Dr Sarah Stewart-Spencer
Deepening Presence and Meaning in Trauma Treatment:
how an existential approach can enrich trauma care and supervision
An international online workshop
delivered direct from Tampa, Florida over 4 half-days
Thur 3 & Fri 4 and Thur 10 & Fri 11 APRIL 2025
Introduction
Trauma often disrupts an individual’s sense of meaning, identity, and connection, presenting unique challenges for clinicians and supervisors alike. In this workshop, returning international guest Dr Sarah Stewart-Spencer will facilitate you to appreciate how specific concepts of existentialism can enrich trauma care and supervision.
Workshop Overview
Over these four half-days, core competencies for treating trauma will be explored through presentation, reflective exercises and group discussion. You will examine with Sarah some key existential principles within the context of trauma and the iteration of meaning-making and authenticity into trauma-informed care.
What Sarah will cover:
- Identifying the core competencies in trauma treatment that lead to positive therapeutic outcomes.
- Exploration of the existential principles of meaning, freedom and connection within the context of trauma
- Enhancing therapeutic skills for addressing existential dilemmas and fostering reflective practice in trauma treatment
- Integration of existential approaches – including meaning-making and authenticity – into trauma-informed care and supervision.
- Development of strategies for treating trauma effectively, including tolerating discomfort and facilitating deep client engagement.
Overview of each day:
Day 1: Exploration of the physiology of stress and trauma through an existential lens
Day 2: Integration of existentialism in a tri-phasic model as a standard of care in trauma treatment
Day 3: Cultivating authentic presence and empathic engagement with clients
Day 4: Exploring resilience and meaning-making in trauma recovery
What you can expect to walk away with:
A deeper understanding of how to create a therapeutic environment that cultivates authenticity, growth and transformative connections in trauma work.
Who Should Attend
Practitioners and Supervisors who would like to enrich their practice with the integration of existential principles into a trauma-informed care framework
The Details
Dates: Thur 3 & Fri 4 and Thur 10 & Fri 11 APRIL 2025
Time: Please join at 8.45am to iron out any technical issues
Workshop: 9.00am to 12.30pm AEST ( break times will be accommodated)
Location: online via zoom (registrants will receive an invitation to participate and all the details they require in advance of the date)
Cost: $520 (flat rate in AUD)
CPD Hours: 12
note to registrants:
if you have registered for other CEP international events in 2025, the registration form will show checked boxes for those. Just check the box for this registration – you do not need to uncheck the others.
Dr. Sarah Stewart-Spencer is the founder of the Integrated Wellness Institute and Stewart-Spencer Consulting. She is a co-creator of the trauma treatment protocol called Trauma-Focused Hypnotherapy (combining bilateral stimulation with hypnotherapy practices) and is a Trainer at the International Trauma Training Institute. She is the Editor and Founder of Therapeutic Speakeasy Quarterly, which is a peer-reviewed electronic journal for the helping profession. For the past two years she has served as the Editor of The Humanistic Counselor, a publication of the Association for Humanistic Counseling. Her published books include: Metaphors and Therapy: Enhancing Clinical Supervision and Education and a Routledge publication, Metaphors in Counselor Education and Supervision. These teaching guides break though ambiguity in counselor education and training by introducing a variety of metaphors to help instructors and supervisors. A third book will be published this year: Traumatology: A Primer in Trauma Treatment. Sarah has contributed to the profession through numerous publications and presentations at the local, regional, state, national and international level. She is the former Dean of Behavioural Sciences at Yorkville University, Canada’s largest and leading online counselor education graduate program. Programs there include the Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology and Doctorate in Counselling and Psychotherapy. She has also practiced in a variety of roles and settings, such as crisis/emergency, community mental health, outpatient counseling, psychiatric inpatient, court-appointed assessments, consultation, and a clinical director of a private agency. She has served in multiple leadership roles throughout the professional field, such as the board of the Virginia Clinical Counselors Alliance and University TeleMental Health Training Advisory Forum. She has also served as a committee member at the Association for Creative Counseling and Association for Humanistic Counseling.
Dr Sarah Spencer:
www.DrSarahSpencer.com
www.theIWinstitute.com