The Neurobiology of Attachment
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with Dan Siegel, MD ;
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with Dan Siegel, MD; Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD; Allan Schore, PhD; Bessel van der Kolk, MD; and Ruth Buczynski, PhD
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This is a learning community for practitioners. We can’t wait to hear what you’re going to use with your clients
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In the right hemisphere.(yin)
Again I could not listen to everything.
Regarding using this with clients, I do not have sessions right now. I’m retired and have only worked very little for the last two years and also because I’m so bad in the hip, I’m waiting for a hip replacement and also out of COVID.
But only a little.
I still really enjoy listening and learning. There are certain methods I use in the Wave Work, and often use exactly how the present self speaks to the past self and then often the child. So also to talk to the future self and about the will, what wants to create and implement the goals.
So being in the gold package is too much for me, the other is quite enough, thanks for being able to take part in this a bit.
I took a course with Peter A. Levine when he came to Iceland many years ago. It was held at the Kleppur Mental Hospital and concerned people who had been sexually abused.
Took training in ETHERIKOS at DR. DEMETRY, but I have mostly used THE WAVE WORK.
Went through a lot of inner work many years ago 1988 and so on, Einlightenment Intensive
(by CHARLES BERNER)
master’s degree in 1997 and had some EI in Iceland about 20 years ago.
Kripalu yoga teacher in 1994 in the USA and TWW coach in 1997 and then teacher and then teacher license in 2002, from Dayashakti, the founder of TWW Institution for Integration. so TWW managed to become even more available through trained professionals.
I took part in that training work, it was very rewarding to be able to do it.
Dayashakti died in 2003.
have been in several groups, with great people who are yoga, there are also psychologists, psychiatrist yoga teachers and more. and has been deep work, meditation, yoga etc.
I am not a traditional therapist, but I had a strong desire to study salology when I was young.
There are several psychologists who have used TWW with their work here in Iceland over the years.
One of them is a good friend of mine and I find it instructive to hear how it has gone with him. But now he’s retired too.
I also know some of the things that are being discussed because of how my life has been, but I was in a big shock at the age of 9 and worked on it in TWW and I know how valuable it is to be able to develop and integrate everything that life brings us.
Enjoy our harvest and its wisdom.
Just wish I was better at English 🙂
Heartfelt thanks.
Yours sincerely
Guðfinna Steinunn
From the perspective of the non-clinician, I have to say how helpful the first two classes have been! Thank you for making this available to the layman. I am already starting to flesh out strategies to help myself “do life”, and “do relationships” better, while I continue down my own road of healing from childhood trauma. Not having the complete education that most in attendance here most likely have, I am taking notes on who is saying what, and tracking down their books for further education. Having already Read The Body Keeps the Score, and Complex PTSD, as well as a few others. Currently I am in the middle of Internal Family Systems Therapy, I understand how beneficial this education has been and will continue be, to the work that I do with my own therapist. Thank you.
Your work IS important.
Thank you. It seems there’s so very much and so few people armed to take it all on.
Id like to hear about cellular memory since of course cognition isn’t developed until age 4.5 to 4 when that part of the brain is developed but cellular memory is in every cell of the body.
Or so I’ve read but I’d like to hear what you say. Also I think mindfulness is a great aid and can probably help anyone especially important I think is to think of it as a way to live. Incorporating it into our every action as much as possible without expecting a payoff. Iow’s a way of living. This was my experience and there was an “awakening” I wasn’t expecting, it was completely different than anything I’d ever been aware of. I believe a clear life is that different. And somehow it is there within and without us. (All of us).
But I think some people need others who can help them with mindfulness. Of course I have found many ways to incorporate it into my life. Since I have as 23. I’m 73 now. But we need all these on the table ( when needed) as tools and we need to be able to validate others ideas as to what they think they might need to do because healing is so much about the person trysting that they can find ways to heal themselves.
I believe they can and need to do this.
But I could really use more of your expertise. I’m not a therapist. I have worked in coaching and Reiki with people. I am interested due to a family member. I need as much information as possible. But I am not doing this for hours etc and I don’t have an income to facilitate this expense continually.
There must be many like me who could help get word out if we were more aware. To get Therapust who are unaware, involved etc. And I feel personally that I have much to share that could be a tool for others to use who works with people strugglIng with trauma. I am happy to share.
Sherry
3.5 to 4 years. Typo
I’m working with a child with unconfirmed trauma and neglect in her 1st 2 years. She had become very dysregulated prior to attending therapy, destroys things several times per week sometimes. As you can imagine, her caregiver (not bio mom) is at her wits end. Traditional RAD therapy has made things worse with her older sister. Are there other things you would suggest besides what you shared in today’s video? Any suggestions are appreciated.
My husband threatened to leave me during my pregnancy with my second child. My son has always been an anxious person. He was a colicky baby. Even as a toddler, he used to scream and I would try hard to be patient but it was very hard for me. I am hearing today about birth weight and realizing he was also low birth weight. He weighed 6 1/2 pounds; my first child had weighed 8 1/2 pounds.The thing that just astonished me right now was that I realized I too was a low birth weight baby. I’ve always been an anxious person, but I didn’t correlate it with the lower birth :weight. I wish my mother were still around to ask about all of this. I do know one thing. Her father was an alcoholic .
So although I am a clinical social worker and I’ve learned a lot today, much of it was about my own family
Thank you, Ruth, and the team for yet another enlightening and highly informative session. The epigenetic inheritance is very relevant for our present global pandemic, so many people are having cultural or generational traumas triggered beyond their awareness and are struggling to understand how and why they feel the way they feel and to find techniques to help with the fallout.
Thanks to Ron at the end, to just ask what feels safe. Loved all the ideas reinforced from prior lectures. I, personally, need this kind of reinforcement since connections are so often lost in this troubled world. So appreciate the science that Allan, Dan, Bessel, Pat and Ruth give us in these webinars.
Empowering, since concepts were shared and not a formula.
Ruth is helpful in summarizing and connecting the varied contributions. And the different viewpoints allow for wider application in my work.
Thank you. KFS
This webinar was SO interesting and helpful. I’ve done a lot of trauma training, and am familiar with developmental trauma and attachment theory; however, this training connected all those dots in a way I haven’t seen done before which was SO helpful in my understanding of how it’s all so interconnected. I’ll be taking away from the session adding a framework of including working with secure attachments in trauma treatments, and the aspect of working with animals to help clients create a safe attachment really resonated with me, and is something I’ll incorporate in future work with clients.
I like to work with you Cassie. Pl let me know how i can be in touch with you
Thank you so much for sharing this information and the practical tools for practitioners to use. This is what I need the most, practical tools to help clients move through trauma , rewire the nervous system, and form healthy secure attachments now.
Thank you so much for these broadcasts …..I am interested in the three behaviours flight, freeze or fight as responses to a threat but am also very interested in the role of emotional and physical shock creating a block to processing an experience that was traumatic……how do we begin to support someone who is still in a state of shock after the event?
My take away is to build client resources , give them control and choices from the start , invite them to reflect on the times they coped better , managed to survive advrsity etc and really validating that
thank you
I’d love more information on how to introduce somatic work to clients who have had physical abuse as part of their trauma, who have felt uncomfortable in their own skin, and have dissociated from their bodies, and to whom physical touch by another is inherently uncomfortable.
Had high cortisol and adrenalin through all of the pregnancy and my baby was overdue (requested to be induced) and was big (8pounds4ounces) and was easy going very inteligent content baby!!!
I love these techniques/theories developed by all aforementioned renowned professionals. We incorporate all at The Meadows. Trauma is such an unknown concept and rarely talked about. Therefore, we see reactions as we do, and if we can work their defenses through, then we can lead them to heal. I wish they taught this information in high school/college.
Trauma is so much more than the physical hitting/kicking/punching/et. It is verbal, emotional, physical, spiritual abuse of a child in any form that degrades or debases another’s character.
Thank you for all the work you do!
I get more useful and enlightening information from each hour of these presentations, then previously from a lifetime of courses and books. Love the integration of genomic and cutting edge brain research presented in practical and understandable ways we can use not only in work, but in every interaction.
I do have a request. Because I agree with a previous comment and hope you will address this absolutely fundamental issue that, if handled wrongly, can undermine all the other work of therapist and client… And that is the challenge of how the therapist and client and each session together in a way that is a bridge to the future, not another diving board into the dark waters of the past….
I have seen, and experienced, therapists who were kind and compassionate for 45 minutes. Then suddenly they withdraw connection, turn to look at papers or messages on the desk, dispassionately cut the client off in the middle of a traumatic feeling or a moment of finally some peace, and abruptly tell them to leave because the next person is at the door. Cold and shut off and acting as if the connection of the moment had never happened. This is felt as a cruelty and rejection, and it reinforces fundamental worthlessness first experienced in relationship with caregivers who were kind then cold and often inexplicably cruel. If the client can’t make this transaction and comply quickly and pleasantly enough, they may walk away with a reinforced message of negative self regard, one in which they feel confirmed that they are too needy lacking in worth, powerless. Then they have the choice of either running away to prevent further traumatization, withdrawing back into their shell, or dissociative depression, or acting out. Never to return or try again. Or the other choice is to return to the therapist, as to the earlier caregiver, again and again, even though the results never change. Either way, this final act reinforces that the relationship is pseudo and based not on true equitable social interaction, but based on an exchange of money. Especially when therapists don’t have another second for a client to finish a sentence, but do have time for the client to write checks or do credit cards or similar. The client may feel they’re engaging in a kind of transaction of prostitution in which the therapist will encourage them to take off their psychological clothing and become naked, and then want to be paid for having given them the experience. And then they are dismissed. So what was positive becomes masochistic.
I wish this were a rare anomaly. Unfortunately it is not, as many of us know. There is great danger in transitional stage of transactions. Hence, can your experts please guide us in finding safe ways to navigate the entire therapeutic interaction, to make it authentic and trustworthy and believable in the ways they have presented … sustaining safety, not only while in the room together, but also when the client walks out of the door and back into an often hostile world, giving tools to help the client’s body-mind remain in safety and power….
CORRECTION FOR MY POST ABOVE:
“the challenge of how the therapist and client *END* each session together in a way that is a bridge to the future, not another diving board into the dark waters of the past….”
Joy
Perhaps a simple technique is for the therapist to gently announce the time 15 minutes before the end of session, giving the client awareness of the practicalities of the situation in an unhurried manner. Then, as the time gets nearer, the therapist can interject with a summation, or with suggestions for further exploration. Then, the practicalities of payment, scheduling etc. could flow from that. For patients who are having troubles picking up social cues on their own, such as respecting the therapist’s time constraints, these interventions would have to be done firmly, gently, and maybe sometimes with a bit of humour!
This is a very significant description of a common occurrence. It deserves attention in therapy education. It probably prolongs therapy at financial expense to the client.
It also deprives the therapist of the satisfaction of knowing that they are indeed lastingly helping their client. So both parties are harmed. The comparison to prostitution is understandable.
This happened to me and it did just what you said. To be brief: I was in such a vulnerable state that I kept coming back trying to re-instate that safe context I so deeply needed at the time. I even tried talking about what I felt and requested a way we could have a gentler conclusion to each session since I do understand the time limits, etc. Long story short, despite my (as the client at the time!) best efforts, the therapist used a conditional means of forcing me to choose whether or not to continue working with him. I was shocked and chose to discontinue. It took a long time- and a lot of empathy and compassion – to move that experience through my system. (in this case, payment was made at the reception desk, and I often found more genuine connection with that person and even wondered if that was part of how the practice mitigated the impact of abrupt endings – if so, the person at the front desk definitely deserved a pay increase). Thank heavens for my car! The first time I spent more time in the car self-regulating after the session than in it!!! And for folks with abandonment issues, an effective session can really go south quickly. Thanks for speaking to this issue of “transitions”. I definitely have been even more careful than ever of my own approach – and the necessity of good self-care tools.🌻
Thank you.
The exercises suggested eg. Asking the client how they coped & evoking the part that feels protective along with the part that feels victimised etc will be very helpful. Much of the discussion focuses on what’s wrong with the traumatised person so the extra attention to thickening the narrative about their strengths adds a fresh perspective.
I am so thankful to be able to be part of the presentations. The ideas are present clearly and effectively. I am hoping for more theory to application. Also, I am wondering about how to manage the implication of responsibility for optimal fetal development that is on a woman. There are so many variables in a woman’s life that she cannot control and which can end up causing an in utero environment that is unhelpful to a baby’s development. With a history of blaming women, the facts of in utero development can be weaponized either by society, a partner or even the woman herself. How can women possibly control their lives in such a way as to create optimal in utero development – having to do this creates stress in and of itself. While one should take care, responsibility, etc when pregnant for oneself and baby- creating an ideal or optimal environment is not easily achieved, no?
I am going use ideas on how to upregulate positive emotions in my clients.
It’s great to get reinforcement about taking our time and developing a nourishing, healthy attachment relationship with our clients, rather than having the latest whiz-bang technology to “fix” them with. Many of the strategies shared I use with my own blend of holistic, body-based EMDR. Ken Pataky, LCHMC, Holistic Psychotherapist
Love the details and the understanding of how attachments can have profound impact on the body, nerve systems and the brain ! Love the practical strategies offers to help these clients!
Lots to take away from, as always with these courses. The main two things that stood out for me was giving the simple permission of asking the client where to sit to reinstate choice.
As well as the 3 ways to elicit their inner wisdom: 1) Reinstate choice; 2) Practice mindfulness 3) Explore body’s communication
I also noted Ruth’s suggestion to pick the image of an animal for clients who have never felt safe around other human beings.
Thank you so much to all of you for all this valuable and practical info so that we can help our clients better and more efficiently.
Very interesting, missed the first session, but now truly looking forward to the others.
A lot was a refreshment having worked within mental health in the UK now for 10 years and within services that were predominately biopsychosocial in their approach.
I’m hooked.
With so many infants in childcare being exposed to caregivers that are not educated in the correct ways to help regulate the infants, we are now seeing more traumatized behaviors in youth. What I would like to see is more training targeted to caregivers working with infants and the young child. This has been helpful.
I agree. Also, even with the correct training many business models of child care depend on 1 carer for many children…an impossible ask if you want optimal care and co-regulation. Resourcing the Client/Child for healing/attachment is ultimately an economical approach at the community level but it conflicts with profit margins.
Thank you for offering these amazing sessions for free – as I am only newly qualified and just starting out in private practice, I don’t yet have the available funds to pay for much in the way of additional training – but this is allowing me to continue to learn to be a better therapist!
Really interesting. Looking at how to integrate the information with my Art Therapy practice. Moving into the body and choice blends well.
Spot on from Dr. Siegel: “Timing is critical and really getting it that other people have different experiences than we do is critical.” This is one of the biggest obstacles I’ve come across in my 45 years of engaging therapy and therapists, and why, I believe, most alcohol counselors are former alcoholics. Reading about developmental trauma in books will never compare to the visceral experience of being traumatized.
I find much of the trauma information differs greatly from my initial training years ago. It aligns better with many of my personal attitudes, beliefs, and approaches. I am currently not practicing, just teaching undergraduate courses but trauma is an ongoing conversation in my courses. I also teach from a trauma-informed stance and I’m really reviewing my approaches and how to alter them to be a better fit for my student needs. Plan to return to practice potentially over the summer, so this information is such a great way to prepare myself. Thank you!!
Interesting why was said about right brain hemisphere. Wonder how this affects primitive reflexes and if integration of them is part of therapy that should be done simultaneously.
Thank you. These sessions are so helpful. I must remember to use more of the right brain. I like the idea of psych-ed during sessions. I realise that being present and mindful involves slowing down, something that I am not too great at.
Thank you for a great session. I take with me the strategies that are created right from birth or even passed on from generations before and I need to remember to give space for these to be elicited at the client’s pace then supported through the development of a safe and not overwhelming relationship with the client. Making clients aware of their inner strength and ability and helping them connect with their body and mind is so important.
Thank you for your sharing. Michèle
If we purchase the Gold Subscription can we download these videos from the Trauma Session?
Hi Mary, if the Gold package is purchased, you may download the videos in the course.
These classes are really very valuable to me. Love the practical tips, thank you!
I really appreciated Pat Ogden’s suggestion of giving clients choices during sessions, even something seemingly small, like where to sit.
Inspirational and relevatory! From just today’s presentation, I have learned so much ore about myself. The learning that I have done over the past several years regarding trauma has just been reviewed and reinforced. As a music educator, I found many tips and tidbits that I can in or pairare into the way I relate to students and parents. I have also been inspired to pursue a post graduate degree in psychology/music therapy. It might be well worth the work.
*so much more
I am a Nlp Practitioner And use many integration techniques used by Bandler and as a Hypnotist Erickson. This helps me understand why helping people find and access their most resourceful states actually affects their brain and why it is so successful! Looking forward to a deeper understanding. Of why it works.
Ask the client to be your guide by saying, “I need you to tell me what feels safe and what doesn’t feel safe”. This seems like common sense but we need to be reminded to give them choice and help them regain a sense of control.
I am an educator of early childhood teachers and care providers, I will better communicate the idea that no one thinks and feels the same way because each person has had a different experience. I often hear students say things like “but they should know”. I already emphasis the critical nature of relationships, however, the idea that kindness and compassion can be a trigger is evolutionary for our work. Please understand we are not clinicians, nor are we trying to be, the more information we can use to support optimum development in the early years is a win for everybody.
Thank you so much for making this knowledge available.
So much valuable perspective and experience. This will definitely help me with interpreting my clients needs, at the same time, many of them use zoom with me and some don’t even want to be seen. So getting a reading on body language needs to shift towards tone of voice. I have made great strides with people in my practice, because I’ve been encouraged by the work of Dr. Van der Kolk, Dr. Levine and other pioneers who are pushing beyond the confines of standard psychology practices.
Another great presentation. I found the information of cortisol in the mom in pregnancy and how if escalated can affect the baby’s brain development and how in early stages can cause baby not being able to comfort self in life or regulate anger and can become very anxious. I’m connecting on a strong level with this information because it is describing me. I had no idea. However when using magnets to release trapped emotions, some stuff came up from my mom’s first trimester, second trimester and in trimester such as worry, nervousness, anger and others I can’t recall. Amazing!
What an excellent – and deeply encouraging – overview of trauma work! You’ve made it very approachable. Thanks for offering the freebie viewings. Looking forward to the remainder of the series.
As a nurse practitioner, I saw this. In fact the stress of other people’s trauma caused cortisol response for me (insulin resistance, weight gain around middle, blood pressure elevation). I’m retired but appreciate the information. Thank you
Thank you for making this series so broadly available. I am not a practitioner, but somebody who came through early childhood traumas, and continue to learn from all that comes my way. These presentations have been a great added tool to my toolkit of learning, recovery, and growth.
This webinars are in spanish too?
Hi XoChitl,
Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately do not have any programming in Spanish at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.
I am a survivor of childhood physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. I tried going to college as an adult to get a degree in psychology, but couldn’t sustain the hours of school/work. This session has helped me to learn a lot more about what is happening for me when I’m triggered by experiences in life and with my daughter. I work very hard to give my daughter as healthy an environment/childhood as I can possibly manage, and I communicate with her as well as I can about what I’m experiencing. She’s 13 now and is an amazing and intelligent young woman. I wanted to make a comment because I’m not sure how many survivors of childhood trauma explore educational materials like these, and I wanted you to know this is helpful for survivors as well as clinicians treating them. It also gives me more tools to help my friends that are working through trauma. Having a better understanding and open-mindedness about the reasons why people might be exhibiting certain behaviors and why/how a person’s reactions to experiences might be controlled by hidden/past trauma is also simply a good way to approach the world and everyone we encounter. Thank you.
Your comment, Marianne Hockenberry, and others I have read just now are pushing an idea to the top of my WHAT IF list.
So many of the people hungry for this information are here because we know that someone KNOWS what to do about what we are seeing in others’ lives, and sometimes, in our own. I am one of many who so appreciate what is being so graciously provided by NICABM and the Gold Subscribers. We are all eager to learn.
So, WHAT IF the collective wisdom, practical knowledge, and experience of NICABM leaders and members could be shared with “the world?”
At the moment, I see a series of related programs probably on tv, focused on developing “best practices” for building good mental health. Or done like the Theater of War productions, on ZOOM, with a set piece, talk back by a panel. Comments or questions from others would be challenging; maybe followup to a “mini series” like these trauma talks have been?
It will need to be funded: Foundations? The US government? Philanthropists?
This work is so important. It’s sad that so much of our quality of life tools reside behind paywalls
Good Morning,
This was very powerful information that I will use with my clients who suffer from trauma. I look forward to future video conferences.
This series is an extraordinary advancement in the field of trauma. I find that the knowledge, strategies, and interventions provided will help me bridge the gaps that I see between the education and mental health systems, especially when working with parents, teachers, and students. I could see myself using at least one tool from each presenter in my conversation with kids and in my consultations with teachers: caution with people that appeared nice or befriends you (V.Kolk), how to deal with rupture as key to affect regulation ( Schore), the four types of attachments ( Siegel), in trauma, survival, and fear is the focus. No time to explore and play ( R.Lanius), Reinstate choice, have client be in charge, connect to inner wisdom and proximity seeking attachments ( P.Ogden), what you focus on, expands (B.O’H), psychoeducational map( R.Segal).
Many thanks for all your down-to-earth brilliancy!
Ari, Social Worker, Energy healer, CA