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Maggie Phillips, Ph.D.
reversingchronicpain.com
May 1-4 2014
Heidelberg, Germany
May 5-7 2014
Avignon, France
Healing the Divided Self: Ego-State Therapy for Posttraumatic Conditions
May 10-11 2014
Paris, France
Using Somatic Experiencing to Resolve the Triple Threat of Emotional Distress, Trauma, and Addiction
May 16-17 2014
Zurich, Switzerland
Somatic Experiencing for Psychotherapists
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Greetings!
April is often considered the official advent of spring and I hope that's true in your corner of the world right now. This month's newsletter offers an overview of our event schedule through July. Our April teleseminar features Maggie Kline on April 23, 2014 from 9 am - 10:30 am Pacific time (live) with a presentation on Helping Kids Who Struggle with the Emotional Pain of Divorce, Separation, and Loss. Our News You Can Use Article (scroll down or click to the left) is "Helping Kids with Grief and Loss."
I hope April brings showers and flowers,
Maggie
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The ITT Online Conference Continues to Thrive
In the next weeks or so, you'll receive a special invitation to purchase the on-demand version of the Innovations in Trauma Therapy conference. You can choose from a DVD version, CD audio version, and several others. Please watch your email for this special offer!
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April Teleseminar Spotlight
The next few months bring a return to our teleseminar format.
We are excited to announce some changes we think you will all love, based on your feedback of our monthly teleseminar series.
First - we are returning to our roots this month, once again providing you with live access via web or phone to participate in the teleseminar live. Slides will be included for most presentations while we explore more accessible ways to bring video back in the fall.
Second - all purchases will include the full written transcript as a pdf document. We encourage you to add these to your resource library.
Third - you can now purchase the materials as a physical CD set! This makes for great listening during a long commute or trip in your car. You can always attend the session live, and have full access to the online materials. Approximately 3 weeks after the live session you will receive a 2 CD set containing the audio, study guide, transcript and any other items that may be shared during the session.
 This month we welcome Maggie Kline, author of two books with Peter Levine, Trauma Through A Child's Eyes, and Trauma-Proofing Your Kids. Maggie and I are both faculty members of the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute and I am really excited about our presenting this teleseminar together.
 Even though the teleseminar will be live on April 23 from 9 - 10:30 am Pacific, we expect that many more of you will want to enjoy this event when it's convenient for you. Registration includes links for immediate replay after the live event is over, and you can listen as many times as you wish and/or download it to your permanent library. Please go here to register now for 'Helping Kids who are struggling with the Emotional Pain of Divorce, Separation, and Loss'. Here are our main topics: - Children's worries and how you can ease their pain and help them feel safe at different developmental stages;
- Is your child actively grieving or traumatized and showing little or no emotion (and why this matters)?
- The symptoms of grief and trauma so you can target and address them effectively;
- How to help children to release the shock of bad news and help them shift from fantasy to reality
- Learning the most vulnerable moments for children when parents are no longer living together and appropriate support.
- Your topic of interest: Please contact us with your questions and topics at maggiephillipsphd@gmail.com
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Future Teleseminar Events
On Tuesday, May 27 from 9 am - 10:30 am (live), I welcome Bonnie Badenoch, author of Being A Brain-Wise Therapist. Bonnie and I will be presenting on The Embodied Brain. If you don't know Bonnie's work, please visit here or check out her interview on you tube, The Integrated and Mindful Therapist. A long-time student of Daniel Siegel, she is a delightful and informative speaker on interpersonal neurobiology in her own right. Please remember, you'll receive the replay links and can listen as often as you wish, at your convenience, without changing your schedule.
During June, many of you will be getting ready for the summer and dealing with transitions in your practice. On Wednesday, June 25, from 9 am - 11:00 am (please note the longer 2 hour time), I'm offering a consultation teleseminar on Using Somatic Experiencing in Clinical Practice. You can join me live and ask your clinical questions or you can submit them in advance to me via email. There will be several slots for cases, though it would be good to email me in advance to save time for you to present a case. There will also be plenty of time to discuss strategies for resolving trauma by working through the body. As most of you know, I am a faculty member for the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. This teleseminar is open to anyone who has taken at least an Introduction to Somatic Experiencing workshop and is also appropriate for SEP's (Somatic Experiencing Practitioners) and others who are studying at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. Those who attend will earn 2.0 group consultation credits toward the SEP certificate. The second half of this course will be presented in the fall.
In July, I'm delighted to present Dr. Michael Yapko, who will join me to present Overcoming Depression: The Merits of Hypnosis and Mindfulness in Feeling Good." It's hard to imagine you haven't heard about Michael's work, but if that is the case, please visit his website. Michael's passion is on creative ways of integrating hypnosis into psychotherapy, and he has made special contributions to working hypnotically with depression. We promise you a high content seminar so please plan on joining us. As usual, the live presentation will be on Friday, July 25, from 9 am - 10:30 am, and the complete replay and download is available immediately after the live event so you won't miss a single word (I promise!).
 
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I'm looking forward to a wonderful teaching trip during the month of May. Take a look at the events and the magical destinations and think about whether you can join me!
From 1-3 May, I will be presenting at a unique conference in Heidelberg, Germany, called the "Bi-Focal Conference," which refers to therapy approaches that require at least dual focus. I will be teaching a conference workshop on Thursday afternoon, 1 May, on Somatic Approaches to Ego-State Therapy. That night, I will also be offering a special evening event (Thursday, 1st May), Multi-Focal Clinical Case Consultation, from 19:00 - 21:30 pm to be held at the Milton H. Erickson Institute-Heidelberg. For registration and information, contact Ursula Haerle. We will focus on how to interweave Somatic Experiencing, Ego-State Therapy, Energy Psychology, hypnosis, and EMDR into clinical practice for optimal results.
On Friday morning, 2 May, I teach with Fred Gallo on Freedom From Pain: How Energy Psychology Can Help Solve the Puzzle of Pain Conditions. For more information for the conference workshops, please contact here or Trenkle Organisation GmbH-Tel: 0741/2068899-0; Fax: 0741/206
 From May 5-7, I am teaching a 3-day workshop in Avignon, France: Healing the Divided Self: Ego-State Therapy for Post-Traumatic Conditions. Avignon is a lovely, ancient small city in Provence. I'll be teaching in English so combine travel with training and join us! For more information and registration, contact Guillaume Poupard. On 10-11 May, I will be in Paris. What a glorious time of year to be there! I'll be presenting a world premiere workshop, Using Somatic Experiencing to Resolve the Triple Threat of Emotional Distress, Trauma, and Addiction. My organizers Bernard Mayer and Francoise Pascal of IETSP can be reached here. You may also visit their website. If your fantasy is to visit Paris this spring while having a powerful learning experience (and also a tax deduction!), here is a great opportunity. For more information in French, visit here
For more information in English, go here |
 As a special bonus to those who attend the Paris workshop, you will receive an e-book of more than 100 pages by Peter Levine and me on Freedom From Pain: A Teaching Workshop (the value of the bonus alone is 100 Euros). Don't miss this event! At the end of my European journey, I will be teaching in Zurich, Switzerland from 16-17 May. The topic is Somatic Experiencing for Professionals Who Treat Trauma. I always enjoy being in Zurich and this workshop promises to be both dynamic and powerful. You'll be learning how principles and techniques from Somatic Experiencing can help accelerate the healing of trauma. For more information and registration, contact Silvia Zanotta. AND ONE MORE POSSIBILITY YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS... The Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology has invited me to speak at their 2014 Conference: Talk is Not Enough: Activating Broader and Deeper Levels of Healing, scheduled from Thursday, 29 May - Sunday, June 1st. I'll present an all-day preconference workshop, "Healing Relational Trauma with Somatic Experiencing and Energy Psychology" on Thursday, MAY 29th and hope to see some of you there! 
I'm offering a special sign-up bonus if you register for my all-day workshop on Thursday, May 29. Your free bonus is an audio/video download of a presentation with Dr. Fred Gallo and me on How Energy Psychology Can Help to Solve the Puzzle of Pain Conditions. The value of this presentation is priceless because it will not be available in any form within the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Please act quickly to reserve your space in the workshop, secure the best discounts in registering for the conference, and receive your bonus! Go here to register for my all-day preconference workshop, and here to see the conference schedule and register for the conference. Your second bonus is offered if you become a member of ACEP, the premier organization for Energy Psychology. Go here to the membership link now. When you have received your receipt, send it to me by email, in order to claim your second bonus, the Pain Coaching for Success kit. This is a $69.97 value and will help you upgrade your skills in working with chronic pain clients. You will also benefit from the retreat setting in the Sonora desert, a perfect spring get-away!
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News You Can Use: Helping Kids with Grief and Loss
 When a child suffers the loss of a parent or close family member, the child's sense of self, of reality, and of the world can be severely impacted. The young person may ask the same question a hundred times, or tell the same story repeatedly. There is often a return to habits of very early childhood, such as bedwetting, thumb-sucking, or self-regulatory and dissociative habits like rocking or singing to himself or herself. Sometimes, fearfulness is seen, with extra need for outside assurance from a parent or other caregiver. Other times a child may exhibit volatility, with unexpected outbursts of strong emotions like rage or terror.
For family therapists, school counselors, and other professionals, it can be particularly painful to address a child's grief following the loss of someone close to them. Bereavement-especially a child's-brings up a host of existential issues. As parents or teachers, counselors and caregivers, we have to contend with our own ideas about death and mortality along with providing support and guidance to young people suffering.
Children may not have access to the life experience, self-soothing ability, or reasoning faculty that adults may have in the face of tragedy. It's not helpful for parents and teachers to insist that they behave in a "grown-up" way as they try to resume their ordinary activities and normal routine with family and friends, classmates and teachers. A child or teenager will have ongoing needs for support, talk, and gentle inquiry as he or she comes to terms with life after a major loss.
The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) has a helpful overview of children's general understanding of death, grouped by age. This overview also discusses a range of ways children might exhibit expressions of grief. Loneliness, isolation, depression, fearfulness, checking out, acting out, and physiological symptoms are all common, no matter what their age or the circumstances of their loss.
Here are some of the ways that children respond to grief: Emotional shock and disconnection, regressive (immature) behaviors, explosive emotions and acting out behavior, and repeated questions that reveal a lack of understanding.
A child's resilience after a major loss will have a lot to do with their degree of fear and understanding-and that has everything to do with what kind of support they receive from friends, family, teachers, classmates, and professionals like you.
Generally speaking, a grown-up's attuned presence has a great capacity to help the child feel safe, to believe on a visceral level that their needs will be provided for, and that their feelings are okay. Honest conversations about the loss and its circumstances, encouraging the young person to talk about feelings are the first line to rebuilding a sense of safety and strength. Rather than rushing the process or trying to force "recovery," your patient understanding is needed so much during these times-particularly when their parents and classmates may not have the insight or bandwidth to attune deeply or hold space for bereavement. We've even heard of teachers and schools sending a bereaved child to anger management classes - probably not the best response to a young person whose needs for support are not being met!
In addition to help from professionals and other caring grown-ups, a child can really benefit from "normal kid activities" with supportive peers. For adults or children who are grieving, it can make a great difference to know that they are not alone and don't have to pretend to be okay.
Here are some special insights from our favorite experts on the subject. Remember that on April 23rd, my teleseminar with Maggie Kline will be on Helping Kids who are struggling with the Emotional Pain of Divorce, Separation, and Loss. Please go here to register for an event that will provide many more practical strategies and theory to support them.
Expert Recommendations
National Association of School Psychologists: "Let children know that you really want to understand what they are feeling or what they need: Sometimes children are upset but they cannot tell you what will be helpful. Giving them the time and encouragement to share their feelings with you may enable them to sort out their feelings and needs."
Peter Levine and Maggie Kline: "The protection of respectful adults who perceive and meet children's needs for security, warmth, and tranquility is of paramount importance in preventing trauma. Additionally, adults often can provide comfort and safety by introducing a stuffed toy animal, doll, angel, or even a fantasy character that can act as a surrogate friend. These objects can be especially consoling when children must be temporarily separated from their parents, and as sleeping aids when they are alone in their room at night. Resources such as these may seem unremarkable for an adult but may prove vital to the young child in preventing overwhelm."
Charlotte Reznick: "Tell them as honestly as you can what has happened. Answer their questions. Listen to them tell their stories about what they saw and felt. Let them draw and write these feelings. There is a catharsis and healing in the retelling and releasing of what they keep inside. Try to recognize the underlying feelings in their words and actions. "It makes us mad to think about all the people and homes that were hurt by this riot" or "I can see you are feeling really sad about what happened" helps the children and you clarify feelings. Provide as much comfort and stability as you can with your love, nurturing, and acceptance. "We are together" - "We care about you" - "We will take care of you" - goes a long way."
Maggie Kline reminds us that dealing with grief requires talking about feelings - and that "mad," "sad," "scared" and "glad" are all natural and effective ways to release the shock of a loss. Releasing emotion in whatever way feels safe to the child can prevent a whole-system disruption or shutdown, preventing long-term trauma effects and making the child more resilient for future joys and successes.
For further resources, explore the following:
Thanks for reading this newsletter. Please feel free to pass it along to friends and colleagues who may benefit.
Have a great month,
Maggie
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