I am pleased to announce I will be in Washington D.C. at the 40^th Anniversary Psychotherapy Network Symposium called “The Courage to Connect: Shaping Our Future in an Age of Uncertainty”. 

The keynote speaker for this event is Dr. Brené Brown. She will be discussing vulnerability and courage in psychotherapy. 

I am very excited to see her again at this conference since I am a certified facilitator through her Daring Way Program.

The main reason I want to attend the symposium is because the focus is on trauma treatment and the effective healing interventions for the mind and body from some of the field’s leading experts including Daniel Siegel, Dr.Bessel van der Kolk, and Peter Levine, Ph.D., just to name a few.

I will be learning how traumatic imprints can be addressed using techniques that go beyond talk therapy and will also be provided insight on powerful new treatment methods based on the latest neuroscience research. 

I want to help my clients alleviate the guilt, shame, and judgment that is associated with trauma so I have committed myself to become a Certified Family Trauma Professional (CFTP) over the next several months. The most important aspect of therapy is to be able to support, understand and offer effective, scientifically-based tools that work at healing both the mind and the body and this is what I want for all of my clients.

Please stay tuned and check out my blog next month when I tell you all about what I learned from these very talented experts.

March book review  

The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog; by Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. and Maia Szalavitz

What happens when a young child is traumatized?  How does terror affect a child’s mind~ and how can that mind recover? Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has treated children faced with unimaginable horror: witnesses to their own parents’ murders, children raised in closets and cages, the Branch Davidian children, and victims of family violence. In this book, Dr. Perry tells their stories of trauma and transformation, he explains what happens to the brain when children are exposed to extreme stress. He also reveals his innovative methods for helping to ease their pain, allowing them to become healthy adults. This deeply informed and moving book dramatically demonstrates that only when we understand the science of the mind can we hope to heal the spirit of even the most wounded child.

You will read about remarkable children whose stories help us better understand the nature and the power of human relationships; they carry lessons for all parents that can help their children cope with the inevitable stresses and strains of life. This book discusses how we think about the nature of humankind and humanity. Not all humans are humane, and trying to figure out why some people grow up to be productive, responsible and kind, whereas others respond to abuse by inflicting more of it on others.  We need to recognize the destructive impact that violence and abuse have on the capacity to love and be empathetic.  When we understand ourselves better and to nurture the people in our lives we can bring hope, love and most importantly the ability to heal. 

I look forward to talking with you soon,

On March 18, 2017   /   Book Review, Whole Hearted Living   /   Leave a comment