“Kids from hard places” was a phrase coined from Dr. Karyn Purvis to describe children who have experienced some kind of abuse, neglect, or trauma (including prenatal exposure to substances or high levels of stress, difficult labors or births, or medical trauma). She worked primarily in the field of adoption and foster care, but this definition obviously extends to kids in many different contexts. This presentation will offer a bottom-up understanding of trauma for clinicians working with this population. We will discuss how trauma impacts the body (specifically the nervous system) and a child’s development. We will then answer the question of how the nervous system can heal from the impact of trauma. Then we will spend time discussing practical interventions to support a child’s nervous system regulation in session and skills to teach their parents or caregivers to use at home.
This course is based on the recorded webinar, Somatic Language of Trauma: How Understanding the Nervous System Can Support Kids from Hard Places created by Christine Baker, PhD, LPC-S, CSAT in 2024.
Dr. Christine Baker is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Supervisor. She has owned her private practice, Wayfare Counseling, for over ten years, where she has specialized working with trauma recovery and people struggling with sexual compulsivity and their loved ones. She is EMDR and somatically trained, and she has also completed the Traumatic Stress Studies certificate through The Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute under Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. Dr. Baker has also served as an adjunct professor at Richmont Graduate University for many years in their Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program, and she has provided support to many organizations and non-profits through training and education programs.
Disclosures None to report
Recommended For:
Counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychologists and social workers. This course is appropriate for intermediate and above levels of knowledge.
Course Objectives:
After taking this course, you should be able to:
Explain the three physiological responses to abuse, neglect, and trauma and how those states, when unresolved, can contribute to the formation of many different psychological disorders.
Demonstrate the ability to help organize sensory and sensory-motor experience using the concepts of orientation, grounding, resourcing, titration, pendulation, and self-regulation.
State five somatic play-based strategies to help traumatized children regulate their nervous systems.
Disclosure to Learners
Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships
CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME's Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited
Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity –
including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial
relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests).
The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity's planners, faculty, and
the reviewer:
Planners and Reviewers
The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.
Commercial support
There is no commercial support for this distance-learning course.
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