[Hope67]

Hi everyone,
I had an E-mail with a link to getting a place in the Conference on Trauma that is due to start on 21st September 2019, and it is apparently free to view for 8 days.
Speakers include: Richard Schwartz; Peter Levine; Bonnie Goldstein; Stephen Porges; Deborah Dane; Ron Seigel; Lisa Frenetz and David Grand.
I am particularly excited to hear the talks by Richard Schwartz and the one by Peter Levine.
I noticed that David Grand mentions Brainspotting (which I saw SanMagic mentioning in her post in her diary).
I am keen to hopefully watch these talks, and wanted to give a link to the Conference so anyone who wants to sign up, can do so, to access them free - starting on 21st September 2019.
Here is the link:
https://dianepooleheller.lpages.co/attachment-and-trauma-summit-2019-ifs/
Hope 

[Snowdrop]

This looks really interesting. Thanks, Hope.

[Hope67]

Hi Snowdrop,
Yes, it looks really interesting, and I'm just copying and pasting the list of presentations here:

Day 1: Richard Schwartz Ph.D. - IFS and Working with Trauma
Day 2: Ronald D. Siegel, PsyD - Mindfulness in Trauma Treatment: Fitting the Practice to the Person
Day 3: Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C DAPA - Helping Clients Heal From Sexual Trauma
Day 4: David Grand, Ph.D. -  Brainspotting - Reaching the Hidden Realm of the Brain: Bypassing the Neocortex to Access the Subcortex
Day 5: Bonnie Goldstein, Ph.D. - Helping Our Adolescent Clients Help Themselves Through the Lens of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Engaging the Body to Overcome Trauma and Face Transitions
Day 6: Peter Levine, Ph.D. - Somatic Experiencing and Autonomic Dysregulation Syndrome
Day 7: Deb Dana, LCSW - Navigating the Nervous System: A Polyvagal Theory Guided Approach to Therapy
Day 8: Stephen Porges, Ph.D. - Demystifying the Body’s Response to Trauma: A Polyvagal Perspective

Hope 

[Kizzie]

Tks Hope 

[Blueberry]

Thanks for linking Hope 

[Hope67]

Hi Kizzie and Blueberry - my pleasure, I am happy to have watched the first of these talks today.

I hope it's ok to put a few notes here on it:

My notes on the First Talk of the Trauma Conference, which is by Dr Richard Schwartz and was called 'IFS & Working with Trauma" (IFS = Internal Family Systems).

(Please bear in mind these are just notes, so I hope they make sense)  (I might put my own comments in brackets)

1980's Internal Family systems model.  Different paradigm.  Minds are naturally multiple.  IFS perspective.  (I liked the fact he said that minds are 'naturally multiple' as opposed to becoming multiple as a result of trauma, I found that refreshing to hear, and normalised experiences a bit for me).  We come into the world with parts.  Trauma has a way of forcing them into roles that they're not adept to handle. (this made a lot of sense to me).

Therefore release them from roles they're forced into. 
He gave an example of Parentified children becoming rigid and extreme.
Dissociate - protector takes them out.
Talk to the protector.  Negotiate.  Address the fears.  Client = grounded again.
Exile parts taking over.  Calm and soothe them.  Helps client ground again.
Build a new relationship.  Protected parts don't know you're grown-up.  Listen to them.  Learn how they're trying to protect.
Attach to their Self - self emerges - wisdom.  Biggest discovery = as their selves/parts trust.
Self emerges
8 'C's of Self: Curious; Compassion; Calm; Confidence; Courage; Clarity; Creativity; and Connectedness.
Inherently designed to heal.
Way to access that place quickly = possible.
Healthy core self.  Big intervention.
A 'part-attack' - know it's temporary.  Some parts will leave their prescribed roles.
Exiled parts - try to lock them away inside, but they are inner children.
Trauma - results in a lot of exiles.  Need protective parts.  If exiles get triggered - can pull you back into trauma states.
If an exile takes over, can be destabilising.
Avoiding triggers etc.
Managing parts - try to protect against exiles being let out.
Perfectionistic.  Inner critics.  Desperate to get you in inner range.
Take parents' voice.
Hypervigilant parts - parts that take care of others but not of self.
World triggers us anyway.

Working with emotional overwhelm.  Grounding skills.  Negotiate with parts.
How can I get that part to separate so I can see it.
Flashbacks - often exiles lobbing memory granades.
Reassure them that they don't need to do that, as we will come and get them.
Activities of parts.  Heal the exiled parts.  Interface with emotions.
Go to the underlying emotions.  e.g. "go to the rage"  Get to know it.  Focus on it in your body.  Where do you find it? Let it know you want to get to know it and understand it.  Ask it why. 
Give permission from protectors to access the vulnerable parts.
Avoid back-lash effect.  Must pace it correctly.  Don't rush it.
EMDR - need permission before doing bilateral work.  Because EMDR can bypass protectors to get to exiles, so need permission to proceed - to avoid backlash.
Parts could be furious to be exiled and locked up.  Hold them.  Show them you care.
Need 1) you to get what happened. 2) get how bad it was.
Ask the girl to show you what happened.  Do what till part feels fully witnessed.
Still frozen in that scene or time period.
Get self to go into that place.  Do what feels right with that girl.  Be her good attachment relationship.
Act in that space.  At some point she's ready to leave with you.
At that point she can give up the burdens she carries.
Ritualised giving away of burdens.
Do what the part wants.
Transformed part.
Bring in protectors to show them they don't need to protect.
Are they ready?
Other exiles till there?
Psychotherapy - like a clove of garlic.  Clear out one, but need to go back and clear out another area.
Developmental trauma - takes a while.
Mentioned centerforselfleadership.com and also books "You are the One You've been Waiting for".

(I am glad I watched this talk, it was useful.)

Looking forward to tomorrow's talk.

Hope 

[Blueberry]

Thanks so much for the detail, Hope!

I tried to sign up just now, but they want an upgrade from me. Maybe it's too late to sign up for free? I'm not doing the upgrade.

Update: I got an email giving me the link. I watched the first half of Dr. Schwartz' talk. Thanks to Hope's wonderful notes, it was easy to follow. 

[Jazzy]

I don't think it is too late Blueberry. If you click the "Claim my spot now >>" box and put your email address in, then you should get emails with the links to watch. It will go to an upgrade package page, but you can just close that.

Besides the sales pitches, I found the talk to be informative. Now I have an idea what Hope and others are talking about with their parts/others. Its not exactly what I was expecting. I'm hoping that the other days are helpful as well.


Great job on the notes Hope; thank you for posting them. I'm sure you were an excellent class mate in school. Thank you for the link and the opportunity as well.

[Kizzie]

Tks so much for your notes on Richard Schwartz's IFS and Working with Trauma Hope, it was one I really wanted to see but missed it (thought we had 24 hours to watch them vs 12 -  )

I've been very  interested in integrating/working with my various parts (as I think you are also if I recall correctly). I was sorry I didn't get to see it but your notes help, definitely piqued my interest into looking into his work more. 

[Blueberry]

I think Day 5 could be interesting for those of us like me who have Inner Adolescents around. I'll try anyway.

I won't be able to listen to Day 3 and it's probably a good thing. The talk would possibly take me way too close to the core.

For those of us such as me who won't be able to watch all the talks, I want to add that there will probably be more therapy conferences some other time. In fact it's not so long since the last one. During that the 8 C's were mentioned, so the knowledge gets recycled a bit. No panic! Don't attempt to force-feed yourself with this stuff, especially not to the point of dissociating etc.  Slow and easy does it. 

[Hope67]

Hi Blueberry, Kizzie and Jazzy - I don't like the time-limited aspects of the course sessions, but I am doing my best to try to watch them whilst they are free - and I'll also try to do notes, when I can.

I watched Day 2 (22nd September 2019) which is a talk by Dr Ron Siegel called "Mindfulness in Trauma Treatment: Fitting the Practice to the Person."

(I would say that I found the process of watching this and the resulting thoughts and feelings that were triggered meant I wasn't able to get here till much later in the day to write up these notes, and I feared I might not manage it, but I am here, and I hope to put down my notes.  The talk was good, but it made me think about a lot of things, and I think that normally I dissociate and avoid stuff - acknowledging that is quite hard really)

My notes:

What is Mindfulness?  An attitude towards experience.  Not a practice.  Awareness of present experience with acceptance.  Very subject to the Dunning-Kreuger effect.  Actual competence is inversely proportional to perceived competence.
Helpful for many issues.
Studies - want to measure mindfulness.  Hard to measure.
Higher resolution consciousness develops as one does mindfulness.
Everyday mindlessness - auto pilot, breaking and spilling things, lost in thought stream, wishing away/present moment to get to the good stuff.
Meaningful moments - consider them.
Heart, mind and senses - Present - more full presence.  But they are the exception rather than the rule.

Ron Siegel noted that trauma patients will shut down if therapist indicates they can't tolerate the emotion.  Need mindfulness to help the therapist ground themselves when talking to the client who has trauma.
Parallels with somatic experiencing.
Mindfulness - grounded in sensation rather than thought. 
Opens up a whole realm of experiencing.

Body = another royal road to the unconscious.
Attune to inner experience - enables emotional experience that is shut away to be accessed.

How mindfulness practices work psychotherapeutically.  Mechanism of action.  Modify to fit the person.

When putting together the DSM V (DSM five) there were squabbles between what Ron Steigel termed the 'lumpers' versus the 'splitters' - lumpers want to lump apples and oranges together, whereas splitters argue there are more categories needed.    (I think I missed the jist of this section, so sorry about that).

Emotional or experiential avoidance - looked at for the role in things that affect us.  Talked about differences between sorrow and depression, and psychosis.
Things we do to defend that cause issues.

He gave examples of two different days:
Day 1: Bad cold, self-medicating, lack of sleep, feel horrible.  Bad day.  Flat tyre. "I can't handle it" - depleted and over-whelmed by moderate stressor.
Day 2: Healthy habits, reading inspirational material, good sleep, feeing refreshed, nice day and temperature, nice interaction with family member, 'Goldilocks' day with nice clients, mindfully enjoying day, gratitude.  Then hit from behind in traffic, other driver is nice and apologetic, and all is ok - good outcome.
Difference in whether we feel resourced or not.  Resilience and good capacity to bear things.

He spoke of 'De-Crease intensity of adversity psychological states'

Mindfulness:
1) Increases our capacity to bear discomfort.  Therefore don't need to medicate or have ultimate external conditions met.  Develop flexibililty.  Increase sensitivity to emotional experiences.  Full range of emotion.  Experiential approach.
2) Don't necessarily do these things at same pace.

He said a patient has once said 'Bury feelings alive'
Trauma: Intensity of experience was greater than our felt capacity to bear it and in some way we shut down.  Split it off and residue remains.
Reintegration = healing. 
Danger - uncover and reintegrate more than we can bear.

Willoby Brown has done a 10 year study on adverse effects of mindfulness practices.  Found lots of adverse effects.  States of dissociation.  States of anxiety/depression.
Most frequent precipitant was found to be 'De-Repression' - softening and too much material comes up too quickly.
Pacing and dosing important.
Green zone/Safe zone/Zone of proximal development - uncover and integrate but NOT too much, too fast.

Safety, resources: Which mindfulness strategies do this, versus uncovering, but could be premature and inappropriate.

Exercise: Close eyes together.  Breath normal breaths.  Notice sensations.  Feel the body, how it feels inside, visceral feelings.  Generate a small bit of sadness.  Notice where you feel it in your body.  Put your hand over that part of the body.  Breathe.  Generate a bit of anxiety/fear.  Put hand on part of body you feel that.  Allow connect with some anger/annoyance.  Feel that part of body.  Open eyes. 
All emotions - exist as somatic events.  Can feel where they are in the body.
Non-emotional discomfort
Distress tolerance.  e.g. don't scratch your itch.
Increasing capacity to tolerate.

Emotions tend to be in central corridor of body - Face through to core.
Viscera - where emotions are most alive.

Less likely to be over-whelmed if using meditations involving e.g. walking
Distal, external objects
Inner work
Can bring either up.

To what degree can this person be able to be friends with their inner experience - useful question for therapist to ask about a client.
Denial or unable to recall things - 'ding dong'
Connectedness.
Inward practices to increase safety.
Benefactor.   Represent love and kindness.  May you be safe/peaceful/generate positivity.

Internalise positivity
Loving kindness practices
Self compassion practices
Positive psychology
Evoke it as an adult.

Acceptance
Carl Rogers and Winnicott
Back-draft - be juditious.  Sense whether it might be overwhelming
Mountain medication - guided imagery.  Kabbat-Zinn
Marsha Linehan - integrated mindfulness techniques
2 fists and open them.
"Sitting together"  Tibetan.  Turning towards sharp points.
Awareness vs acceptance practices.
Objects of attention.
Vivid versus subtle re: stimulus
Lots of decisions.
Mindfulness practices = a basket of things.
Spiritual aspects discussed at the end.  Beyond isolated separateness.  Transpersonal experience.  Many pathways.

Dr Ron Siegel concluded with a mention of his website, which is Mindfulness-solution.com and he said there is some free things there that can be downloaded.  So worth a look.  (I've not had a look there yet, but hope to do so at some point).

(I realise these notes may not make sense unless you've seen the talk, but maybe they will be helpful - if you've missed it.)

Hope 

[SharpAndBlunt]

Thanks for posting your notes, Hope. I find it interesting to scan them, anyway, even though I haven't seen the talks, because they relate to subjects I've been reading a lot about.

[Jazzy]

Good job with the notes again Hope. Thanks for taking the time to type them up and share them here. Good job on acknowledging your avoidance, as well. I caught myself doing that more than once too. I hope you don't mind if I fill in a bit about the lumpers/splitters point, as I understood it. Hopefully it will be helpful.

The main point I took from that part of the talk is that there are some aspects which are nearly universal across different mental health disorders. By focusing on these aspects, it will be possible to help the majority of people with some universal tools. The example he gave was emotional repression. In things like depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosis etc. there is some degree of avoiding emotions.

He went on to talk about how mindfulness helps you feel more empowered to deal with stressful situations. I don't think he said it outright, but I connected the dots to mean that mindfulness will help give a person some of the tools they need in order to process those emotions they have buried, regardless of the circumstances (or specific diagnosis) which led up to those emotions being buried. In this way, mindfulness is one of the tools that can be used to help with a wide variety of problems to some degree.

[Hope67]

Hi SaB, Glad they are helpful.   

Hi Jazzy - your additional points about the talk are so great, and very helpful - I hope that anyone who is watching the talks will contribute here and say anything they want about the contents, as I think it's really helpful to hear reactions and also expanded points.  I was aware at the point where he talked about 'lumpers/splitters' that my attention had definitely drifted away a bit. 

I think your connecting of the dots is very insightful.

I'm enjoying the talks, so far.  I hope to keep up with viewing them (for free) whilst I can - 12 hours isn't a long time to have them, but it's good that they have enabled us to see them for free for a limited time, and I am relieved there is just one to view per day, and not 3 per day (as per a previous conference, which over-whelmed me!). 

Hope 

[Kizzie]

I would say that I found the process of watching this and the resulting thoughts and feelings that were triggered meant I wasn't able to get here till much later in the day to write up these notes, and I feared I might not manage it, but I am here, and I hope to put down my notes.  The talk was good, but it made me think about a lot of things, and I think that normally I dissociate and avoid stuff - acknowledging that is quite hard really

Me too Hope, it's a lot to take in all at once and can be triggering    I purchased the videos from the last conference because they weren't overly expensive but these ones were so I passed. Tks again for your notes