DR KAREN TREISMAN: Supporting, Enriching and Nurturing Carer-Child Relationships

Working with Children who have Experienced Relational and Developmental Trauma

This enriching workshop is focused on furthering our understanding about how relational and developmental trauma can impact on a child’s way of doing relationships, being in relationships, and what they should expect from relationships. Beyond theory and concepts, this workshop offers numerous practical and applicable tools and strategies for supporting carers to therapeutically re-parent and connect with children who have been hurt. With the hope of creating healing and reparative relationships. This workshop focuses on those children who have experienced sexual abuse, physical abuse, domestic abuse, and relational poverty/disruption including those in foster, residential, and kinship care.

This eclectic workshop draws on ideas from Dyadic Developmental Practice, sensory integration and processing ideas, Narrative practice, and many more including some creative and expressive ideas. These days will use a range of metaphors, props, video clips, experiential learning, and case studies to bring the contents alive. And we will explore some powerful exercises to connect with how relational and developmental trauma may show itself in children including using a multi-sensory experiential activity, the parenting patchwork, the metaphor of shark-infested waters, and many others.

We will also consider some of the key therapeutic ways of being; as well as explore different ways of enriching and having more meaningful conversations, identifying and expressing a range of feelings, and increasing playful and hopeful moments. This workshop also acknowledges how hard therapeutic re-parenting can be and how crucial parent and carer wellbeing is. Even more so in the context of secondary and vicarious trauma.

This workshop draws on tools and ideas from Dr Treisman’s bestselling therapeutic treasure box range including Cleo the Crocodile, The Trauma Treasure Deck, The Parenting Patchwork and The Treasure Box for Working with Developmental Trauma.

Learning Methods:

The days will utilise an array of learning and teaching styles including small group discussions, experiential hands-on learning, multimedia methods, and lecture delivery. “Case” studies and live examples will be interwoven throughout.

Props and interactive learning materials will also be used to model the model of being whole-brain informed.

Handouts, additional learning resources, and recommended reading will be provided.

Aims and Objectives of the Day:

• Develop further knowledge and understanding about the impact that early trauma and disrupted attachment can have on children’s overall development.
• Reflect on how trauma can impact a child’s developmental trajectory and “age”.
• Gain further understanding as to why therapeutic re-parenting and relationship-based trauma-informed practice is so fundamental to children’s progress.
• Learn numerous mantras, catch phrases, and golden nuggets to anchor on to and communicate with carers using.
• Learn some new tangible and practical tools and techniques for strengthening and enriching carer-child relationships. Including different activities and ideas for improving emotional regulation, widening children’s emotional vocabulary and dictionary, and increasing their self-esteem.
• To learn some tangible ways of making our interactions with children more creative, playful, joyful, and multi-sensory. 

Audience: for Mental Health and Education Professionals at all levels & any professional that applies relational & developmental science to their practice.

Mental Health Professionals: All mental health professionals including, but not limited to Clinical Counsellors, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Youth Workers, Mental Health Workers, Child Protection and Disability Workers, Guidance Officers, Speech and Language Therapists, Residential Care Workers and Foster Support Workers, and all other mental health professionals looking to enhance their therapeutic skills with children.

Education Professionals: Professionals who work with children or youth including, but not limited to K–12 School Counsellors, School Paraprofessionals and all other professionals who support behavioural challenges and complex learning needs.

Presented by: Dr Karen Treisman is a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist who has worked in the National Health System and children’s services for several years. Karen has also worked cross-culturally in both Africa and Asia with groups ranging from former child soldiers to survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. She also is the author of 11 books, including the bestselling book, “The Therapeutic Treasure Box”, 4 sets of therapeutic card decks, and 6 therapeutic soft cuddly toys.

Karen has extensive experience in the areas of trauma, parenting, adversity (ACE’s) and attachment, and works clinically using a range of therapeutic approaches with families, systems, and children in or on the edge of care, unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people, and adopted children. Karen also specialises in supporting organisations and systems to move towards becoming, and to sustain adversity, culturally and, trauma-informed, infused, and responsive practice. This work focuses on creating meaningful and multi-layered cultural and paradigm shift across whole systems. This was the focus of Dr Treisman’s Winston Churchill Fellowship Karen was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship Travel Award which involved visited several places in the USA to further study whole system and organisational approaches to trauma-informed and trauma-responsive care and this topic is the focus of Dr Treisman’s newly released book entitled “A Treasure Box for Creating Trauma-Informed Organizations: A Ready-to-Use Resource For Trauma, Adversity, and Culturally Informed, Infused and Responsive Systems”.

Karen is an external consultant, trainer, speaker, and assessor to a variety of local authorities and organisations including Barnardos, PAC-UK, AdoptionPlus, BAAT, Pause, Action Trauma, Grandparents Plus, Three Steps Ireland, MedicaCPD, and the Fostering Network. Karen is also an expert witness and regularly undergoes a variety of assessments for court. Additionally, Karen is also a reviewer for the Journal of Adoption and Fostering.

Karen was also awarded the 2018 Psychology Professional of the Year Award for Excellence in Attachment and Trauma; and Youth Psychology Professional of the Year 2020. Karen was also awarded an MBE (Queen's Honour list 2020).