TRAUMA IN THERAPY: WORKING W/TRAUMA MEMORY & MOVING FORwards

---

Note that this training assumes attendees have a solid understanding of the stabilisation phase of working with trauma, having attended Trauma in Therapy: The practice of stabilisation with SPACEStherapy, or accessed comparable training elsewhere.

• This applied training course will review principles that underpin the processing phase of working with trauma memory to support clients in moving beyond trauma.

• We will consider working therapeutically with clients who have experienced complex trauma that has shaped their development and identity, as well as clients who have experienced a recent traumatic incident, including where a traumatic incident in the present has revealed a deeper trauma history.

• The training will re-visit the importance of working within one’s limitations to ensure ethicality, and will consider when it may be appropriate or necessary to refer a client on. Note that attendees are expected to learn specific models and approaches in sufficient detail before applying them to their practice, and that in some instances this should involve further in-depth training, and/or sufficient additional supervision.

• The training will provide an overview of key models for working with trauma processing. Some of these may be familiar, while others may be new. Approaches will be embedded within a relational framework, promoting the integration and synthesis of approaches, skills, and relational aspects for working with trauma. We will consider how we can appropriately and safely flex, adapt, and merge therapeutic approaches to meet the client’s changeable clinical needs as they move through therapy.

• We will continue to explore the need for a balance between ensuring safety while processing, and managing the risks of avoidance of difficult material, on behalf of both the client and the therapist. 

• We will consider assessment and formulation as ongoing processes, that continue to inform clinical interventions and the trajectory of clinical practice beyond initial conceptualisation.

• The training will introduce post-traumatic growth as a dynamic relationship that emerges through the clinical work. 

• Attendees are encouraged to reflect on their clinical caseload prior to each session to identify how the training can support and develop their existing practice, and to consider how elements of their clinical challenges may be brought in for discussion. 

 Attendees can expect to gain:

• An umbrella understanding of models for working specifically with trauma, including behavioural therapy, psychoanalytic and humanistic/existential approaches.

• An enhanced understanding of how to apply existing knowledge to clinical practice through an integrated relational framework, as well as a clearer sense of where further learning may be required

• A clearer understanding of where it may be of value to dynamically move between the stabilisation and processing/integration phases of treatment, according to the fluctuating needs of our clients 

• An understanding of the value of viewing processes of clinical assessment and formulation as dynamic and ongoing in continuing to inform clinical intervention from the beginning to the end of a piece of client work.

• An enhanced ability to reflect more deeply on the interpersonal/relational aspects of the work in line with increased awareness of the significance and impact of one’s own psychological processes to their clinical practice.

• Course structure: 3 x 4 hour sessions (same time each week for three consecutive weeks), taking place on Zoom (timings include comfort breaks.)

• The next course runs on: Saturdays 6th September 2025, 20th September 2025, and 4th October 2025

• Timings: 9.30am-1.30pm UK time

• Fee: £250 for the full course, payable in full at time of booking. Sessions are not bookable separately.

Further information

• This course is for qualified psychotherapists and counsellors, and those on a recognised training course with some clinical experience. 

• Please provide evidence of qualification (or accreditation with a recognised body e.g. UKCP, BACP, BABCP, NCPS, COSRT)/enrolment on a recognised training course at time of booking.

• Please email SPACEStherapy with any specific access requirements at time of booking.

• If you need to cancel your place contact info@spacestherapy.co.uk as soon as possible. Cancellation requests received more than four weeks before the first session are refundable at 50% of the ticket fee. There will be no refunds for cancellation requests received less than four weeks before the first session.

• Trainer/speaker views expressed are the individual’s own, and do not necessarily represent those of SPACEStherapy. SPACEStherapy is not liable for any views expressed. 

• SPACEStherapy reserves the right to make reasonable changes to the programme if necessary.

• In the unlikely event that SPACEStherapy would need to cancel a training event attendees will be offered a replacement date, or a full refund of the ticket price.

About the trainer

Ben Gatty is an Integrative Psychotherapist, Supervisor, and University Lecturer.  Much of Ben’s work has focused on working with psychological trauma since becoming trauma lead in TfL / (London Transport)’s Counselling and Trauma Service 10 years ago. He found that a large percentage of those who did not recover more readily from PTSD symptoms had complex-trauma that tended to need to be worked with in treatment. He is currently the Contemporary Psychoanalytic Module Leader at Regent’s University and often integrates understandings from this area with trauma and body psychotherapies.  Other clinical experience includes work for Westminster Drug Project, Islington Mind, and Amnesty U.K.. He maintains a private practice in Brighton, where he lives with his partner and young daughter.