Children and Trauma by Ellie Williams

1 CEU 

Click Here to Register and Pay 

Presenter Name: Ellie Williams, MS
Licensure Credentials: MS, NCC, LPC, BCPC - EAGALA Advanced Certified
Secondary Presenter:
Licensure Credentials:

The focus of this workshop is to educate mental health professionals about Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and how beneficial this therapy can be for clients in conjunction with the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) model. DDP was developed to help at-risk youth that have attachment disorders and severe psychological problems due to developmental trauma. The
presentation will inform attendees of Attachment Disorganization and how DDP utilizes Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy (PACE) to meet the client where they are and create a safe and supportive space for the development of a therapeutic alliance with attachment security. Using DDP and an intersubjective stance the therapist can assist the client in a way that helps the client to connect. The therapist helps the client and the parent or caregiver to establish healthy boundaries. The parent or caregiver will learn to better understand and meet the needs of the child. By teaching
parents and caregiversto parent or relate using DDP, mental health professionals can not only support the child as they heal from the trauma that they have experienced but help them to be raised and live in an environment that is safe and that provides a stability for them to develop. While practicing DDP and EAP, the therapist can use equine intervention to help clients to communicate. The horses allow the client to put the focus on them allowing the client space to develop beneficial skills in a safe environment. This dyadic form of therapy helps the parent or caregiver to learn how to parent using the skills of PACE to provide an environment that promotes wellness and healing.

Objective 1: Participants will learn about Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and how this method works well with the EAGALA Model.
Objective 2: Participants will be able to recognize PACE and what itstands for.
Objective 3: Participants will be able to implement PACEful interactions into their own therapeutic interventions