Using Mentalization-Based Dialogues to Heal Complex Interpersonal Trauma with Riva Stoudt, MA, LPC & K Hixson PHD LPC
Using Mentalization-Based Dialogues to Heal Complex Interpersonal Trauma with Riva Stoudt, MA, LPC & K Hixson PHD LPC
Friday May 17th, 2024
10am-5pm PST on ZOOM, lunch 1pm-2pm
COST:
Full price: $250
Equity price: $200
CE’s: 6 hours
****Prerequisite***** to attend this course, students must have either taken Telling the Untold Story: Working with Client Trauma Narratives in 2023 or Mentalization-Based Narrative Exposure Therapy for Complex Interpersonal Trauma in 2024.
Course Description:
Clients with histories of complex interpersonal trauma often present with persistent, difficult-to-treat problems, such as emotional dysregulation, dissociation, negative self-perceptions, and relational difficulties. Complex trauma clients are good candidates for exposure-based therapies, but applying these therapies can often prove challenging for clinicians, because the locus at which complex interpersonal trauma occurs is the relationship between victim and perpetrator.
Mentalization-based dialogues provide a unique exposure opportunity by accessing the client’s mental “map” of the perpetrator. In addition to counteracting the avoidance behaviors that drive the maintenance of post-traumatic symptoms, this method gives clients the opportunity to access and organize trauma-related emotions, resolve trauma-related beliefs and cognitions internalized from perpetrators, and increase their resilience to traumatic mentalization. This method is particularly effective for clients who are difficult to engage and/or tend to under-respond to other exposure-based approaches.
This class will include a refresher on the concepts of mentalization and traumatic mentalization and apply these lenses to the process of working with clients’ imagined dialogues. Students will learn specific techniques for analyzing clients’ dialogues and eliciting dialogues that yield effective trauma resolution opportunities, and leave ready to apply this potent tool with clients.
****Prerequisite***** to attend this course, students must have either taken Telling the Untold Story: Working with Client Trauma Narratives in 2023 or Mentalization-Based Narrative Exposure Therapy for Complex Interpersonal Trauma in 2024.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
Select an appropriate memory or relationship target for mental dialogue work
Learn to elicit dialogue content that will effectively target client’s interpersonal trauma
Utilize and accurately apply a mentalization lens to analyzing client dialogues
Bios:
Riva Stoudt, MA, LPC Riva (she/her) is a third-generation therapist, counselor educator, writer, mother, agitator and lifelong resident of Portland, Oregon. She has a deeply held belief in the power of speaking the unspeakable, and her professional career has been devoted to doing just that. She maintains an active client practice with a focus on targeted methods of trauma processing that help clients achieve change by confronting their greatest fears and accepting their most difficult truths. On her podcast, A Therapist Can’t Say that, she explores taboo topics within the therapy field with an eye towards nuance, complexity, and productive discomfort. You can find her work at https://www.intothewoodsportland.com/
Dr. K Hixson (they/them) is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Clinical Supervisor, and continuing education trainer living in Portland, Oregon. They have been a counselor since 2002 with a focus on relational and justice focused clinical work. After working as an adjunct instructor, they completed their PhD in Counseling Education and Supervision at Oregon State University in 2016. They consider themselves a community based counselor educator, choosing to work outside the academic setting and have been involved in various advocacy and organizing efforts in the local community. You can find Dr. Hixson’s work at www.drhixson.com.
Cancellations/Refunds Policy: 100% of registration fees will be refunded if requested up to 14 days prior to the program. If a refund is requested less than 14 days prior to the program, credit in the amount paid will be granted for a future training if attended within one year of cancellation. If no request is made, the registration fees will be forfeited. If a participant cancels within 48-hours or no-shows for the program, a refund will not be given.
Continuing Education Provider Information: This is an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider™ Program. Karen Hixson LPC LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider. ACEP #6897. Programs that do not qualify for NCC credit are clearly identified. Karen Hixson LPC LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.
The NBCC is an accepted credentialing body for the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists and the Oregon Board of Licensed Social Workers for continuing education. Please check your professional board’s CE requirements for more information.
About equity pricing: A reduction in payment for Black, Indigenous, Multi-racial, and Persons of Color (BIMPOC) clinicians is meant as a small act of equity and reparations. The payment model does not penalize dominant/white culture participants by having them pay more, BIPOC participants will simply receive a discount. By registering for this training, you agree to this policy.