Mentalization-Based Narrative Exposure Therapy with Riva Stoudt, MA, LPC & K Hixson PHD LPC
Coming Fall 2024! Go to www.thekilnschool.com to sign up for the mailing list!
4-Day Training in Mentalization-Based Narrative Exposure Therapy with Riva Stoudt, MA, LPC & K Hixson PhD LPC
CE’s: 24
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 Narrative Exposure Therapy (MBNET), an innovative hybrid modality that combines the framework of Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) with contemporary research findings on the role of mentalization in the interpersonal neurobiology of trauma, provides clinicians with a comprehensive framework to apply effective exposure therapy principles to processing complex interpersonal trauma.
In the NET framework, the client, with the assistance of the therapist, constructs a chronological narrative of their life story with a focus on traumatic experiences. During narrative reprocessing, fragmented reports of traumatic experiences are transformed into a coherent and comprehensive series of narratives. Clients’ distressing memories are desensitized, organized, and reconsolidated, leading to a cascade of beneficial outcomes. Including a particular focus on mentalization-related content maximizes the effectiveness of this process for treating interpersonal trauma. This course will provide a grounded understanding of the concept of mentalization, its role in the development of interpersonal trauma, and how to practically apply a mentalization-based lens to narrative trauma processing within the NET framework.
This course will address contemporary debates and debunk common myths about working directly with clients’ traumatic memories, and will offer the basic frameworks and detailed processes for clinicians to process complex interpersonal trauma with clients from start to finish. Over the course of the four-day training, you will learn to elicit a comprehensive narrative that provides the most effective exposure experience for your clients; assess a client’s narrative for quality and efficacy; identify and address client avoidance strategies; remedy clinically significant omissions in your clients’ narratives; assess if narrative reprocessing is “working” and effectively troubleshoot if it isn’t. You will leave with strategies to address common tricky clinical scenarios like clients who seem to be stuck in trauma-related emotions and beliefs; clients whose memories of their traumatic experiences are fragmented or scant; clients with a seemingly endless number of interrelated traumatic memories; clients that struggle to integrate or contextualize content from their memories into their greater understanding of themselves; and difficult-to-engage clients who have trouble staying “in” the memory.
By the end of the training, you will have a comprehensive framework that you can take back to your practice and begin to engage in structured trauma processing with your clients immediately. In addition to lecture, videos, case examples, example trauma narratives, and live demonstration will be used as learning tools. You will also have the opportunity to practice the strategies during class time, and to bring in questions and problems you may have encountered in your own clinical work with client trauma narratives.
Learning Objectives—Participants will be able to:
1. Explain the Narrative Exposure Therapy protocol as a foundational structure for processing trauma with your clients
2. Identify myths and fears that can surface when working with detailed trauma narratives
3. Critique the quality of a trauma narrative according to seven factors.
4. Describe about the role of mentalization in interpersonal trauma
5. Apply at least three strategies to help move clients past “stuck” points in narrative retelling
6. Identify at least three client indicators of effective narrative reprocessing.
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.