Implementation Course

This intermediate level course is designed for master’s level mental health practitioners to deepen their ability to effectively implement Somatic Regulation Tools, Therapist Skills and Video Reflection to enhance effectiveness of psychological trauma treatment.

Participants gain refined skills in assessment and treatment, nuanced ways to involve caregivers, and most importantly a deep understanding of how to weave the three threads, holding in mind the fundamental role somatic regulation plays to support the growth in the child’s attachment capacity and trauma processing.

Prerequisites to this course:

• Masters Degree in mental health
• Completion of the SMART Foundations Course
• Participation in, a minimum, of 9 hrs of SMART Consultation with a SMART Consultant
• Completion of Certification pathways learning activities
• Demonstrated readiness via the SMART Competency Assessment Scale

This 20 hour course consists of

• Ten 2 hr. live online classroom meetings engaging learning material through
  
  • didactic lecture
  • video reflection
  • small group activities
• Limited to 12 participants
• Presentation of clinical SMART video for group reflection and learning. (Alternative ways to collect video for sharing are possible, if your setting prohibits video recording of clinical material.)
• Asynchronous learning activities each week

Fee: $1000 Individual
Expected Hours: 20 in person meetings, 4 hrs independent work
CE Credits - 10 CE credits are approved for this course

Content

• Orientation to Course activities
• Review
  • The Spiral - Therapeutic Processes
  • Regulation Map
  • SMART Methods - Tools of Regulation, Therapist Skills, Video Reflection
• Developmental Hierarchy
• Role of Video Reflection in professional development and client treatment
• Tending to Safety and SMART Room design

Educational Objectives

•  Assess, evaluate and adjust your SMART room regarding space and equipment needed to facilitate Tending to Safety in each of the domains: physical, relational, and emotional
• Define the purpose of the SMART Regulation Map and Hierarchy of Development
• Define the value of video reflection for assessment, treatment planning, and professional development
• Possesses the skill to participate and share reflections in a safe and supportive manner that enriches and promotes growth for all participants
• Demonstrates self-compassion and care for the feelings of “exposure and vulnerability” that frequently accompanies video self-reflection

Content

• Somatic Regulation in the Foreground
• Vestibular Sense and the Where Self
• Deepening Therapist Skills to support of self- and co-regulation
• Incorporating Caregivers to support co-regulation
• Generalizing the Tools of Regulation to daily life
• Assessing Choice Points and Treatment Planning via Video Reflection

Educational Objectives

1. Identify the Regulation Tool(s) sought by the child.
2. Describe the impact of the tools on the child's state and social engagement system.
3. In Video Reflection, one can identify changes in the child’s functioning across the Developmental Hierarchy.
4. List the Regulation Tools sought by the specific client, hypothesizing which appear to be the most effective for the child’s regulation based on arousal state and social engagement presentation.
5. Recognizes when a child is in a traumatic state and Leads with specific Regulation Tools.
6. Uses Video Reflection to assess Therapist Skills, including Choice Points, to evaluate their effectiveness and refine interventions.
7. Explain to caregivers the function and impact of Regulation Tools on their child's arousal and social engagement levels.

Content

• Tending to Relational and Emotional  Safety
• Building new rhythms of engagement
• Increasing effectiveness of co-regulation
• The role of touch in bonding
• Assessing caregiver-child capacities
• Caregiver’s arousal on the Regulation Map
• How child and caregiver affect each other’s arousal facilitating Attachment-Building
• Increasing Caregiver awareness of their own arousal states, triggers, and regulation tools
• Expanding Caregiver  Tracking of their child, embodied-attuning, and co-regulation
• Working with Caregivers in parent consultation outside of SMART session

Educational Objectives

1. Explain the role of bottom-up rhythms in Attachment -Building
2. List 1-2 ways to support caregiver's attending to and adjusting their interactions to the child’s pace.
3. Use Tracking Skills to assess the relationship, caregiver, and child using the Regulation Map.
4. Apply information collected from assessment to guide Choice Points that promote Attachment- building.
5. Select a Therapist Skill and the rationale based on the above assessment to promote Attachment- building.
6. Tending to Safety at all the 3 layers by engaging the skills of Tracking, Embodied Attuning, and Full Participation.
7. Engage in activities that build a felt sense of safety, playfulness in the moment, improved rhythms of engagement and more effective co-regulation.
8. List child’s Somatic Regulation Tools and provide caregivers with recommendations for implementing these skills at home or school.

Content

• Recognizing non-symbolic forms of Trauma content
• Recognizing and Responding to Traumatic States and Dissociation 
• Trauma Processing
  • Trauma Processing at the Brain Stem/nervous system level (Content deepened in Weaving Unit)
  • Embodied Trauma Processing 
  • Verbal Scaffolding in Trauma Processing
• Incorporating Caregiver
  • Assessing Caregiver capacity and determining how to best include them in Trauma Processing
  • Considering and Addressing emergence of Caregiver’s trauma material
  • Supporting caregiver participation during the session to facilitate child’s trauma processing

Educational Objectives

1. Implement video reflection to label indicators and triggers of traumatic content observed in session.
2. The therapist can differentiate the child’s presentation in the Fluid Zone from a Traumatic State to promote more work in the Fluid Zone.
3. Describe the continuum of dissociative expression from normative coping to disordered function and how it may present differently in children and adolescents.
4. Explain the role of Trauma Processing at the brain stem/nervous system level with emphasis on the child having a repeated experience of being able to regain a felt sense of safety and somatic regulation after entering a traumatic state. 
5. Supports the use of Somatic Regulation Tools in the background to facilitate effective Trauma Processing.
6. Verbally Scaffolds specific content by naming present moment sensory, motor, arousal, and/or affect evident in the child. 
7. Discusses traumatic content with caregiver outside of session (or during as appropriate) to assist with meaning making and facilitate attuned responses to the child. 

Content

• Assess clinical work from all three threads
• Working and supporting the priority thread 
• Seeing the threads across the arc of session and arc of treatment
• Shifting thread to thread: Following and Leading 
• Refining treatment, planning future Interventions
• Identifying missing information
• Integrating self discoveries emerging from Video Reflection
• Generating future interventions based on Video Reflection

Educational Objectives

1. In Video Reflection, the therapist can label which thread(s) are present across the arc of a session
2. Explain the rationale guiding the decision regarding which thread(s) are most important to address in a session.
3. Describe the Somatic Regulation Tool(s) that is supporting the child in the primary thread being addressed.
4. The therapist can assess when the child is dysregulated, support Somatic Regulation and then weave back to the trauma content as time allows. They can repeat this process over the session as needed. 
5. The therapist can describe the arc of session and treatment across the threads to the caregiver explain the role of somatic regulation to support addressing the other threads.    
6. Therapist applies Verbal Scaffolding to adjusted for each client
7. The therapist applies Verbal Scaffolding appropriately to address the treatment goals as they apply to each thread.

Content

• Reflection on the role of SMART in promoting the developing sense of self in the child.
• Reflecting on our Therapist growth and identifying growth goals for the future
• Course closure: the SMART learning journey

Educational Objectives

1. Therapists can describe how SMART increases a physical sense of self and sense of felt safety in relationship.
2. Therapists will be able to summarize what they’ve learned via the course and identify 2 to 3 examples of how their work has changed. 
3. The therapist can list 3 SMART skill areas for further development. 

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Cancellation Policy

• 30+ days before the course start date: 100% refund, minus handling fee.
• 7–29 days before the course start date: 50% refund, minus handling fee.
• Less than 7 days before the course start date: No refund. You may instead transfer your enrollment to a future course offering.
• SMARTmoves, LLC reserves the right to cancel or postpone courses.