Helping Make the Unbearable Tolerable: Trauma and the Treatment of Addictions – Bessel van der Kolk

Salepage link: At HERE. Archive:

Unlike stress, which resolves itself after the event is over, trauma causes people to become physiologically and mentally stuck — hyper-aroused and/or frozen, unable to manage their bodily arousal systems.

This recording will clarify the neurobiological underpinnings of these broken biological systems, clarify how addictive behaviors of all kinds are invariably rooted in desperate attempts to manage and discuss the evidence-based methods that are available to help re-regulate mind and body.

1. Determine the neurobiological underpinnings of the arousal system that lead to trauma and increase clients’ substance abuse and addiction cycle.
2. Employ several evidence-based methods that foster re-regulation of mind and body that can aid in reduction of symptomology.
3. Investigate how addictive substances are used as coping mechanisms for unresolved traumatic stress.

The Neurobiology of Trauma

• The body’s arousal system in the face of trauma

The Interplay of Trauma and Addiction

• How addictive substances are used as coping mechanisms
• Evidence-based methods that can foster re-regulation of the mind and body