Harnessing the natural rhythm of relational change and healing with The Collaborative Change Model. If it weren’t for interfamilial trauma, there would be far less need for counseling and far less suffering. Working with families when there has been trauma is far less common than working with individuals. This training is important for helping professionals because most models of trauma treatment do not include family and relationships as a key treatment element and resource. Therapists need to learn the value of and how to include relationship as healing interventions.No two traumas are identical: the dynamics of interpersonal trauma and violence vary from situation to situation. Likewise, no two treatment modalities are identical. Yet there are common variables both in what our clients present in psychotherapy and in the models’ clinicians employ. One of the key ingredients in complex developmental trauma is that it is embedded within a relationship that should have been protected by healthy attachment. Traumatic events within families result in an experience of betrayal in our foundational relationships. This accounts for much of the fight, flight, freeze, fix, and submission difficulties of our clients. The myriad of difficulties people suffer from these experiences account for the abundance of innovative interventions and treatment approaches to trauma that have been developed in recent years. Therapist/client relationships need to harness the natural cycles of emotional social engagement in people’s real lives. Family of origin as well as current relationships can be used to heal past traumas. When trauma is healed in the relationships that held it, the outcomes are multiply meaningful, real, and far reaching in their effects.Mary Jo will review the Collaborative Change Model, a practical three-tiered, systemically cyclical strength-based meta blueprint; CCM is a relational contextual model. The CCM can be applied to all models of trauma treatment as it harnesses the universal recursive nature of change. One of the key innovations of this model is working directly with relationships in which there has been harm. We will explore the repetitive cycles of trauma in relationships and will learn the Collaborative Change framework that utilizes cycles of change when working in all treatment modalities. Mary Jo will describe a Family Dialogue process that guides conversations to improve relationships between people who are in significant relational distress, disagreement and even estrangement. Through video tape examples, live role play demonstration, and experiential exercises, participants will understand key principles of the Collaborative Change Model, learning to harness natural cycles of change in intimate relationships.Liz will describe a systemic approach used to invite family and couple members to take responsibility for change. This approach follows the CCM model. The focus is helping each individual work on their part of the problem pattern in their relationships. Harnessing this motivation to act is the art of the work. This transtheoretical systemic model utilizes strategies of reframing as well as solution focused, collaborative, narrative approaches in a socio-culturally attuned framework. The lens described prioritizes intersectional identities and socio-political contexts of the trauma including who has what power with a goal of enhancing relational justice. This model will be described, demonstrated with a video of a role play couple which will then be discussed. The case shown will provide an example of working with parents who have been investigated for neglect by the child welfare system and are struggling with issues related to substance abuse and an incident of interpersonal partner violence. Teaching methods will include lecture, discussion in small groups, Q&A, live role play demonstration and a video taped role play demonstration. The content will enhance clinical practice with clients who have experienced a wide range of traumatic experiences. We will teach clinicians how to focus on healing the negative effects of trauma in interpersonal relationships thus freeing people of the effects of trauma in their current lives. Examples of addressing abuse of power to facilitate more just relationships in a variety of contexts will be explored.

Hosted by Therapy Training Boston online and in Waltham, MA for 6 CEs. For more info, visit the event webpage.