This course is designed for Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Occupational Therapists as well as other rehabilitation and mental health providers interested in learning how to integrate psychotherapeutic skill with sensory processing, postural and movement interventions.
No expertise or previous learning in the content area is required.
Looking for course funding? Learn more about the Canada-Ontario Job Grant here.
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This three-day workshop is for Occupational Therapists, Mental Health Providers, Speech Language Pathologists, Physiotherapists and other allied health looking for concrete strategies to more effectively support their clients of all ages who are impacted by trauma.
This course will provide an integrated theoretical connection about the neurological interplay between attachment, developmental trauma and sensory processing issues. Participants will develop an understanding of the use of relational attunement as a regulatory influence that supports and stabilizes the arousal and sensory processing systems. This workshop will uniquely blend the integration of psychotherapeutic skills with sensory processing intervention.
Health care providers will learn how to put these two distinct therapeutic approaches together as a mechanism for the development of self-regulation and mental health function. A combination of theory and practical trauma interventions will emphasize compassionate dialoguing skills, sensory strategies, postural control and movement techniques together with attachment theory and psychotherapeutic process work. Learning will be facilitated through lecture, story-telling, group problem-solving from case examples, role plays and active reflection.
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Participants will be able to:
Explain how attachment strategies are functionally adaptive in relation to developmental trauma
Describe the connection between trauma, arousal and sensory processing challenges
Discuss how the use of relational attunement skills and therapeutic use of self can stabilize arousal and support sensory processing issues
Develop a repertoire of sensory processing strategies to address trauma
Understand how trauma impacts postural control
Learn to provide therapeutic intervention to the postural and movement system to affect change in the emotional responses to trauma (treating trauma through the body)
Begin to integrate psychotherapeutic process within a sensory motor context
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As a clinician with a private practice since 1989, Kim Barthel BMR, OTR is a registered Occupational Therapist in British Columbia, Ontario and the United States. While she is predominantly a speaker and teacher, she also assesses and supports a wide range of clients, often when there is complexity involved. She is an Advanced Neuro-Developmental Treatment Instructor as well as a Sensory Integration Instructor.
Kim travels widely as an instructor to a range of therapists, educators, social workers, physicians, special-needs care providers and parents. Her specialties in workshop instruction include Trauma-Sensitive Practice, Pediatric Neuro-Developmental Treatment, Sensory Processing, Attachment Theory, as well as understanding and supporting complex behaviour and mental Health. In May, 2019, Kim was honoured as the recipient of the prestigious Award of Merit by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists.
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Day 1:
Morning:
Attachment strategies as functional adaptations to perceived danger.
10:15 am - 10:30 am: Break
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch
Afternoon:
Developmental trauma, sensory processing and arousal.
Sensory processing interventions as treatment for trauma and mental health challenges.
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm: Break
5:00 pm: End of Day
Day 2:
Morning:
Continued sensory processing interventions for treatment of trauma and mental health challenges.
10:15 am - 10:30 am: Break
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch
Afternoon:
How is trauma exhibited in the postural system?
Treating trauma through movement and postural supports.
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm: Break
5:00 pm: End of Day
Day 3:
Morning: Becoming your best self and self-care.
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch
Afternoon:
Relational interventions
The art of regulation through relationship
Compassionate dialoguing in the sensory environment
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm: Break
5:00 pm: End of Day
A 10% cancellation fee will be applied to all refunds prior to 2 weeks before the beginning of the course. We cannot issue refunds within 2 weeks of the start date of the course.