Working with Trauma and Neglect: Awakening Hope and Vitality

Graham Music, PhD Consultant Psychotherapist, Tavistock Clinic London In this talk Graham Music will introduce ways of understanding and working with more shut-down states. He will first introduce some key concepts such as 'spark' energy, nervous system whispering, and the embodied countertransference. He will then address the profound effects of emotional neglect and the kind of lifelessness that can arise from this. Next, he will look at numbing after trauma, which can seem similar in terms of lifelessness to neglect, but have different aetiology and require different therapeutic techniques. This material will be brought together with clinical examples. New science combined with psychoanalytic understandings will suggest what can help shift people from 'desparked', lifeless, unenergised states to more hopeful and joyous states. The talk will include video clips, slides, and discussions.