Breaking the Bonds of Sexual Trauma: Using Resiliency-Based Clinical Strategies to Help Survivors Restore Their Lives

CPD

Handouts

Speaker

Melissa Bradley-Ball, MS, NCC, BCETS, FAAETS Related seminars and products

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Melissa Bradley-Ball, MS, NCC, BCETS, FAAETS, is a psychotherapist, clinical educator, corporate consultant and mediator. She is a Fellow, Diplomate and board-certified expert in traumatic stress for the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. She has been a frequent keynote speaker at national and statewide conferences and has provided training internationally to more than 350,000 professionals, including mental health providers, medical providers, clergy and chaplains, law enforcement, and legal professionals. She is a former child abuse investigator who has provided expert testimony in criminal and civil court. Ms. Bradley-Ball has been a frequent guest on regional and national radio and television news addressing rape and sexual abuse. She has served as a subject matter expert on a pilot program focused on military leadership and sexual assault and harassment.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Melissa Bradley Ball is the owner of The Heroic Journey. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Melissa Bradley Ball is a Fellow and Diplomat of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. She is a member of the American Counseling Association and the Tennessee Counseling Association.

Objectives

1. Determine appropriate treatment protocol based on the client’s level of functioning
2. Explain sexualized trauma composites and how to dismantle them as it related to case conceptualization
3. Describe how to incorporate resources in to the therapeutic session when working with victims of sexual trauma
4. Describe how to incorporate the heroic journey resiliency model in to the therapeutic session when working with victims of sexual trauma
5. Apply macro and micro aspects of a client’s story to promote safe and effective trauma processing in-session
6. Choose a treatment plan that addresses the unique needs of victims of military sexual trauma and human trafficking

Outline

FOUNDATIONAL ESSENTIALS OF TRAUMA

• Assessing the client’s trauma composite
• Effectively and safely working with the micro and macro story
• The #1 factor contributing to PTSD and long-term intimacy disruption, and how to deal with it

LEVELS OF FUNCTIONING

• Victim
  • Creating safety, support, therapeutic alliance, & skills
  • Building the resilience bridge 
• Survivor
  • Helping clients integrate the trauma into their life narrative
  • Grieving and mourning well
• Thriver
  • The heroic narrative is integrated
  • Trust in self and in the life process is restored

THE COMPLEXITY OF SEXUAL TRAUMA

• Trauma activation rituals, trauma composites, and sexualized trauma composites
• Repetition and why it happens
• How to direct the ritual
• Recognizing and dismantling trauma composites
• Themis: the often hidden PRIMARY trauma
• Somatic, cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and sensory details
• Sexual trauma reactivation over the course of a lifespan
• Developmental (possible) “flare up” times
• Medical: reactivation of sexual trauma
• When medical issues mimic sexual trauma

RESILIENCY-BASED CLINICAL STRATEGIES FOR TREATING SEXUAL TRAUMA

• Assessing strengths and deficits of post-traumatic growth
• Considerations and implementations with different approaches
• Group
• Couple
• Individual
• Family
• Setting up resources
  • Somatic grounding-creating safety and resetting natural survival responses
  • Energy psychology approaches
  • Cognitive-behavioral approaches and creation of positive portfolios
  • “Preparing the team”
  • Making sense of the trauma, and finding purpose from it
    • The “heroic journey” resilience narrative
    • Utilizing movies and literature as resources
    • Assisting the client to incorporate resources from their spiritual tradition
    • Memories (micro or macro)-titrating the pain and incorporating the narrative

  Adjunct Therapies

  • Bodywork: Breema, Reiki, massage, acupuncture, and more
  • Appropriate timing for encouraging the use of other resources

  Special Topics for Consideration

  • Working with sexually avoidant clients and their partners
  • Working with “promiscuity”: is it trauma re-enactment?
  • Working with trauma clients with BDSM lifestyles
  • Working with victims of military sexual trauma and human trafficking

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors
• Psychiatrists
• Educators
• Case Managers
• Chaplains/Clergy
• Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners