Lectures will take place at the following times:

*To enable access to the widest possible audience these lectures are planned to be delivered live, but remotely, as webinars. Where we are able, a recording will be made available to all booked delegates although we encourage live attendance wherever possible. Please see the details above to see if this lecture will be recorded and available after the live event.

These lectures will be delivered remotely using Zoom.

You will need a device with a microphone and camera together with a suitably fast internet connection. Although mobile devices and tablets can be used, we recommend the use of a laptop or desktop PC for the best experience. Some devices provided by employers may have restrictions in place. Please use this Zoom test link to check your set up before booking.

You will be sent the necessary login link about a week before the course start date. Should you have any concerns about the accessibility of remote delivery please contact us to discuss how we can best help you.

Three lectures make up this summer 2024 series:

Lecture 1: Childhood Trauma, the Brain and the Social World

Thursday 2 May 2024

This lecture will be recorded.

Lecturer: Prof. Eamon McCrory

Childhood trauma, in the form of maltreatment and neglect, is one of the strongest predictors of later mental health problems across the lifespan. However, the neurobiological mechanisms by which childhood adversity ‘gets under the skin’ remain poorly understood. Professor McCrory will highlight the complex relationship between the brain, childhood trauma, the social world and mental health. He will argue that mental health and wellbeing are intrinsically relational phenomena, and it is erroneous to think of them as ‘located’ within an individual or their brain. Rather, we need to think of the brain as a socially embedded organ. The concepts of Stress Generation and Social Thinning will be introduced to illustrate this argument, and implications for prevention and intervention will be considered.

Lecture 2: Treating the Co-Occurring Conditions of Trauma and Substance Abuse: An Overview of Treatment Considerations and Techniques

Thursday 6 June 2024

This lecture will be recorded.

Lecturer: Janice Fraser, MSW, RSW, SEP

A significant percentage of clients with substance abuse issues also suffer from complex and developmental traumas. Historically, the standard treatment was to “treat the substance abuse first” and then treat the trauma symptoms. While this treatment protocol is warranted in some instances, we now understand that treating these clients is an immensely complex process. How do we treat the individuals who cannot achieve continuous recovery because of their trauma symptoms? How do we support and treat individuals who are working towards stabilization of their addiction, while processing their traumas simultaneously?

This lecture will outline some elements of a treatment framework that allows for both trauma and substance abuse to be addressed concurrently. We will discuss some of the aspects of addiction, substance abuse, attachment theory, affect regulation, and somatic experiencing techniques that are relevant to this framework.

Lecture 3: Trauma, shame and shamelessness

Thursday 4 July 2024

This lecture will be recorded.

Lecturer: Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn

Feelings of shame, although part of the human condition, are generally destructive and anti-development. The experience of deep shame is one of a kind of skinless humiliating agony. These experiences, and the defence structures against them, can lead to sufferers being stuck in dysfunctional systems and ways of being, and/or to their isolation.

Victims of trauma often suffer from terrible feelings of shame, which compound the trauma and impede recovery. The victim feels ashamed of what has been done to them as well as about their own internal landscape and the cultural context.

In this clinically based seminar, Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn will introduce some theoretical understanding of the meanings and origins of shame and shamelessness, and look at the pathological manifestations of both. In particular the links between shame and trauma will be examined. In the rest of the seminar, participants will be will have the chance to bring clinical examples to be discussed. This will be both to illustrate the points and to give practitioners more ideas of how to work with these clinical challenges.

Save £15 with a lecture series bundle

Lectures can be booked individually at £30 each or as a cost-saving bundle comprising the three summer 2024 series lectures at £75 – a saving of £15 compared to booking the lectures individually.

Congratulations to Jo Stubley and Linda Young who have been nominated for the Gradiva Best Edited Book Award for Complex Trauma: The Tavistock Model