Trauma-focused ACT (T-FACT): working with body, mind and emotion
An in-depth, integrated approach to healing from trauma
I
f you want to help your clients find safety and security in their bodies, unlearn old physical responses to trauma, overcome hyperarousal and hypoarousal, shift from self-hatred to self-compassion, work mindfully with body memory, break free from dissociation, and learn how to build develop rich and meaningful lives …. this 12 hour masterclass is for you.
This intermediate-level ACT training is intensely practical, with a major emphasis on working with the body and limbic system. Many therapists don’t realise that ACT is a powerful somatic therapy, ideal for working flexibly and creatively with the body (which is, of course, where so much trauma is “imprinted”). This masterclass will show you how to use ACT in a deeper, holistic, integrative way, to work flexibly with body, mind and emotion.
Background to the workshop
Trauma-Focused ACT (TFACT) is a flexible, comprehensive approach model for treating the entire spectrum of trauma-related issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, depression, anxiety disorders, moral injury, chronic pain, shame, suicidality, insomnia, complicated grief, attachment issues, sexual problems, and more.
In this two-day advanced level training, you’ll discover cutting-edge strategies for healing the past, living in the present, and building a new future. With this compassion-based, exposure-centered approach, you’ll learn how to help your clients:
- Find safety and security in their bodies
- Overcome hyperarousal and hypoarousal
- Break free from dissociation
- Shift from self-hatred to self-compassion
- Rapidly ground themselves and reengage in life
- Unhook from difficult cognitions and emotions
- Develop an integrated sense of self
- Resolve traumatic memories through “inner child” work and flexible exposure
- Connect with and live by their values, and engage fully in life here and now
- Experience post-traumatic growth
What you will gain from this workshop
This course will help you become more flexible, fluent and creative in ACT, so you can work effectively not just with PTSD but with the entire spectrum of trauma-related issues: simple, complex, acute or chronic.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- The neurobiology of trauma, including Polyvagal theory and Attachment theory
- How to work effectively with the limbic system
- How to bring a numb body back to life
- Why unstructured talking therapy / supportive counselling can keep clients stuck, and how ACT can get them get moving?
- How to use movement and mindfulness to help a client’s body unlearn old adaptive responses to trauma
- How to work with a freeze response
- How to help clients find a sense of safety and security in their body
- Simple psychoeducation to help clients understand their trauma symptoms
And you’ll also learn about:
- How to reverse hopelessness and build optimism from the word ‘go’
- How to rapidly ground and centre your clients
- How to use values for post-traumatic growth
- Epigenetic aspects of trauma, and how to ameliorate them
- How to recognise and reverse emotional dysregulation
- Powerful new tools, techniques and metaphors for working with trauma
- When and where ‘mindfulness meditation’ is contraindicated in trauma work
- How to use mindfulness processes flexibly and safely (without meditation)
And this too:
- The art and science of compassionate, flexible exposure
- How to keep exposure safe by ‘Dipping in’ and ‘Dipping out’
- How to develop self-compassion, step-by-step, in the face of self-hatred
- How to revisit traumatic memories safely, without getting trapped in them
- How to use self-as-context naturalistically to help clients transcend past trauma
- How to deconstruct and overcome shame, step-by-step
And, as if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also discover:
- Inner child imagery and rescripting
- Nightmare rehearsal and rescripting
- Working with body memory
- Defusion from self-hatred, self-criticism, self-blame
- Mindfulness and defusion as antidotes to worrying, rumination, catastrophising
- How to overcome common barriers to change
- Working with comorbidity
- Shifting paradigms: from the “window of tolerance” to the “window of flexibility”
- Making “homework” simple, desirable, and likely to be successful
- And much, much more!
You will receive:
- Articles, protocols, and research data on the clinical use of ACT with trauma
- An 8-week e-course after the workshop for ongoing learning
- Detailed handouts covering a wide array of useful ACT interventions
- Scripts for a wide range of experiential exercises.
- A variety of useful client worksheets
- MP3 recordings of key mindfulness exercises
About this workshop
This two-day workshop is delivered through a dynamic mix of teaching methods, including mini-lectures, experiential exercises, role-plays, video demonstrations, and case studies. The training takes a hands-on, practical approach, focusing on real-world application and providing participants with scripts, worksheets, and protocols to use in their practice. Additionally, participants will receive access to an 8-week e-course following the workshop to reinforce their learning, as well as a range of handouts and audio recordings of mindfulness exercises.
Who will benefit from this workshop?
Please note that this is an intermediate level workshop, so you’ll need to be familiar with the ACT model before attending.
For those seeking introductory ACT courses, explore available options here.
We highly recommend this workshop for mental health professionals including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurse practitioners and licensed mental health counsellors.
Continuing education credits are available both for attending the live workshop and for completing the workshop by viewing the recording of the live event.
APA psychologists: This program is sponsored by Contextual Consulting and is approved for 12 CE credits for psychologists. Contextual Consulting is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Contextual Consulting maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Nationally certified counselors: This workshop is available for 12 credit hours. Contextual Consulting Ltd. has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7578.
To find out more, including attendance requirements and how to access your certificate, go to our continuing education information page.
If you have disability and require adjustments or accommodation, please email us at admin@contextualconsulting.co.uk to discuss your needs and we will do our best to help you.
Booking cancellation
The registration fee will be refunded minus a administration charge if cancellations are received at least two weeks before the workshop date.
Cancellations within two weeks of the event date are charged the full registration fee, other than in exceptional circumstances that can be verified.
Event cancellation
In the event of cancellation of the course outside of our control we will not be held accountable for travel and/or accommodation costs incurred. However, the workshop fees will be refunded.
All workshops will be subject to minimum delegate numbers being met; in the event that a workshop should be cancelled delegates will be given no less than 2 months’ notice.
Replacing delegates
If a delegate is unable to attend and a replacement is nominated there may be a charge depending on the individual circumstances, this will be advised at the time. Please contact the us to request a replacement of delegates at least a week before the workshop date.
Contextual Consulting is committed to the identification and resolution of potential conflicts of interest in the planning, promotion, delivery, and evaluation of continuing education. Potential conflicts of interest occur when an individual assumes a professional role in the planning, promotion, delivery, or evaluation of continuing education where personal, professional, legal, financial, or other interests could reasonably be expected to impair their objectivity, competence, or effectiveness.
There was no commercial support for this event. None of the planners or presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Understand the neurobiology of trauma, including Polyvagal and Attachment theories, and apply this knowledge to inform trauma-focused interventions.
- Use ACT-based tools to help clients regulate hyperarousal, hypoarousal, and dissociation, fostering a sense of safety and security in their bodies.
- Implement flexible and compassionate exposure techniques to help clients safely revisit and resolve traumatic memories.
- Introduce and apply self-compassion practices to address self-hatred, shame, and self-criticism in trauma therapy.
- Facilitate values-based action to support post-traumatic growth and help clients rebuild meaningful, engaged lives.
- Develop process-based case formulations to guide trauma-focused interventions with an ACT-consistent approach.