“In-Between trauma and survival; lies resilience and hope: A Solution Focused approach to treating trauma”
by dr. Jacqui von Cziffra-Bergs, South Africa
Outline
Trauma narratives are not where hope lies, and they are not the best way to inspire change. However, clients who are managing trauma often want to tell you what happened. Our jobs as Solution Focused clinicians are to bear witness to the suffering and to bear witness to the survival because in-between trauma and survival; lies resilience and hope. In this workshop we will discuss how to become a resilientologist and how to help shift the trauma narrative to resourcefulness, coping, inner strength and managing. This one-day workshop will focus on how to reconstruct a new reality of the client and of what happened by using HopeCatching language and rebriefing resilience. Instead of focusing on the traumatic event, fixing the suffering and defusing the negative emotions, SFBT focuses on the client’s strengths and resilience, and resourcefulness before, during, and after the trauma and helps the client to cultivate a different way of looking at themselves and of approaching life.
Clients who are managing trauma do extraordinary things to get through the traumatic event. If we only focus on the traumatic event itself and how they felt while it was happening, we become “victimologists” (Bannink, 2014), emphasizing the event and not the resilience of the person. In this workshop we will discuss the importance of helping the client to notice the best version of themselves and expand on the small aspects of control, bravery, and remarkable strength they already have. By using the language of resilience and hope a new version of a hopeful future can emerge.
Aims of the workshop
· Identify the difference between trauma debrief and resilience re-brief
· Illustrate the importance of selective and mindful language shifts
· Empower clients to recognize their strengths and coping
· Change the trauma narrative to a resilient and courageous narrative
· Become a resilientologist instead of a victimologist
· Illustrate the importance of positive emotion in trauma
Outcomes of the workshop
On completion of the workshop the participants will be able to:
· Become resilientologists that focusses on resilience and hope
· Ask resilient building questions
· Re-brief resilience
· Build pride into the session
Recommended reading list
· Froerer, A et al 2018: SFBT and clients managing trauma. Oxford University Press: New York
Presenters bio:
Jacqui von Cziffra-Bergs is a Psychologist from Johannesburg, South Africa and teaches Solution Focused Therapy and Solution Focused thinking to psychologists, social workers, schools and organisations. Jacqui started the Solution Focused Institute of South Africa which is an organisation that aims to teach and promote world class training in Solution Focused thinking. Dr Jacqui von Cziffra-Bergs was an associate professor at the University of Johannesburg and still teaches at universities across the country on a consultancy basis. She has lectured extensively on Solution Focused Therapy throughout South Africa and in the United States. In 2018 Dr Jacqui wrote a book for Oxford University press titles: SFBT and clients managing trauma. Her latest book that was published in July 2024 for Routledge is titled: Women’s perspectives on the Solution Focused approach. Dr Jacqui is married and has two sons that keep her feet firmly on the ground.