At the Developmental Trauma Training Institute (DTTI), we envision a world where individuals of all ages receive compassionate, effective treatment and support, enabling them to overcome Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and thrive.

Experience the power of healing the neurobiology of trauma and stress response through brain spottings phase one focused attunement model. Brainspotting is a rapid healing approach that interstates three essential ingredients of focused human attunement, neurological elements of the eyes and somatic focused processing. This model is highly effective for adverse childhood experiences and developmental trauma. Brainspotting training model interstates lecture, trainer demonstration and experiential practicum with participants leaving ready to practice this cutting-edge technique.

TCTSY and Brainspotting Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga is an evidence based and highly effective practice proven to help re-establish trauma survivors connection to their body. Through utilizing trauma informed approaches, neutralizing power and control dynamics, co-regulation with the practitioner, and somatic focused exercises participants safely reconnect to their bodies. This zoom based training lays the foundation for more effective utilization for trauma models like EMDR, Brainspotting and somatic experiencing by increasing a clients felt sense of their bodies. It is proven highly effective when Inter grated with modern trauma approaches. This model increases emotional literacy, opens the doorway for the ability to self regulate and establishes relational trust with the practitioner. Support your clients healing process with this proven somatic focused modality.

Heartmath is a science proven model of self-regulation techniques and technology. It is an Evidence based practice for a wide span of mental health issues including anxiety, trauma and ADHD. Heartmath’s strength lies in its simplicity, applicability, affordability, and highly focused neurological pathways. When paired with Heartmath’s cutting edge technology utalizing heart rate variability measurements clients can be effectively coached to manage their emotions and stress related reactions. This model brings neurological stabilization and a sense of peace to anyone who utilizes it. Heartmath has approached for training in schools, mental health programs, athletes, and can be used to mange everyday stress.

I have often quoted that an anger management course, which I ran for many years, is of very limited benefit if a participant does not develop the capacity to feel or sense anger rising in the body enough to know when to employ new skills. The capacity to sense internally what a person is experiencing is called Interception. Interception is a complex experience of sensing what is going on inside of ourselves through emotional literacy, physiology, and sense of self. Interception is commonly compromised in individuals with traumatic experiences. The nervous system commonly focuses externally (extroception) and becomes hyper-focused on its own self-preservation. Stephen Porges said, “Trauma replaces patterns of connection with patterns of protection.” One form of protection response is to remain vigilant to external surroundings through extroception. For an individual to develop self-regulation, their nervous system must be stabilized enough to become or allow introception to occur. This often requires experiences, exercises, and interventions that open the participant’s capability to reconnect a sense that has been disconnected for self-preservation purposes. To learn more about the six key steps to self-regulation development, see our Equilibrium Trauma Treatment training.

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Research has become more clear about differentiating these high-stress adaptations. Yes, ADAPTATIONS. These are mental health diagnoses and are often viewed through a pathologizing lens in today’s mental health world. Adaptation to stressors or highly dangerous situations is a matter of survival for any species, and as Samual Butler stated “Self-preservation is the first law of nature.” When looking at three variations through a stress adaptation lens, it becomes easier to separate each of these diagnoses on a physiological level. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has a more episodic source, often associated with an event or series of events. The symptoms are often highly correlated to specific triggers that are identifiable. These symptoms and source memories are usually accessible by memory and are highly responsive to a memory-focused treatment approach. Complex trauma is often associated with ongoing multiple sources of traumatic experience. There will often be memory-specific oriented triggers, but these triggers become more generalized to the overall day-to-day experience of feeling unsafe regularly with the world around the individual vs specific triggering events like PTSD does. Developmental trauma is a foundational experience where trauma was experienced AND there was a lack of caregiver (parent, guardian, teacher, authority) response. When this is experienced, a key relational variable of trust is ruptured, and betrayal from those relationships is commonly embedded in the development of the nervous AND relational systems through dysregulation. Research has identified six distinct forms of how this dysregulation surfaces and dominates the person’s living experience. For more specifics on this, check out the Digging Roots training program. (When Nowhere is Safe, see the research section of our DTTI site)

The answer is YES! However, a vast majority of the mental health fields struggle with how to effectively treat it. A precious quote for the healing journey of childhood trauma is “It’s not about changing what happened, it’s about changing how it lives within us.” Research has indicated that when there is a myriad of continuous high-stress exposures in childhood, the key factor of traumatization rests in the relational factor of caregiver responsiveness. (Hidden Wounds Study) LINK A quote from Joseph Spinazolla, one of the most published researchers on childhood trauma was “It’s not particular all about what happened, but against the backdrop of things that did not”. Research has been conclusive that the answer lies in healing the nervous system response of dysregulation in six forms and integrating the relationship with our body, boundaries and emotional literacy. This research indicated that treatment needed to be focused on the Maleficent 8 (When Nowhere is Safe, see the research section of our DTTI site).