Schema-informed CBT for Perinatal Complexity: A Masterclass in Formulation and Experiential Skills
13-14th June, 2024 (online)
(9:30am-4.00pm UK time)
Dr Helen Startup and Dr Cathy Green, Clinical Psychologists
More than one in ten women will develop a mental illness in pregnancy or the year after birth. These illnesses can cause intense suffering for women and their families. They can also have an adverse impact on the interaction between a mother and her baby, affecting the child’s emotional, social and cognitive development. For women who have suffered complex developmental trauma the transition to motherhood can be a particularly challenging and vulnerable time. Pregnancy or parenthood may trigger painful memories, precipitate strong emotions which are hard to manage, reduce access to usual ways of coping and make new and changing relationships, particularly with baby difficult to navigate.
This is a unique 2-day workshop designed for clinicians with experience in schema therapy or cognitive behavioural approaches (or other allied modalities) working with women in the perinatal period. You will be interested in expanding your skills for working with more complex perinatal presentations, particularly where there is a background of relational trauma e.g. where there are significant relational challenges, or where the person has not responded to standard treatment to date.
The workshop will cover the fundamental concepts and techniques of schema theory and how these can be integrated into time-limited CBT. There will be a practical emphasis on supporting attendees to feel confident in:
- formulating complex perinatal presentations via mode mapping (e.g. primary tokophobia, emotion dysregulation (including anger) in response to the demands of parenting and trauma reactions such as dissociation and states of paralyzing helplessness)
- in the change techniques of: chair work (e.g. to uncouple a severe critic from a vulnerable child), imagery work (e.g. for rescripting early trauma memories which may have resurfaced in the context of parenthood), limited reparenting (e.g the use of transitional objects and body focused methods when a client is highly dissociated) and empathic confrontation (e.g. to negotiate with therapy interfering coping modes).
- methods for enhancing a ‘Flourishing Parent’ mode where individuals have limited positive internal dialogues.
Training costs and to book
£290 for a two-day workshop (10% discount if booked by 1st April, 2024)
To reserve a place or for more information please email:
