Risky Behavior: Treating Self-Endangering Behaviors from an Attachment/Trauma Perspective – One day Seminar

John Briere, Ph.D

These seminars are for all clinicians who provide treatment/therapy for adults and adolescents who have experienced abuse/sexual abuse trauma.

Registration at 8am - close at 5pm.

Christchurch: Monday 19 March 2018

Wellington: Wednesday 21 March 2018

Auckland: Friday 23 March 2018

Registration includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

Registration cost (incl GST): $310

Workshop description

Based on recent research and his book-in-progress with Guilford Press (Risky Behavior: Treating Trauma, Attachment Disturbance, and Self-Endangerment), Dr. Briere will present an integrated theory and treatment approach to self-self-endangering behavior, including intentional self-injury, suicide “gestures", compulsive sexual behavior, bingeing and purging, compulsive shoplifting, and four other distress reduction behaviors (DRBs).

It introduces the Compensatory Avoidance Model, an evidence-informed perspective that explains the frequent comorbidity of multiple dysfunctional behaviors in the same individual, but argues against traditional psychiatric constructs like Borderline Personality Disorder, Impulse Control Disorders, or Behavioral Addiction. Instead, this non-pathologizing approach stresses the role of early child abuse and neglect, attachment disturbance, emotional regulation problems, and triggered implicit memories in the development of what are ultimately coping strategies.

This workshop will offer several assessment tools for evaluating DRB antecedents, risks, triggers, and functions, and provides clinically useful information on developing motivation to reduce or stop DRBs, building emotional regulation skills, processing implicit attachment memories and schema, and titrated exposure to explicit trauma memories. Three clinical tools will also be presented: Mindful Breath Training, The Trigger Grid (adult version), and “RAIN” for triggered states.

Biography

John Briere, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, and Director of the USC Adolescent Trauma Training Center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

A past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, he is recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Trauma Psychology from the American Psychological Association and the William N. Friedrich Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Child Psychology, from the Mayo Clinic.

He is author or co-author of over 140 articles and chapters, 15 books, and 9 trauma-related psychological tests. At USC, he teaches and consults in the burn unit, inpatient psychiatry, and emergency services.

If you are NOT a MEDSAC member, please use the expression of interest form click here

MEDSAC Members:

To attend Christchurch 19/03/2018 seminar, click here

To attend Wellington 21/03/2018 seminar, click here

To attend Auckland 23/03/2018 seminar, click here