When most people think of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), what comes to mind are the most catastrophic examples.  Events that include war/combat trauma, natural disasters and torture fall into this category.  However, many therapist are surprised to learn that research suggests that the most common cause of PTSD are injury automobile accidents.  Other common PTSD causes can include child abuse (physical, emotional & sexual), childhood neglect, rape, assaults, other injury accidents, domestic violence, and painful medical procedures among others.

Furthermore, research is now showing that even when people do not meet the full DSM-IV clinical criteria for PTSD, that they can still have significant PTSD symptoms. Traumatic and high stress incidents, sufficient enough to leave a profound impact on the emotional mid-brain, occur in nearly everyone’s life.  Such impact events increase our overall stress load, adversely effect physical health, cause emotional over reactivity and degrade the quality of life.  This is what I call Everyday Traumas.

The truth is that it is rare that I see a client who is not effected by either PTSD, Everyday Traumas or High Stress Events.  These occurrences are often the underlying cause of other disorders including phobias, panic attacks, generalized anxiety, secondary depression and traumatic grief.

My observation is that these forms of distress are occurring in epidemic proportions and (with the exception of the most dramatic cases) are often unnoticed in therapy and are going untreated.

• What is PTSD
  - DSM IV Criteria
  - Research suggests DSM IV criteria is too narrow
  - A broader view of trauma and traumatic events
  - How people historically coped with PTSD
   

• How to know if someone has PTSD - measurement tools
  - Impact of Event Scale (IES-r)
  - PTSD - What happens in the brain/body
  - State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-s)
   

• How to know if someone is at high risk for PTSD
  - German research with firefighters
  - High Trait Anxiety
  - Measuring Trait Anxiety (STAI-t)
  - Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 questions
   

• Effects of traumatic events on the brain
  - Thinking brain verses emotional mid-brain
  - Why language-based therapy can fail
   

• How to know which interventions offer the best hope
  - Five interventions (strengths & weakness)
     * Exposure Therapy (Traumatic Incident Reduction)
     * Systematic Desensitization
     * NLP trauma/phobia treatment
     * EMDR
     * REMAP
  - Calming the nervous system
     * Six breaths per minute technique
     * KAVE question technique - mindfulness
   

• How to minimize the chance of abreactions with
  - Systematic Desensitization
  - NLP
  - EMDR
  - REMAP
   

• How to work with a simple yet powerful intervention
  - Introduction to the Quick REMAP 4-point Protocol
  - Research from Harvard and Yale Medical Schools
  - Case example
  - Live demonstration
   

• Experience working with the 4-point protocol
  - Creating an Impact Event List (trauma list)
  - Group Exercise
  - Adding a key cognitive component
  - Paired exercise
   

• How to minimize burn out and secondary PTSD
  - Secondary PTSD - are you at risk
  - Your STAI-t score
  - Coping container level
  - Self-treatment
   

• Steps to becoming an expert with traumatized clients
  - Path to certification
  - Additional training
  - Importance of consultation
   

• Question and Answer