Transforming Trauma: Episode 142

When was the last time you took a break from learning new professional skills and, instead, carved out space to pursue self-discovery and community support? If your answer falls somewhere between “it’s been a while” and “never,” you’re not alone. 

 

Most therapists focus so much on the “doing” of therapy that they miss the essential ingredients for “being” in relationship with clients. As therapists chase new skills and trainings, they often leave themselves as humans behind. What if there was a program focused on cultivating greater capacity for being human in the role of therapist?  Where therapists could discover, grow, heal, and share in ways that could create greater therapeutic effectiveness and personal self-care? Where therapists can learn to love their work more, and be nourished by it?

 

On this episode of Transforming Trauma, host Emily Ruth welcomes back the faculty of the Complex Trauma Training Center (CTTC)––Brad Kammer, Stefanie Klein, and Marcia Black––to introduce SPACE, an innovative inner development program for therapists debuting in early 2025. SPACE supports therapists on three levels of the human experience: the personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal. 

 

In this conversation, Brad, Stefanie, and Marcia guide you through the intention of the program, as well as its structure, highlighting the themes and what participants can expect to gain from each session. They also share insights into how their own struggles and learning over their long careers as therapists helped them become more present, authentic, and effective therapists, and inspired their creation of SPACE. 

 

SPACE offers participants a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment where they can pursue self-discovery from the “inside-out,” becoming more familiar and comfortable with their inner wisdom. “What we want to support here,” says Marcia, “is our capacity to be more and more connected to the parts of ourselves that we may leave out of the work, that we may be afraid of experiencing, and that can be our greatest resources in our work.”

 

Speaking of the inside-out learning of SPACE, Brad shares: “In our community, there’s such a desire for us to continue going deeper into our own experiences as humans in our role of therapists, not just taking outside knowledge and training, but also bringing our own wisdom into more clarity with our clients,”  Brad reflects on his 25 years in professional training environments and educational settings, and says. “So many of us have done a lot of different trainings as therapists, specifically in the trauma world, and often what gets left out is ourselves. The cost of that is our own experiences, particularly when we’re working with clients with intense, complex trauma.” Tales of nagging career dissatisfaction and severe burn-out routinely bear this out.

 

Stefanie highlights the deeper intention of this exciting new program. “The mission of CTTC is founded around supporting therapists in their connection to these three levels of experience: the personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal.” SPACE inspires participants to find “more enjoyment, ease, and an internal sense of okayness,” she says. “Rather than learning a model and getting a certificate and saying you can do it, it’s really gonna be a certificate in yourself.” 

 

“I really think this is pretty unique in the psychological world,” Brad says. This program offers an immersive, heartful environment where therapists can reconnect with their humanity in relation to their clients, peers, and themselves. “We’re not coming in with all these different teachings, interventions, or protocols. We’re facilitating the exploration of people’s inner worlds,” he explains, adding, “What I’d love for participants to get out of this is ways of relating to themselves with more self-acceptance, self-compassion, less pressure, more creativity, and…more space.”  

 

Brad sums up the program as this: “When we think of space, we may think of exploration into outer space. What our SPACE program offers is exploration into our inner space: It’s an invitation to have a new relationship to our own inner world as a therapist.” 

 

Learn more about being a part of this community

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM®)

Inside Out 2

GUEST CONTACT AND BIO

Complex Trauma Training Center

 

Brad Kammer, LMFT, LPCC, is the Training Director and Senior Trainer for the Complex Trauma Training Center. Brad is responsible for the creation of the CTTC professional development programs, including working with Dr. Laurence Heller in developing the NARM® Therapist and NARM® Master Training Programs offered through CTTC. Brad also guides the mentorship programs involving CTTC faculty, training assistants and participants; the diversity, inclusion and belonging (DIB) efforts; and is the executive producer of the Transforming Trauma podcast. Brad has a passion for cultivating a professional learning community that provides ongoing training opportunities and mentorship to a diverse group of mental health professionals in their work with complex trauma. Brad is also the co-author of The Practical Guide for Healing Developmental Trauma.

 

Stefanie Klein, LCSW, is the Assistant Training Director for the Complex Trauma Training Center. Stefanie is also a NARM® Master Therapist, Consultant and Trainer. She previously taught the Level 1 NARM Online Basics Training and is involved in many aspects of supporting the development of the Center and its programs. Her focus as Assistant Training Director is co-creating and guiding CTTC’s Training Assistant Program. She is inspired by the mentorship model of supporting mental health professionals in bringing healing to individuals, groups and communities impacted by complex trauma. She also enjoys the training participants use their professional learning as a framework to create healthier and more sustainable relationships to their own lives.

 

Marcia Black is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and CTTC Faculty Committee member.  As a NARM® Senior Training Assistant, Marcia has a passion for mentoring students and Training Assistants, and nurturing the growth of the community of graduates committed to ongoing learning.  Marcia is also a NARM Master Therapist and has been in private practice for over 40 years in SF and the East Bay, specializing in treating complex and developmental trauma, and other psychological conditions. Coming from a background in Attachment, Relational and Intersubjective approaches, as well as experience as a Somatic Experiencing practitioner and SE Assistant, Marcia finds the NARM model offers an invaluable and inspiring contribution to understanding and approaching the psychotherapy process, not only in working with C-PTSD but also more broadly. Marcia’s mentorship is based in a relational approach that invites an exploration into the therapist’s inner experience and growth, alongside that of the client’s.  Marcia is excited about supporting ongoing training, consultation, and mentorship in her role at CTTC.

 

QUOTES

 

Brad Kammer

“So many of us, again, are going out to get knowledge, to get teaching, and what we’re really often looking for is connection to our own inner knowing and wisdom and how difficult that has been.”

 

“I would love people to not have to worry about ‘doing it right’ or getting all the information––or the expectations of how they’re gonna take this money they’ve spent on this new model and you know, prove that it was worth it––but that they really just get to be in a community and in these environments where they get to bring themselves and support others, and also get to receive support and enrichment for themselves as well.”

 

“It’s really about this invitation to have a new relationship to our own inner world as a therapist.”

 

Stefanie Klein

“A lot of people who are therapists, who work with complex trauma, know that the greatest resource that we have is our internal knowing and our internal wisdom, as well as our internal capacity to be with vulnerability and to be with uncertainty. At the same time, our biggest obstacles that get in the way of both our experience and our enjoyment of our work and our effectiveness are internal obstacles.”

 

“That’s the entree here: rather than learning a model and, you know, getting a certificate and saying you can do it, it’s really gonna be a certificate in yourself.”

 

Marcia Black

“We’re therapist-focused, not skill-focused. We’re looking at supporting capacity for increased complexity and intunement and personal self care in our professional and therapist role.”

 

“I think about, in consults that I have and in other training experiences, how students tend to leave their most authentic parts out.”

 

“Often, we devalue some of our most tender parts, our most vulnerable parts, or even some of our gifts.”

 

“We’re not going to teach a training, but we’re really working to create experiential opportunities where the way we actually bring the learning to the participants really is reflective of what we’re hoping they will learn.”