Developmental Trauma Disorder: Therapist Attunement and Self-Regulation When Clients Dissociate

Presents, through dramatized therapy sessions, traumatized youth who are profoundly emotionally shut down or dissociative and how therapists can remain attuned to clients while managing their own affect. When children shut down or dissociate they may seem unreachable or impossible to engage; yet through therapy those traumatized children can learn to understand and recover from their post-traumatic reactions. Experienced trauma therapists discuss their reactions to these critical moments of disconnection and impasse in trauma therapy, the questions and dilemmas this raises for them, and ways they have found to engage with detached or dissociated clients while handling their secondary traumatic stress reactions. The Developmental Trauma Disorder: Identifying Critical Moments and Healing Complex Trauma video series provides clinicians, counselors, and other helpers with insights on recognizing and dealing with the most difficult crises and turning points that occur in therapy with traumatized children and families. Each video features a scene where the youth and caregiver are actors playing fictional characters, but the therapists are real. Viewers will see how therapists handle critical turning points during the therapy session to help families safely heal from the severe emotional and interpersonal problems that occur in the aftermath of complex trauma. This series is sponsored by the Center for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders, a part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.