Treating Complex Trauma in Children and Adolescents

Children and adolescents who have endured complex trauma--insecure and unstable attachments, domestic violence, abuse, neglect, multiple placements, etc.--are often affected neurologically, cognitively, physically, emotionally, behaviorally, socially, and spiritually. Our most anxious, terrifying, complicated, and mystifying clients, they overwhelm family members and other caregivers and, if untreated, grow up to fill our hospitals and jails, often passing along their damaged legacy to the next generation. In this highly practical workshop, we'll describe dozens of effective interventions that break this vicious pattern in these young clients by fostering resilience, competence, creativity, social skills, and the capacity for commitment and connection. You'll learn how to build teams that can offer multiple attachment relationships that regulate affect, reduce anxiety, improve executive functioning, decrease dissociative coping, unmask agendas, and develop coherent narratives with these troubled, deeply wounded young people.