Rise Up: A Pathway to Resilience

Breaking Free from Eating Disorders After Surviving Trauma

Participants of this workshop will learn about different types of trauma and eating disorders which can manifest when survivors bury feelings associated with their experiences. Attendees will be able to identify alternative, healthy coping mechanisms to manage PTSD. Attendees will also learn triggers to countertransference and steps they can take for self-care and boundaries in the therapeutic relationship.

Managing Countertransference When Working with Childhood Abuse Survivors

Countertransference occurs when the social worker/therapist redirects their own feelings towards the client and causes emotional entanglement. This unconscious phenomenon can commonly occur for some practitioners, especially if they are working in areas in which they have experienced similar traumatic events. This workshop is designed for practitioners to “manage their own countertransference”. By implementing mindfulness and self-care coping strategies when their own trauma is triggered, therapists will learn to communicate better therapeutic boundaries, avoid vicarious traumatization, and prevent burnout.

Staying Grounded and Safe Between Sessions: PTSD Recovery

Join Shari Botwin, LCSW, as she uses PTSD case studies from her practice to demonstrate manageable solutions for patient and clinician between sessions. Participants of this course will learn about common symptoms of PTSD, coping strategies, and identify multiple grounding and containment techniques. This course will also help clinicians recognize when it is appropriate to halt outpatient treatment and refer to higher levels of care. This workshop will center around trauma based in domestic violence, childhood abuse, sexual assault, sudden loss, combat, natural disasters, and gun violence, but will be applicable to all therapists working with patients who have survived trauma.

Additional Workshop Topics:

• Shedding shame after surviving childhood trauma
• Identifying the underlying issues to developing an eating disorder
• Developing alternative coping mechanisms to replace the self-destructive behaviors
• The connection between eating disorders and trauma/abuse
• The power of healing relationships in recovery
• The role of dissociation in surviving trauma
• How to recover from an eating disorder
• How to help someone break the role of re-creating trauma
• Coping with difficult feelings between therapy sessions
• Developing an adequate treatment team
• Techniques and strategies in the process of integration
• Therapist self-care and vicarious trauma
• The role of a witness in recovering from eating disorders and trauma
• How to manage transference/countertransference
• Running and maintaining on-going outpatient therapy groups
• Developing boundaries to replace self-destructive tendencies
• Learning to love and embrace your body