Traumatic Attachment and Affect Dysregulation with Janina Fisher, Ph.D.

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Janina Fisher, PhD Related seminars and products

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Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples, and families since 1980.

She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.

She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press).

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Janina Fisher has an employment relationship with the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. She is a consultant for Khiron House Clinics and the Massachusetts Department of MH Restraint and Seclusion Initiative. Dr. Fisher receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Fisher has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is on the advisory board for the Trauma Research Foundation. She is a patron of the Bowlby Center.

Objectives

• Identify and discuss trauma-related attachment patterns.
• Describe disorganized attachment behavior and its effects on affect regulation.
• Explain the theory and practice of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
• Utilize Sensorimotor Psychotherapy techniques to address attachment and trauma-related issues in psychotherapy.
• Describe somatic interventions to address preoccupied, avoidant, and disorganized/unresolved attachment styles.
• Employ interactive neurobiological regulation to address affect dysregulation.

Outline

The Neurobiology of Attachment Formation

• An evolutionary view of attachment patterns
• Early attachment as a somatic experience
• Attachment styles and brain development
• Autonomic arousal and affect regulation
• Effects of traumatic threat on the body and nervous system

Disorganized Attachment and Trauma

• When the source of safety is the source of threat
• “Frightened” and “frightening” caregiving
• Disorganized-unresolved attachment as survival defense
• Statistical predictor of Borderline Personality Disorder
• Long-term impact on affect regulation/dysregulation

Effects of Disorganized-Unresolved Attachment on Transference

• Phobia of therapy and the therapist
• Traumatic transference and disorganized attachment
• Affect dysregulating effects of psychotherapy
• Safety and dysregulation
• Induction of the therapist as affect regulator

Stabilizing Traumatic Attachment Responses

• Mindfulness-based treatment models
• Introduction to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
• Increasing regulatory ability in therapy
  • Nonjudgmental self-observation and awareness
  • Non-attachment to thoughts, feelings, and memories
  • Ability to shift focus
• Developing somatic resources in the relationship
• Right brain-to-right brain communication

The Therapist as a Neurobiological Regulator

• Dysregulated states and psychotherapy
• What does it mean to be a ‘neurobiological regulator’?
• Lessons from attachment research
• Minimizing negative affect
• Maximizing positive affect
• Playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy
• Successful experiences of feeling regulated while in relationship

Target Audience

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