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 Trauma Recovery Protocol?

Trauma Recovery Protocol or Trauma RP is a highly technical, experience focused, strategic, body-based therapy that brings together current neuroscience research (I.e memory systems, learning theory, Peter Levine’s modeling of the autonomic nervous system) and the best elements of other therapeutic modalities (such as DBT skill building, attachment theory, family systems and psychodynamic transference work). Trauma RP is a precise, coherent, tested and teachable protocol that allows the student to feel supported in a structured approach to treating trauma and yet maintains the sophistication, fluidity, warmth needed to work with complex PTSD.

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 Trauma RP that adds efficiency, depth and movement to the healing process.

Our Trainings

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

• 1 Day Trauma RP Intensive
  University of Colorado Denver (1380 Lawrence St. North RM 1539), Fall 2014 | Contact michael@loveandtrauma.com or 303.246.2534 for more information or to register

• Trauma RP Certification Training
  Newport Beach, CA

• Trauma RP Certification Training
  CeDAR at University of Colorado Hospital (Anschutz Medical Campus), Fall 2014 | click here for more information

• Relational Trauma RP, 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 the attending the Trauma RP certification training 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 Trauma RP 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 Trauma RP training manual, Trauma Recovery Protocol: 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.