Working with Trauma – Mindfulness and Compassion – CEUnits

Psychologist

Working with Trauma - Mindfulness and Compassion

2.00 - CE credit hours training

$12.50 - Cost of course

This page contains important information about the course, including training details, a comprehensive course description, learning objectives, and source references. We encourage you to review each section to gain a clear understanding of the course content, educational goals, and supporting materials before beginning your training and taking the POST TEST below.

Target audience and instructional level of this course: foundational
There is no known conflict of interest or commercial support related to this CE program.

Working with Trauma - Mindfulness and Compassion

Course Training

Follow the link below, read the material and then take the 12 question post test

Read the Course Material:
Working with Trauma - Mindfulness and Compassion

Post Test

12 Questions

1. From "Traumatic Reactions": As a response to trauma, a traumatized person may engage in chronic suppression of thoughts, feelings, and memories, or behavior. Briere notes two primary problems with this?

a. The relief is only temporary; People miss out on the opportunity for post-traumatic growth. b. Thought suppression increases the suppressed thoughts; Other traumas can occur in the meantime. c. It often leads to further suffering; It decreases the extent to which pain is processed and/or accommodated. d. None of the above

2. From "Therapeutic Approaches to Trauma": The author mentions three approaches to trauma treatment: exposure therapy, cognitive therapy, and relational psychotherapy. He asserts that all three of these approaches typically overlap.

a. True b. False

3. From "Compassion": The author distinguishes compassion from empathy, in that compassion includes:

a. appreciation and understanding of the predicament of the client. b. a positive emotional state directed toward the client. c. a moral component. d. all of the above

4. From "Benefits for Trauma Survivors-Introduction": In this section Briere explains why compassion may have particularly positive effects on survivors of interpersonal trauma.

a. Because it allows survivors to reclaim compassion for themselves. b. Because it stops maladaptive coping. c. Compassionate attention encourages the redevelopment of other normal connections and relationships that have often been breached. d. Because compassion introduces a spiritual element.

5. From "Benefits for Trauma Survivors - Direct Effects": The author describes cognitive processing benefits associated with compassion of the therapist. He proposes that the compassionate therapist becomes an exception to trauma's lessons and thus helps the client to alter beliefs and cognitions.

a. True b. False

6. From "Benefits for Trauma Survivors - Indirect Effects": In discussing indirect effects, the author cites compassion as effecting the therapist in ways that allow him or her to help the client more effectively.

a. True b. False

7. From "Finding the Center": The author writes "I seem to be most helpful when I access a state in which empathic connection with a hurt person is possible, even desirable--partially because the presenting issue has been reinterpreted." What reinterpretation does he focus on?

a. It is better for this hurting person to be here with me than to be alone. b. That the individual's ongoing presence signals implicit strength, adaptive capacity, and hopefulness for the future. c. The problem is not the person, and the pain, in one way or another, will eventually change or depart. In fact, the experience of the pain often turns out to be the route out of pain. d. B and C e. All of the above

8. From "Cultivating Compassion": The author contends that there is/are a problem(s) with Western clinical training programs' expectations that therapists should be objective, empathically attuned, and to the extent possible, unconditionally positive in their regard for clients.

a. They usually do little to help trainees to accomplish these goals. b. The theoretical models do not support such empathy. c. Multiple demands on trainees make them stressed and calloused more than compassionate. d. A and C e. All of the above

9. From "Meditation and Mindfulness Training": The author contends that mindful mediation leads to cognitive capacities but not to compassion.

a. True b. False

10. From "Meditation and Mindfulness Training": In the practice of ___________ the meditator "breathes in" pain and suffering from the world and specific people, and "breathes out" love, compassion, and happiness back to them.

a. Theravadin meditation b. metta meditation c. loving kindness meditation d. tonglen meditation

11. From "Non-meditative compassion training": The author notes that non-meditative compassion training can be helpful in increasing understanding of "dependent arising". Dependent arising consists of:

a. a realization that we are all dependent in many ways. b. the notion that clients' experiences and behaviors arise from concrete conditions and causes. c. the concept that therapists and clients must rely on something larger than themselves. d. all of the above

12. From "The Suffering of Others": The author highlights a particular feature of a psychotherapy career that can facilitate growth in compassion. That is:

a. The voluntary decision to be with people who are undergoing especially difficult times b. The gratification that arises from helping others. c. The detachment that comes with therapy successes and "failures" d. The necessity of being compassionate with oneself

Course Description

Improve your trauma-informed practice with this course on mindfulness and compassion. When clinicians respond to trauma, they generally turn to the range of therapeutic interventions that have been developed. These include exposure therapy, cognitive therapy and relational psychotherapy. The course explores and compares these therapeutic interventions before outlining specific ways in which therapist mindfulness and compassion might benefit survivors of trauma. Compassion originates as an empathic response to suffering, as a rational process which pursues patients' wellbeing through specific, ethical actions directed at finding a solution to their suffering. In Western psychotherapy, compassion is often seen as grounded in mindfulness, the capacity to sustain focused awareness and openness to immediate environment.

Benefits of compassion and mindfulness are well-documented. When applied to Trauma survivors, they encourage the redevelopment of social connections that may have been lost and may therefore prove to be a extremely beneficial (Gilbert, 2009a). The course goes into considerate detail on the direct and indirect benefits of compassion and mindfulness, and suggests a variety of methods through which practitioners can cultivate them effectively.

Learning Objectives

Identify common approaches to trauma.
Describe ways that therapist mindfulness and compassion can and might benefit survivors of trauma.

Source

John Briere
&
C.K. Germer & R.D. Siegel

Christopher Germer, PhD is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Arlington, Massachusetts, specializing in mindfulness and compassion-based psychotherapy.
Ronald D. Siegel, PsyD, is Assistant Professor of Psychology, part time at Harvard Medical School, where he has taught for over 30 years. He is a long-time student of mindfulness meditation and serves on the board of directors and faculty of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy.

Psychologist