We are pleased to announce our clinical director, Charlotte Copeland, will be giving a poster presentation at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) 33rd Annual Conference; on her latest research: Combining Psychotherapy and Craniosacral Therapy (Emo-Somatic Therapy) in the Treatment of British Military Veterans.

The theme of this years conference is:

Trauma and Complexity: From Self to Cells

Traumatic life events exert effects that can be anything but simple. Such complexity is evident in the interaction between traumatic event characteristics (e.g., different kinds of trauma exposure; military vs. civilian, sexual vs. non-sexual) and person characteristics (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation). Complexity is further revealed by the fact that trauma affects not only specific individuals but  the social relationships within which they are embedded, including intimate partners, peers, and family members through to larger communities, countries and cultures. Trauma can also be understood as a complex temporal process that unfolds over multiple timescales, including over the course of a single event, developmental period, lifetime course, and period in history. Finally, as implied by the meeting subtitle, the experience and outcomes of traumatic stress take place across multiple levels, beginning with first-person self-experience that is encoded and further recursively expressed through myriad neurobiological markers. This meeting invites presentations that help us understand and embrace the full complexity of responses to and recovery from trauma exposure.

Charlotte’s research explored the pioneering approach of emo-somatic therapy (trauma-focused integrative psychotherapy combined, within the same session, with bio-mechanical craniosacral therapy) that she has developed over the the last 10 years. The research was undertaken as part of her MSc in the Therapeutic Practice of Psychological Trauma, completed at the University of Chester. The research specifically explored the approach used for British military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD. The combined psychological and physical approach to treating PTSD treatment seeks to address both psychological and physiological effects of PTSD, to facilitate a swifter and more effective recovery from the condition.

Charlotte will be presenting her research poster on Wednesday the 9th November.

For more information on the conference visit: https://www.istss.org/am17/home.aspx