Topic(s): 
Professional Practice
Trauma
Webinar event date: 
Sep 23, 2019 1:00 pm EDT
Webinar link

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Webinar Presenters: 

ROBERT T. MULLER, PHD, CPSYCH

 

Robert T. Muller,PhD, CPsych, trained at Harvard, was on the faculty at the University of Massachusettsand is a professor at York University in Toronto. Dr. Muller is a Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD) for his work on trauma treatment.

He is the author of the award-winning Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up, and his psychotherapy bestseller, Trauma and the Avoidant Client, has been translated widely and won the 2011 ISSTD award for the year's best-written work on trauma.

As lead investigator on several multi-site programs to treat interpersonal trauma, Dr. Muller has lectured internationally (Australia, U.K., Europe, U.S.), and has been the keynote speaker at mental health conferences in New Zealand and Canada. He founded an online magazine,The Trauma & Mental Health Report, that is now visited by over 100,000 readers a year. With over 25 years in the field, he practices in Toronto.

Note: This webinar draws on clinical material from Dr. Muller's psychotherapy book:Trauma & the Struggle to Open Up: From Avoidance to Recovery & Growth, Norton Press, 2018. The book complements the webinar, providing material for attendees to further their learning.

To learn more about this presenter, consult the following links:

 

Description

When people live through interpersonal trauma, there is a tendency for many to stay silent about their experiences. Reasons can include loyalty to close others, or the wish to keep family secrets. As a means of protecting others and themselves from the pain of traumatic experiences, many rely on a variety of coping strategies to neutralize or cut off painful memories. For example, some may rationalize away traumatic events, use intellectualization as a defense, or dissociate and keep trauma-related feelings at bay. But silence about the painful past is both emotionally costly, and ultimately unsustainable. How can clinicians help these clients feel safe enough to start opening up about their traumatic histories?    

In this presentation, trauma expert Robert T. Muller, PhD, will look at the process of helping challenging trauma clients open up in a safe, measured way. Through the lens of attachment theory, using a relational, integrative approach, Dr. Muller draws on theory and uses case examples and segments from his own treatment sessions. This web conference focuses on clinical skills that are directly applicable in a therapy practice.

Key Learnings:  This introductory instructional level web conference is designed to help clinicians:

  1. Create safety in the therapeutic relationship early on
  2. Recognize client ambivalence about their trauma stories
  3. Describe how to help people in therapy pace the process of opening up.
  4. Recognize therapist feelings in the treatment (e.g., the wish to rush into  trauma work, or the wish to avoid it).