Description

This five-day training is designed for professionals working with survivors of human trafficking and complex trauma. The program explores how traumatic experiences are not only remembered psychologically but are also held in the body through the nervous system and sensory processing systems. When individuals endure chronic threat, abuse, and loss of control, their bodies often remain organized around survival responses such as hypervigilance, shutdown, dissociation, and difficulties with emotional and physiological regulation. This training will provide clinicians and care providers with a deeper understanding of the neurobiology of trauma and the ways trauma affects the body, the autonomic nervous system, and sensory processing and includes practical lab experiences. Participants will learn how disruptions in sensory systems—including interoception, touch, movement, and environmental sensory input—can contribute to dysregulation, anxiety, dissociation, and difficulties with trust and connection.

Each morning session will introduce key concepts related to trauma, the body, and regulation, while also providing practical body-based strategies that can be integrated into therapeutic and daily care settings. These strategies will include grounding techniques, sensory-based regulation approaches, methods for supporting interoceptive awareness, and ways to help survivors gradually reconnect with their bodies in safe and empowering ways. Afternoon sessions will focus on applying these concepts to real clinical situations. Staff will have the opportunity to present cases, explore challenges they encounter in their work, and collaboratively develop trauma-informed strategies that support regulation, safety, and healing for survivors. Sessions will be accompanied by work sheets and other tools in support of a comprehensive toolkit built over the 5 days. Throughout the week, the training will emphasize relational safety, co-regulation, cultural sensitivity, and the importance of restoring a sense of agency and control for survivors. Attention will also be given to the emotional impact of trauma work on professionals and strategies to support staff well-being and resilience.

By the end of the training, participants will have a practical framework for understanding trauma as an embodied experience and will gain tools they can use to help survivors gradually rediscover safety, regulation, and connection within their own bodies.

Outline / Agenda:

Day 1:

Understanding Trauma through the body from a sensory integration lens

· Welcome and Context

· Embodied Trauma

· Autonomic Nervous System, Polyvagal Theory

· Neurobiology of Trauma

· Practical Strategies

· Afternoon: Case Discussions (will provide template for preparation)

· Staff Reflection Activity

Day 2:

Sensory Systems and Trauma

· Sensory Processing as both causal and adaptive in use

· Trauma and Sensory Dysregulation

· Practical strategies

· Afternoon: Case Discussions

· Staff Reflection Activity

Day 3:

Interoception, Dissociation, and Body Awareness

· Understanding interoception

· Dissociation and Body Disconnection

· Practical strategies

· Afternoon: Case Discussions

· Staff Reflection Activity

Day 4:

Regulation, Co-regulation and Therapeutic Safety

· Window of Tolerance

· Co-Regulation

· Practical Strategies

· Afternoon: Case Discussions

· Staff Reflection Activity

Day 5:

Integration, Treatment Planning and Self Care

· Integrating Trauma and Sensory Approaches

· Creating Trauma sensitive environments with the body in mind

· Practical strategies for survivors

· Afternoon: Selfcare experiences for staff

· Staff Reflection Activity

Learning Objectives

Day 1 – Foundations of Embodied Trauma

1. Participants will be able to describe at least three ways traumatic experiences affect the autonomic nervous system and contribute to survival responses such as fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown.

2. Participants will be able to demonstrate at least two grounding or body-based regulation strategies that can help support immediate nervous system stabilization in trauma survivors.

Day 2 – Sensory Processing and Trauma

3. Participants will be able to identify the major sensory systems and explain how trauma can alter sensory processing and environmental tolerance.

4. Participants will be able to apply at least three sensory-based strategies to support regulation and reduce sensory overwhelm in individuals recovering from trauma.

Day 3 – Interoception, Dissociation, and Body Awareness

5. Participants will be able to explain the role of interoception in emotional and physiological regulation and describe how trauma may disrupt internal body awareness.

6. Participants will be able to demonstrate at least two trauma-sensitive approaches to supporting body awareness and reducing dissociation in survivors.

Day 4 – Regulation and Co-Regulation in Therapeutic Relationships

7. Participants will be able to describe the concept of the Window of Tolerance and identify behavioral indicators of hyperarousal and hypo-arousal in trauma survivors.

8. Participants will be able to implement at least two co-regulation strategies that support emotional and physiological stabilization during therapeutic interactions.

Day 5 – Integration and Clinical Application

9. Participants will be able to develop a basic trauma-informed intervention plan that incorporates sensory and body-based strategies to support regulation and recovery.

10. Participants will be able to identify at least three strategies to support professional resilience and reduce the impact of secondary trauma in trauma-focused care settings.

Presenter: Maude Le Roux, OTR/L, SIPT, ADHD-RSP, DIR Champion and Expert Training Leader

Bio: Maude Le Roux is a global trainer in multiple methodologies and a mentor to therapists from multidisciplinary teams. She opened her practice, A Total Approach in Glen Mills, PA, USA in 2001. Maude started her training career in 2007 and opened her online academy in 2019. She has designed the Developmental Pathways Model (DPM), which she applies to her own unique assessment and intervention protocol for major diagnosis such as Dyspraxia, ADHD and Executive Functions, Autism, Reading and Writing Disorders, and Trauma and Attachment. Maude served 9 years on the Board of Directors for ATTACh and currently serves on their Advisory Board. She also serves on the Advisory Board for LSWorks (Neuralign program). She is a co-author of two books and more recently wrote a chapter on Trauma and the Body in “Healing Connections” which launched in September 2024. Maude received an award for “Continued child advocacy” through the ATTACh organization in September 2024. She also received the Champion Award through ICDL in November 2024. Maude has a “whole child” approach to care and intervention and equipping the child, while empowering the parent is at the core of who she is as a clinician and trainer.

Educational Level: Intermediate

Instructional Methods: PowerPoint, Group Discussion, Video, practical lab experiences

Contact Hours: 6 hours each day