Part 1: Multilevel meaning making, relational regulation and stress by Ed Tronick

While meanings can be made and are made endogenously, they are more typically co-created with one another in an active exchange of information. That exchange is messy. It is characterised by mismatches and matches of meanings and their repair. Successful meaning-making results in an expansion of consciousness and generates attachment and relationships, resilience and trust. Failure to make meaning shrinks, constricts consciousness, and creates distrust and fragility. Delve into the research on humans from Ed Tronick’s laboratory on genetics, physiology, emotions, epigenetics and caretaker-child and adult interactions to learn and understand how this information can be applied to your clinical practice.

Part 2: Pretend you feeded me: a developmental rewind by Marilyn R. Davillier

The four domains of numinous experience in children, which have emerged in research in the past decade – awe, wondering, wisdom and deep personal interconnectedness, are crucial to work with when addressing childhood trauma and resilience. Drawing on literature which encapsulates numinous experience, Marilyn depicts the ‘spiritual’ experience that is rarely established in scientific research and expands on a new model of resilience, in which failure is a means for positive evolution. She demonstrates the importance of numinous experience in childhood in establishing ones sense of self in the world and ability to cope with disruptions to this, from personal changes to social afflictions.

Part 3: Self-integration through attachment relationships in both psychotherapy and daily living by Dan Hughes

Hughes explores the challenges that traumatised children experience within relationships, for instance with eye contact, taking turns sharing, being engaged. When working with traumatised children, the inherent trust at birth that is quashed must be rebuilt using non-verbal communication that conveys the safety that was missing in their childhood. Hughes shares how he works to rebuild new stories with the child, so that they can redefine their experience away from the stories given to them by their perpetrators.

Part 4: Day 1 Panel – From birth to developmental age: the evolution of human brain and personality

Questions from the audience answered by Ed Tronick, Marilyn R. Davillier and Dan Hughes, chaired by Kathy Steele.

Part 5: The treatment of trauma and the internal family system model by Richard Schwartz

Schwartz shares the invaluable lessons that his clients have taught him, shifting his approach of power struggles with parts to showing compassion and giving each one what they need. Video clips from the consulting room with Schwartz and a client are used to demonstrate this approach and illustrate how even highly damaging parts are capable of transforming into their naturally valuable states.

Part 6: Developing an attachment rupture narrative to enhance a more cohesive sense of self and other by Guy Diamond

Diamond shares his principle-based manual, developed with colleagues to operationalise family therapy and discusses the positives of a brief model of therapy, in which he believes can be more successful in treating depressed and suicidal clients. Taking the view of this as a ‘parental empowerment model’ helps to shift the perception of all parties involved, the focus is moved to the attachment-caregiving instinct so that parental responsibility can be acknowledged, without rejection the parents’ struggles.

Part 7: Wired to flourish: AEDP harnesses the innate affects of healing to re-wire experience and accelerate transformation by Diana Fosha

Diana shares her wisdom on the accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP) way of accessing the parts of a traumatised system. Starting her talk with the quote from Antonio Damasio ‘we are organised to be better than fine’, she sets the theme in which one does not simply treat the symptoms so that the client can function, but rather so that they can flourish. Fosha reflects on the work of many others, including Richard Schwartz and the similarities drawn between his and her approaches, then continues with Damasio’s understanding of emotions as ‘action programmes’ which are central to AEDP.

Part 8: Day 2 Panel – The part of the personality: how to work in therapy

Questions from the audience answered by Richard Schwartz, Guy Diamond and Diana Fosha, chaired by Kathy Steele.

Part 9: Healing the hunkered down: rewiring the codependent brain by Robin Shapiro

Shapiro explores the different nervous system and endocrine responses that are responsible for depressive symptoms and how we can ensure accurate identification for the most effective approach to treatment. She takes a brief look at the physical result of cytokine release from these responses and then dives into the effective methods to guide clients back to safety; the cues to pick up on, the activities to use and the how different approaches can be incorporated, e.g. EMDR.

Part 10: From resistance to realization: integrative psychotherapy approaches with challenging trauma patients by Kathy Steele

Resilience is met from the perspective of both the client and the therapist in Steele’s presentation. Tackling the needs of clients that ‘don’t make it to the video tape level’ is a key focus of her talk, taking a look at first the realisation of different parts, then the integration. She also speaks on the importance of discovering the therapists frame of resistance and how that can create further resistance to treatment if not properly addressed.

Part 11: Complex trauma in a complex world by Louis Cozolino

Through anecdotal experiences, Cozolino explores dysregulation in children and the power of affect regulation, socio-stasis and the importance of how one can ‘be’ with their clients. He takes the approach of human connectedness as a key focus within therapy, specifically adolescent therapy. He also explores grief and loss through the lens of one of his young clients whose parents were concerned with his seeming lack of sadness after losing his close relationship to his grandfather who had passed away.

Part 12: Day 3 Panel – Body, emotions, relationships and resistance: the path to the integration of the personality

Questions from the audience answered by Robin Shapiro, Kathy Steele and Louis Cozolino, chaired by Ed Tronick.