioral treatments, hypnosis, EMDR, somatic approaches, interpersonal, intersubjective, and psychodynamic approaches.

This course complements Val's 2 day workshop on dissociative processes and therapeutic use of self: Part 1 by providing a more extensive grounding in theoretical and practice frameworks. It is preferable for participants to be working with complex stress or dissociation. .

ISSTD Standard seminar course: Assessment and treatment of dissociation
Length: 9 x 2.5 hour seminars at monthly intervals
Trainer : A member of ISSTD UK Faculty ( Sue Masters, Sue Richardson or Val Wosket)
Learning objectives:
• To provide participants with sufficient knowledge and skills to be able to assess dissociative conditions and to provide therapeutic help.
• To provide peer support and case discussion
This course complements Val's 3 day workshop on dissociative processes and therapeutic use of self: Part 2 by providing a more extensive grounding in theoretical and practice frameworks and case discussion. It requires participants to be working with a dissociative client.

ISSTD Advanced seminar course: Treatment of dissociation
Length: 9 x 2.5 hour seminars at monthly intervals
Trainer : A member of ISSTD UK Training Faculty ( Sue Richardson)
Learning objectives:
• To explore at a more advanced level the objectives of the Standard course
• To further develop skills in the treatment of dissociation
• To provide peer support and case discussion
Trainer : A member of ISSTD UK Training Faculty ( Sue Richardson)
This course complements all previous workshops and seminars on work with dissociation by providing a more extensive grounding in theoretical and practice frameworks. It requires participants to be working with a dissociative client and to have completed the ISSTD Standard course .

ISSTD seminar course: Working with dissociated children and adolescents
Length: 9 x 2.5 hour seminars at monthly intervals
Trainer : A member of ISSTD UK Training Faculty ( Renee Marks )
Learning objectives:
At the end of this experience, participants will:
• have sufficient knowledge to be able to diagnose dissociative symptoms and disorders in traumatized children and adolescents
• have essential knowledge and skills needed to conduct individual psychotherapy to treat complex trauma in children and adolescents
• be able to work with caregivers and to interface with other pertinent professionals in the child's life.
• have a comprehensive understanding of how to intervene with the traumatized child with dissociative symptoms to promote healthy development.
This is a new and pioneering course currently being piloted in the UK.
Compiled by Sue Richardson, Training Co-ordinator, ESTD UK .

If you would like to see any of these courses run in your locality or organisation, please contact Sue by phone ( 01642 817658) or email SueRichardson1@compuserve.com

Training Update for Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) and Advocacy Workers

The Survivors Trust and CRISIS POINT

Independent Sexual Violence Advisor Training Programme

The Survivors Trust and CRISIS POINT have come together to develop a comprehensive Training Programme for Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and ISVA Service Managers. We would like to acknowledge the valuable advice and feedback provided by Rape Crisis England and Wales ISVA leads in the development process.

The ISVA and ISVA Service Manager Training Programmes have been specifically designed to provide key learning and course material to ensure students are equipped to meet the requirements, demands and challenges of delivering effective ISVA practice and provision for working with victims and survivors of all forms of sexual violence and childhood sexual abuse.

Students will benefit from a range of learning opportunities, including use of case studies, role play, group discussions, observation, reflective logs, written and practical assessment.

Successful students will gain an accredited qualification at Level 3 with the Open College Network, equivalent to GCSE A level.