Transforming Complex Trauma Into Recovery and Growth

This session is oriented towards those who may have experienced complex trauma, recovery and growth personally or are now interested in or currently guiding others professionally.  One of the key take-aways from this webinar is the importance of asking the question, "What's happened to you?," instead of the often misguided question, "What's wrong with you?," thus opening to the possibility and opportunity for transpersonal recovery and growth.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Explore moving away from the stigmatizing, marginalizing and polarizing label of 'addiction', instead using substance use and misuse.
2. Explore seeing and holding substance use and misuse as a healthy survival strategy and important primary relationship!
3. Identifying survival subpersonalities with creative, incredible strengths and survival skills.
4. Practice identifying and simplifying complex trauma (individual, family, community national and global) and patterns of substance use and misuse into a
5. single snapshot using a new model I am currently developing: Complex Trauma, Recovery and Growth: A self-directed wellness plan.
6. Explore how to turn Survival Subpersonalities and their Survival Skills and Strengths into new and more Authentic Selves with Recovery Skills and Strengths.
7. Identifying recovery and post-traumatic growth as an often immediate response.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS JANUARY 28, 2021

(Be sure to check your email on the 29th for the Zoom link)

Jean A. Rhea, LCMFT (KS), LMFT (CA), MS  Upon taking the Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACE assessment, I personally scored a 5 which correlates with the level of childhood abuse I experienced as a child growing up in a midwestern family, many of whom had also experienced complex trauma and substance misuse. There is no doubt the survival subpersonalities developed over time saved my life and sanity.  Alcohol not only proved to be an important, primary relationship.

Growing into adulthood, the survival subpersonalities and skills I developed became more polished as they expanded and deepened throughout all areas of my life until becoming my reactions, not responses, to the layers of trauma I came to experience.  Some of those trauma’s included my sexual orientation identification as LGBTQ in a family, community and religion that was unaccepting, unsupportive and instead punishing.  I also experienced sexual violence by a sexual predator and as a result over thirty years of navigating the U.S. Criminal Justice and Victim Services System.  Finally in November of 1993, a horse accident and subsequent Near-Death experience that let me finally to Sofia University where I met and trained with Ann Gila and John Firman at Psychosynthesis Palo Alto over the next ten years.  

Currently I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in both California and Kansas, a Professional Interventionist and Recovery Coach with past experience as the Clinical Director of St. Vincent De Paul/San Francisco, and as a behavioral health consultant with Felton Institute, where as part of a team, I educated, trained and implemented a trauma-informed, strengths-based and culturally relevant way of finding treatment solutions instead of punishment for Transitional Age Youth in San Francisco’s Drug Court.  

Psychosynthesis provides the foundation for a model I’m currently developing and utilizing in my current work.  It is a compassionate, insightful, strengths-based and trauma-informed approach that moves away from stigmatizing, marginalizing and polarizing labels and instead provides insight, compassion, collaboration and guidance into one's own ability to completely transform complex trauma into recovery and growth - in one's own way, using one's own language and in one's own time.