Presented by Lisa Larson, LMFT
Includes 3 CE credits for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and LCSWs.
This event will be in-person, live streamed, and recorded. A recording will be made available to all registrants. For those who can't attend live, CE credit is available by watching the recording and passing a test. There will be a half hour lunch break.
This Introduction to Brainspotting mini-course introduces students to the theory, research, and best practices of Brainspotting, how it works to heal trauma and other mental health conditions, education on the importance of reaching the deepest regions of the brain in order to have resolution, and the basic ‘frames’ or techniques used to engage clients via a specific eye position, or “Brainspot,” so that they can process their trauma and be relieved of other diagnoses and mental health issues such as PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety.
"Brainspotting" is a powerful, brain-based trauma therapy that bridges the gap between the mind and the body. Brainspotting accesses the deepest regions of the brain where traumatized clients store their traumas and survival terror. It works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional and body pain, trauma, dissociation, anxiety, and other challenging symptoms. Symptoms of unprocessed trauma, which include chronic anxiety, insomnia, and numbing are notoriously difficult to eliminate through talk therapy.
Brainspotting is adaptable to almost all areas of specialization. It provides therapists with powerful tools which enable their clients to quickly and effectively focus and process through deep brain sources of many emotional, somatic, cognitive, relational and performance problems. Attention is given in this course to the utilization and integration of Brainspotting into ongoing treatment, including highly dissociative clients. Two peer reviewed studies demonstrated that Brainspotting was as effective as EMDR for reducing PTSD symptoms and Generalized Anxiety Disorder symptoms. "Brainspotting" was voted the most effective trauma treatment by the parents and survivors of the Sandy Hook massacre after a five-year study comparing over 25 therapeutic modalities.
Program Goals
After taking part in this course, participants will have greater understanding of the clinical skills required to successfully alleviate the suffering of their clients who are coping with the various signs and symptoms of unresolved traumatic stress. Attendees will learn how Brainspotting can heal a myriad of mental health conditions effectively along with the importance of always following their clients’ lead as they process, assuring that participants won’t exert undue influence with their own values, beliefs, or identities that may adversely impact the clients’ therapeutic process. They will go back to their practices with an understanding of this new modality, having learned the foundation of alleviating the symptoms of unresolved traumatic stress such as anxiety, depression, panic, insomnia, rage, hypervigilance, recurring nightmares, dissociation and chronic fatigue. Participants will move forward with the knowledge that they can work within their scope of practice and competence and follow the ethics of staying current with developments in their field through education and witnessing a clinical experience of a client receiving Brainspotting. The goal for the client is a reduction of their disturbance levels in each session and throughout the therapeutic process.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course participants will be able to:
- Participants will be staying current in the field of brain science by being able to name the two regions of the brain most involved in regulating a dysregulated nervous system.
- Participants will be able to name three symptoms of being “Stuck On” (Overly Sympathetic in the Autonomic Nervous System) and three symptoms of being “Stuck Off” (Overly Parasympathetic in The Autonomic Nervous System).
- Participants will be able to explain the difference between activated eye positions (“Brainspots”) and resource eye positions (“Brainspots”).
- Participants will be able to identify the two times during a Brainspotting session that they should numerically assess their clients’ subjective units of disturbance (0-10).
- Participants will be able to avoid exerting undue influence on the process and treatment of their clients by being able to name and follow the two core principles of Brainspotting by allowing “uncertainty” and “staying in the tail of the comet” while the client mindfully processes.
- Participants will be able to identify the eight-steps of setting up a Brainspotting session.
About the Presenter
Lisa Larson has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for 25 years. After seven years in private practice doing Solution Focused or "talk therapy", Lisa experienced a traumatic event that transformed the course of her life as well as her therapeutic orientation. She was trained by the founder of EMDR and later trained with the creator of Brainspotting, Dr. David Grand. She immediately recognized the power and effectiveness of Brainspotting as she witnessed her severely traumatized clients heal quickly and permanently. She learned that her years as a talk therapist were missing the most crucial piece required to heal those with trauma, the deepest regions of the brain where trauma is stored. (The limbic system, Midbrain and the Brainstem.)
Class Schedule
This schedule may change.
Introduction, “Where You Look Affects How Feel”
○ Experiential for attendees to experience how different levels of emotional and body disturbance are experienced while looking at three different eye positions.
PowerPoint
○ Introduction to Brainspotting
○ Overview of where trauma is stored in the brain as well as the survival coping mechanisms of Flight, Fight, Freeze, Faint and Fawn, instruction on the Basic 8 Steps of Brainspotting.
Live Demonstration of the Eight Steps of Brainspotting
LUNCH
Debrief of demonstration
Q&A, Closing
This is an introductory level course.
TARGET AUDIENCE: LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs
If you miss any of the presentation, you will not be eligible for the CEUs. This course meets the qualifications of 3 continuing education credits for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. SCV-CAMFT is a CAMFT-approved continuing education provider (CEPA 052466).
The views expressed in presentations made at SCV-CAMFT meetings or events are those of the speaker and not, necessarily, of SCV-CAMFT. Presentations at SCV-CAMFT events do not constitute an endorsement of the vendor or speaker's views, products or services.
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