Foundations of Trauma Centered Psychotherapy - Developing the Confidence and Skills to Talk with Clients About Trauma

Foundations of Trauma Centered Psychotherapy: Developing the Confidence and Skills to Talk with Clients About Trauma

January 22, 2027

An Experiential Introductory Workshop for Mental Health Professionals

Facilitated by Alicia Stephen, RDT

About the Workshop

For many therapists, hearing a client disclose traumatic experiences can bring up feelings of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty about how best to respond. We may feel stuck, worry about retraumatizing our clients, or lack the confidence and practical tools to engage with traumatic material effectively.

These responses can also be embodied. Therapists may find themselves freezing, becoming tense, withdrawing, rushing to reassure, or moving away from painful details—sometimes without recognizing what is happening within themselves.

Developed by David Read Johnson, PhD, and Hadar Lubin, MD, Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy (TCP) offers a framework for engaging directly and compassionately with traumatic experiences while attending to the fear, shame, avoidance, and relational dynamics that emerge in therapy.

This introductory workshop explores TCP's foundational principles of immediacy, engagement, and emotionality, alongside embodied and reflective practices that help therapists begin recognizing their own responses during trauma treatment.

What Participants Will Explore

• Foundations of TCP: Understand the roles of fear, shame, and avoidance in trauma treatment.

• Beginning Trauma Inquiry: Explore how to establish a trauma-centered frame and initiate conversations about traumatic experiences.

• Introduction to the Four Main TCP Techniques: Get introduced to Getting the Details, Decoding Current Behaviors, Introducing Discrepancy, and Disclosing the Perpetrator, and get familiar with how these techniques inform trauma-centered clinical practice.

• Countertransference and Somatic Responses: Begin recognizing how freezing, tension, anxiety, and withdrawal may influence the therapeutic encounter.

• Therapist Avoidance: Explore how our own protective responses can interfere with clinical engagement.

• Embodied Tools for Clinical Presence: Experience introductory somatic and reflective practices that support awareness, attunement, and responsiveness.

Training Experience

Through clinical demonstrations, guided reflection, embodied exercises, and introductory role-play, participants will have opportunities to explore the TCP approach and begin noticing their own responses to traumatic material.

This workshop provides an introduction to TCP rather than comprehensive training in its techniques. Participants interested in developing greater proficiency can continue into the year-long Level 1 program.

Pathway to Level 1 Certification

This workshop is a prerequisite for Level 1 Training in Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy, beginning May 29–30, 2027. Level 1 offers sustained experiential practice, deeper exploration of TCP techniques, ongoing small-group consultation, and opportunities to integrate learning into clinical practice.

Meet Your Facilitator

Alicia Stephen, RDT is a senior trauma clinician, Registered Drama Therapist, and educator with over 14 years of experience in trauma treatment and training mental health professionals. Working collaboratively with David Read Johnson, PhD, Hadar Lubin, MD, and Stephanie Kilpatrick, PsyD, Alicia contributes to the ongoing development of TCP, with particular interests in therapist countertransference, embodied awareness, and somatic responses during trauma treatment.

Registration & Tuition

Early Bird & Student Rate: $175

Early bird registration is available before December 20, 2026. The student rate is available regardless of registration date.

Standard Registration: $200

Pay It Forward Scholarship Rate: $225

For those who are able and wish to contribute a little extra to help make trauma-centered training more accessible to others.

Offered by West Rock Wellness / Post Traumatic Stress Center.

To learn more about Trauma-Centered Psychotherapy (TCP), visit www.traumacenteredpsychotherapy.com.