What is trauma and why focus on it?

Many of the symptoms for which people seek psychotherapeutic and psychiatric services arise from having experienced highly stressful or traumatic events. The common myth of trauma is that it only happens to people in war zones or to people who have suffered severe bodily harm. This is simply not true, trauma can be caused by common everyday occurrences like car accidents, surgery, domestic violence, and most notably, childhood abandonment or abuse. In fact, the research (see acestudy.org) is very clear on the matter: the earlier and more familial the trauma was in a person’s life, the more they will be affected by it as an adult and the less they will be able to recall any specific events that may have created it. Symptoms such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, manic episodes, feeling disconnected or numb, disturbed boundaries, painful relationship patterns, and especially addiction are common signs of trauma. At the Love and Trauma Center, healing the resulting wounds is our primary focus and what we do best.

What is CAR therapy?

Containment and Autonomic Regulation (CAR) is a highly technical, experience focused, strategic, body-based form of psychotherapy that brings together current neuroscience research (I.e memory systems, learning theory, Peter Levine’s modeling of the ANS) and the best elements of other therapeutic modalities (such as DBT skill building, attachment, family systems and psychodynamic transference work). A premise of the model is that much of human mental health and functioning is based in our basic animal biology. The cognitive, rational distinctly human aspect is built upon a somatic, mammalian foundation that is non-rational, non-verbal and often times, non-conscious. This bottom-up model of human functioning is a premise of CAR that adds efficiency, contact and movement to the healing process. Currently, Containment and Autonomic Regulation is the only evidence based, research supported body-based trauma therapy available.

Our Trainings

We offer different levels of CAR trainings. Please contact us at michael@loveandtrauma.com for more information about specifics on any of these trainings.

• 1 Day Containment and Autonomic Regulation (CAR) Intensive
  University of Colorado Denver (1380 Lawrence St. North RM 1539), Sat. Feb 15th and Sun. Feb 16th, 2013 (9am – 5pm) | Contact michael@loveandtrauma.com or 303.246.2534 for more information or to register

• Containment and Autonomic Regulation (CAR)
  UK in Fall of 2013 | Germany

• A-CAR: Addiction Focused CAR
  CeDAR at University of Colorado Hospital (Anschutz Medical Campus), starts February of 2014 | click here for more information

• R-CAR: Relational CAR, this is our most advanced course. It is much less technical and much more focused on developing the complex skill sets of working with traumatic transference, attachment, family systems. It is a five weekend course and requires CAR 2 or A-CAR 2 as a prerequisite.
  Westminster, CO. (TBA)

All of the trainings are skill development focused and body based intended for mental health professionals and graduate students. The primary purpose of the training is to develop highly skilled trauma therapists. To do this, we focus on integrating theory, research, and strategic thinking with very experiential, hands-on, skill development. In fact, a full 50% of our trainings are dedicated to practicing skills under supervision. Many students find the trainings to be demanding insofar as they require a high level of intellectual engagement, working with one’s own personal history of stress and trauma, and mastering a set of skills that are beyond the scope of what is taught in traditional counseling programs.

Next Steps

To learn more about this topic and our approach, a good starting point is the watch The Map video listed above. It will provide a good introduction to how the autonomic nervous system effects mental health and the CAR process (we have other lecture and demonstration videos that you can stream).

You can also visit our redesigned resourcing page. Resourcing, or the ability to shift and calm one’s own nervous system, is a useful and essential first step in beginning to work with one’s own stress and trauma symptoms. Multi-language versions of this page are available.

You are welcome to download four prepublication chapters from the CAR training manual, Containment and Autonomic Regulation: Healing trauma and its effects on ourselves and our relationships

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Lastly, follow us on Facebook as we release videos, research results and other news items.