“The absence of presence and the presence of absence: Psychotherapy with relational trauma survivors of what never happened that should have”
Ken Benau, PhD
Description:
This six-week webinar series, three hours each session, will explore in depth the lasting effects of caregiver “absence” on the developing child, and on adults in psychotherapy. Others have remarked that “neglect is often neglected” in developmental research. The same can be said of psychotherapy with survivors of absence in early relational trauma and attachment wounding. This course will highlight some of the subtler, chronic consequences of what never happened that should have, including the need to be seen, felt, known, and even celebrated for who we are.
This comprehensive course will include:
12 September: Developmental research into early “neglect” or “absence” and its long-term impact, as well as some clinical applications of these findings.
19 September: Clinical theory, starting with Ferenczi and Winnicott, and up to contemporary thinkers, regarding the nature and experience of absence. Clinical applications of these theories will be explored.
26 September: “Enlivening therapeutic presence” from different perspectives, including “zest”, “vitality”, “enlivening responsiveness”, “spark”, and “pro-being”. Clinical applications of these ideas with absence will be explored.
3 October: Four clinical vignettes showing some of the many faces of absence in adult psychotherapy, and ways to work with these phenomena.
10 October: Two transcribed sessions using Deep Brain Orienting (DBR), a brainstem-informed somatic psychotherapy especially suited to work with “the shock of unbearable aloneness”, i.e., absence.
17 October: Conversation with Ken Benau, Ph.D. and participants about clinical challenges and conundrums associated with “absence”.
This training is for mental health professionals: psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and other health practitioners who have experience of working with early adversity and trauma.
SPEAKER:
Ken Benau, Ph.D.
has been a licensed clinical psychologist since 1990, and maintains a private practice in Kensington, California, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, United States. He provides individual adult, couple, and family therapy, professional consultation, and training. Dr. Benau has expertise in working with children and adults with various learning and developmental differences, including those living with LD, ADHD, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. He has a special interest and expertise in shame and pride-informed psychotherapy with survivors of relational trauma (RT). Dr. Benau has presented his ideas about shame, pride, and dissociation and their therapeutic applications in psychotherapy with RT survivors at various international conferences, webinars, and podcasts. He has also written several peer and non-peer reviewed articles with that same theme, and introduced the concept and phenomena of pro-being pride, the most powerful antidote to traumatic shame states. Pro-being pride is the experience of taking delight in one’s unique ways of being and relating to oneself, others, and the world. Dr. Benau’s book, Shame, Pride, and Relational Trauma: Concepts and Psychotherapy, was published by Routledge in March, 2022.
Webinars with Ken Benau, which took place at the Center for Educational Projects “Tree of Knowledge” last year and which can be purchased as recordings
Course registration and payment
Cost: for Ukraininans12000 UAH
for foreighn partycipants 350$
Payment method:
To the bank details of the busness account after registration, you will receive a letter with the payment details.