Essentials of Mental Health for Professionals:

Understanding how trauma, especially in early development, significantly increases the risk of mental health and addictions

Is It a Disorder or a Defense? Trauma-Informed Understanding of Mental Health

It is a mental illness, always a ‘disorder’ or is it an ‘adaptive’ survival response

The ‘Myth’ of the Chemical Imbalance Theory

Understanding the role of adaptation as a survival response in creating personality disorders

Understanding the role of dissociation within personality disorders

Understanding the role of the nervous system and its survival responses: Is it fight/flight (or anxiety), freeze (or depression)

Understand current concepts of ‘crisis’

Understanding the role of disorganized attachment in the development of personality disorders

Gain knowledge in the signs and symptoms of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia, concurrent disorders

Overview of personality disorders

Overview of Eating Disorders

Treating ED from a trauma-informed approach

Review the components of a mental status examination

Neurobiology of addictions

Overview of concurrent disorders and the importance of applying an integrated approach to treatment

Increasing awareness of the different interplays within concurrent disorders

Overview of PTSD, unique dissociative states and presentations, c-PTSD, and frequent misdiagnosis 

Foreseeability versus predictability of suicide and risk

Reviewing the risk factors for suicide

How to assess for violent threats and risk – a multisystemic approach

Overview of different threat types

De-escalation strategies and approaches

Gaining knowledge and understanding of parasuicidal (Cutting, burning, and other self-harming acts) behaviours, as adaptive trauma responses and how to respond

Effective safety planning for suicidal risk

Health promotion, mental wellness approaches and resiliency