Working with Relational and Developmental Trauma in Children and Adolescents

Dr Karen Treisman is a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist who has worked in the NHS and children’s services for ten years. She has also worked cross-culturally in Africa and Asia, with groups ranging from former child soldiers to survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. Karen has extensive experience in the areas of trauma, parenting, and attachment, and works clinically using a range of therapeutic approaches with families, children and young people. She is the director of Safe Hands and Thinking Minds Psychological Services (www.safehandsthinkingminds.co.uk), and is an external consultant and trainer to Barnardos, PAC-UK, Hope for families, and the Fostering Network. Karen has worked in several Looked after Children teams and within the National Implementation Service for evidence-based interventions at the Maudsley Hospital. She currently works as Clinical Lead in a court assessment and intensive parenting intervention team in Islington.

1. Relational and developmental trauma: the impact of complex trauma on children’s sense of selves, relationships, and development. 2. The impact of relational and developmental trauma on emotional and behavioural dysregulation. 3. The relationship between trauma, the body, and the brain: a body-based and sensory approach to relational and developmental trauma. 4. Strength, resilience, and hope-based practices. 5. Multi-layered psychological assessments of relational and developmental trauma. 6. Therapeutic re-parenting those who have experienced relational and developmental trauma and loss. 7. Therapeutic models, approaches, and ingredients for children and their families who have experienced relational and developmental trauma. 8. Working within traumatised systems and amongst complex organisational dynamics: Creating a team around the worker and a positive self-care culture. 9. Attachment and trauma within an educational context: making schools more trauma and attachment-sensitive. 10. Reflecting on the experiences and working effectively with unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people. 11. Children’s residential homes: a relational and developmental trauma perspective. 12. Gang activity, antisocial, and youth offending behaviour: an attachment and trauma framework.