Upcoming Events

About the Course

This two day workshop is open to senior practioners who have experience and previous training in trauma and PTSD. It will teach how to procees trauma and PTSD using Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). CPT was originally created to assist women who had been raped to process their trauma. It was so successfully in this regard that its use has now spread to many other traumas. CPT, at its heart, is a combination of Information Processing concepts, adapted Cognitive Therapy, and exposure.

There is a large amount of literature supporting an Information Processing explanation of trauma and PTSD, including in EMDR research. Two important concepts here are assimilation, whereby information about the trauma is altered to fit ones existing belief system (schemata), and accommodation, whereby one alters one’s beliefs in order to integrate information about the trauma. Very often trauma clients will exhibit over-accommodation, completely altering their view of the world in such a way that it can often lead to them being unable to experience intimacy and trust (for example).

CPT uses an adapted Cognitive Therapy (CT) approach because Beck’s CT tends to de-emphasise the expression of emotions, whereas CPT actively encourages clients to attend to and experience their emotions. Avoidance of strong emotions is common in clients who have experienced trauma, to the point that some are able to almost completely numb their emotions. CPT elicits exposure and then assists clients to differentiate between unhelpful cognitions and accurate interpretations. Unhelpful cognitions and other stuck points are targeted for processing.

CPT assists trauma clients to:

a)    Understand the interconnectedness of thoughts and feelings

b)    Accept and integrate the trauma as an event that actually occurred

c)    Experience the full range of emotions connected to the trauma

d)    Recognise and challenge maladaptive beliefs

e)    Analyse how previous experiences and beliefs impacted reactions to the trauma how these same experiences and beliefs were impacted by the trauma

The course will be held on two days and will cover all the topics of the 12+ session CPT protocol:

• Introduction and education
• The meaning of the event
• Traumatic bereavement
• Identifying thoughts and feelings
• Remembering the event
• Identifying stuck points
• Challenging questions
• Patterns of problematic thinking
• Safety Issues
• Trust issues
• Power and control issues
• Esteem issues
• Intimacy issues
• Revised meaning of the event

In order to undertake this specialist course you must have completed a Postgraduate Certificate or Diploma in Trauma & PTSD 

Workshop Registration Fee: £260 (which includes lunch and refreshments during breaks)

Time: 9:45 – 17:00 Sat & Sun

Venue: Ocean House, The Ring, Bracknell, RG12 1AX.

The most convenient parking is at the High Street Car Park on the left side of The Ring after Princess Square (RG12 1GN). Access to Ocean House is via the leftmost walkway on Level 4 that takes you over The Ring; Ocean House will be directly in front of you as you cross the walkway.

Ocean House is also very close to Bracknell train station location with free parking and close to the train station. Exit the station from the main entrance, cross the road and follow the High Street Road in front of you with the Goose pub on your left. After a short walk across the car entrance to the High Street car park. Take the second set of stairs past the bus stop into the car park up to the 4th floor. Take the bridge link straight across which will bring you directly to the entrance of Ocean House.

About Lucia Hall, Director of ICS Ltd

Lucia Hall is a psychological therapist, traumatologist, university lecturer, trainer, communication coach, clinical hypnotherapist and supervisor. She was originally from Panama but moved to the United States where she was a social worker in the Family and Child Protection units in Detroit, Michigan. She met and married her British husband in the USA and they eventually moved to England.

Lucia studied her MSc. in Mental Health at Guy’s Hospital, St Thomas’ Hospital & Kings College School of Medicine/ Institute of Psychiatry. She is an EMDR practitioner (Level 3) and is trainer for MBTI (Levels 2 & 3). Additional specialised training includes Schema Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP), CBT Trauma Focused Therapy, Imagery Rescripting & Reprocessing Therapy (IRRT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), Lifespan Integration (LI) and several other trauma focused processes. Lucia also has a diploma in hypnotherapy (DipH).
Lucia has taught at several colleges and universities in the UK as well as being an external course examiner. She is a consultant traumatologist for the insurance and legal professions and in addition has a great deal of experience in working with depression and anxiety. She owns Integrative Cognitive Solutions Limited, which is a psychotherapy, supervision and training company. Lucia is a member of many professional bodies including BABCP, MBACP, EMDR UK, GHR, NCP (Fellow), UKPTS and ESTSS.

ICS is Lucia’s training company and she also owns The Transformation Centre, which specialises in treating trauma and has clinics In London and Berkshire.

Currently Lucia is teaching a Postgraduate Diploma in Trauma & PTSD that she created to give participants a systematic and thorough approach for assisting trauma clients. This course was created as Lucia found that other courses were theory-heavy, but typically left participants without a clearly defined and practical approach to processing client’s trauma. Lucia also teaches several trauma workshops that are accredited by the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) and recognised by the United Kingdom Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS). These courses lead to a Certificate in Traumatology recognised throughout Europe.

Cancellations

Cancellations in writing up to 2 weeks prior to the event will receive a refund of the fee, minus a 20% administration fee. Cancellations received within 1 weeks or less of the workshops are non-refundable.

ICS reserves the right to cancel the workshop if there are insufficient numbers of delegates. In this case full refunds will, of course, be given.

CPD certificates are issued with each course and can be used toward the IFEAL EFHD Trauma and PTSD training.