Complex trauma is highly damaging but frequently unrecognised and inappropriately treated. While current research in the neurobiology of attachment has major implications for treatment of trauma, the potential of these insights is not widely operationalised in clinical practice and confusion about the differences between ‘complex’ and ‘single incident’ trauma persists.
This training event addresses the stakes of recognising and responding to complex trauma (which comes in many guises) in light of current research findings and their implications for treatment.
Clinical and research insights establish that effective approaches to complex trauma are “phased” and need to engage physical as well as cognitive and emotional processes (‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’) This poses challenges to standard perspectives (i.e. insight-based and cognitive behavioural) which privilege ‘talk’ and which thus require some reconsideration. Core features of effective therapy for complex trauma will be delineated and discussed.