Patricia Wilcox to Teach UConn School of Social Work STEP Course

On Thursday, October 22, 2009 Patricia Wilcox, LCSW will teach a day long University of Connecticut Continuuing Education course on The Trauma Survivor As A Parent: Creating More Effective Help For Parents. This course will cover the latest understanding of brain function, how the brain is affected by childhood trauma, how to understand current symptoms, and how trauma survivors can heal. In addition it will teach the biological changes associated with trauma and how particular child developmental stages present unique challenges for survivor parents. The parent’s issues will be differently activated by the needs of a baby than by the needs of a toddler, for example. Emphasis will be placed on using the relationship with the clinician as a tool for change. The key components of an effective, trauma informed parenting program will be examined, including using the strengths the parent has developed as a survivor as the building blocks for success. The seminar will provide tools to use in working with survivor parents. In addition, it will examine the effect on the clinician, and how to keep ourselves hopeful and energized in this difficult work.