Trauma-focused therapeutic interventions with children and families

Theoretical background: Families and children referred for treatment to parent centers – children often suffer from stressful and traumatic events. These events include exposure to violence or direct violence to the subject, serious illnesses or complex medical conditions, loss of attachment figures, living in the shadow of a parent suffering from mental illness or ongoing mental complexity, situations of abuse and harm, traumatic impact of war events, and more. Trauma dramatically affects the child and his family. Studies and clinical evidence indicate damage to various areas of children's development, including effects on brain development, damage to parenting and, consequently, to attachment processes, socialization, and functioning in various areas of the child and the family system. Therefore, it is of great importance to train therapists in trauma-based interventions and their rationale. During the course, participants will learn: The course will deal with treating parents and young children who have experienced or are experiencing traumas of various types, such as death, accident, illness, abandonment, exposure to violence between partners, abuse and neglect. The course is based on the principles of the CPP Psychotherapy Parent-Child therapeutic model. This is a trauma-focused, evidence-based child-parent therapy, founded by Prof. Alicia Lieberman and her partners at the Center for Trauma Research in San Francisco, USA. In the course, we will learn to define trauma in early childhood, observe how traumatic events and situations experienced by the child and parent affect the child's development and his relationships with his attachment figures, through the lenses of trauma and attachment, while incorporating cultural sensitivity. We will focus on the processes of evaluating these situations, on considerations for constructing the dyadic setting and the traumatic narrative, on understanding the clinical picture, typical symptoms and methods of intervention. We will learn the importance, as well as the practice, of appropriately speaking with children about trauma, understanding trauma from the child's perspective and the differences between it and its perception by adults. We will also learn how trauma-focused parent-child therapy helps prevent and reduce the consequences of trauma, restores trust in relationships, promotes regulatory abilities, and helps the child return to a normal developmental path as much as possible. The course will present theoretical and research material combined with clinical examples.