mailto:dr.S.Knight@gmail.com
Brochure
Workshops and Book Discussion Events
February 27, 2026 with Kathryn Birch, PhD
Title of presentation: What we can learn from clients about how to treat trauma: a book study of Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz’s The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, and Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the underlying neurobiology of trauma the effects of childhood trauma
2. Explain how a child/individual’s behavior communicates underlying needs, and how
trauma can influence behavior
3. Discuss the importance of positive relationships in healing from trauma
March 20, 2026 with Mitchell Slutzky, PhD
Title of presentation: Affect Dysregulation, Trauma Response and Dementia: From Hippocampal Damage to Clinical Compensation
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Participants will be able to identify at least three preserved cognitive and affective systems in dementia (procedural/implicit memory, emotional processing, and relational attunement) and explain the neuroanatomical basis for their relative sparing compared to hippocampal- dependent explicit memory.
2. Participants will be able to describe the phenomenon of "feelings without memory" -- how emotional experiences persist and accumulate in dementia patients independent of conscious recall and apply this understanding to minimize negative affective residues while cultivating positive emotional states in clinical care.
3. Participants will be able to implement at least three evidence-based communication and intervention strategies (such as music, rhythm, prosody-rich interaction, procedural engagement, and relational presence) that engage relatively intact subcortical systems rather than demanding explicit recall from compromised hippocampal circuits.
April 17, 2026 with Emily Mouilso, PhD
Title of presentation: A Overview of Exposure Therapy for the Treatment of Trauma-related Disorders
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Define exposure therapy and describe its core principles and clinical purpose.
2. Explain the major theoretical models underlying exposure therapy.
3. Summarize the empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of exposure-based treatments for trauma-related disorders.
4. Identify common myths and misconceptions that limit clinicians’ use of exposure therapy.
September 18, 2026 with Sylvia Knight, PhD
Title of Presentation: Presentation and Discussion of Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
By the end of this workshop participants will be able to:
1. Describe how trauma reshapes key neural systems (alarm system, stress hormones, self-regulation networks) and leads to chronic hyperarousal, numbing, and somatic symptoms.
2. Identify clinical signs that a client may need multimodal interventions beyond traditional insightoriented psychotherapy (e.g., persistent dissociation, body-based flashbacks, treatment impasses).
3. Explain how trauma fragments self-experience and how models such as Internal Family Systems (IFS) or similar partsoriented frameworks can support integration and selfleadership.
4. Formulate at least one example treatment plan that sequences or combines these approaches to restore self-regulation and a sense of agency in a traumatized client.
October 16, 2026 with Shannon Kelly, PhD and Jane E. Keat, DPhil, PsyD
Title of presentation: Psychodynamic Approaches to Working with Trauma
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Participants will be able to identify at least three three psychoanalytic trauma theorists along with their primary conceptualization of trauma
2. Participants will be able to define the concept of afterwardness (Nachträglichkeit) and describe its role in the temporal development of traumatic symptoms within a psychoanalytic framework
3. Participants will be able to describe two ways in which psychodynamic approaches to treating trauma differ from cognitive behavioral approaches.
4. Participants will be able to recognize and explain how unconscious phenomena influence the clinical presentation of trauma
