Invited Speakers
Bert Powell, MA
Joe Coyne, M.Clin Psych, Australia, Circle of Security
Speakers
Steve Reed, PhD, USA.
Jon Keeley, PhD, Canada.
Jerry Katz, LCSW, USA.
Kathryn A. Furst, PhD, USA.
Caroline Andrew, MA, Australia.
Lize Ligthelm, MA Clin Psych, New Zealand.
Another Chance to be Real: Core sensitivities, disorders of the self and the process of therapeutic change through procedural memory.
“….How we negotiate our attachment needs is learned before the development of language and is encoded in our minds as implicit relational knowing…” (Hoffman, Powell et al 2014)
Attachment theory and neuroscience confirm how a secure attachment in childhood enables the ongoing emergence of the “real self” from childhood throughout the lifespan. Clinical work with patients who suffer from a disorder of self conversely reveals how distortions in “implicit relational knowing” – or “how to be with others” encoded in procedural memory – arise from attachment experiences which block the emergence of the child’s real self.
How does the therapist enable a patient to access his or her real self? Is it possible to penetrate the dense maze of defences which an adult patient brings to therapy to mask his or her vulnerabilities associated with implicit procedural memory? How can the therapist help a patient unearth and work through the abandonment depression to re-wire procedural memory?
The aims of this conference are firstly an exploration of the links between relational trauma in childhood and the development of a disorder of self in adolescence/adulthood and secondly, aim to provide a practical clinical approach geared to enable therapists to develop the skills to work with these patients.
