Courtney Armstrong | Psychotherapy Networker

Contributed by Courtney Armstrong

19 Results

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CE Offerings

May 16, 2023

Healing Pain and Trauma with Hypnosis: Protocols for Relieving Pain and Empowering Clients

Courtney Armstrong

Trauma doesn’t just leave behind emotional pain—it can also manifest in physical pain that drives addictions, stalls progress in therapy, and fuels feelings of hopelessness within both the client and clinician. Clinical hypnosis can be a highly effective tool for relieving pain in trauma survivors. Learn a trauma-informed approach to hypnosis that allows you to safely evoke hypnotic states; relieve pain with evidence-based protocols; and elicit a greater sense of hope, well-being, and empowerment in survivors. In this recorded session, demonstrations and experiential activities will show you how to: Incorporate clinical hypnosis into Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Guide clients into hypnotic states, effectively frame suggestions, and activate innate healing responses Utilize both direct and indirect suggestions for relieving anxiety and pain Resolve subconscious beliefs that may be maintaining pain states Demonstrate self-hypnosis techniques clients can use to evoke self-compassion, motivate themselves, and stop self-defeating behaviors Read More

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CE Offerings

October 19, 2022

Awakening Positive Emotional States: How Imagery, Movement, and Play Can Enhance Your Work

Courtney Armstrong

Research from brain science and positive psychology shows that awakening positive emotional states through experiential tools such as imagery, music, movement, and play is the fastest route to shift mood, decrease anxiety, and stimulate creative problem-solving. But how do you help clients access resourceful states when they’re feeling hopeless and helpless? Discover how to help troubled clients reclaim inner states of peace, strength, joy, and vitality. Moreover, you’ll have opportunities to evoke your own uplifting states through experiential activities. Explore how to: Use imagery techniques to elicit desired emotions and engender positive feelings toward the self and the future Frame ideas, questions, and other interventions in ways that foster hope and boost motivation Craft music and movement interventions that lift depression, calm anxiety, and empower traumatized clients Use playful interventions that optimize learning and reinforce new behaviors Read More

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CE Offerings

October 19, 2022

Hypnosis for Trauma and Chronic Pain: Protocols for Relieving Pain in Trauma Survivors

Courtney Armstrong

Trauma doesn’t just leave behind emotional pain — it can also manifest in physical pain that drives addictions, stalls progress in therapy, and fuels feelings of hopeless within both the client and clinician. Clinical hypnosis can be a highly effective tool for relieving pain in trauma survivors. Learn a trauma-informed approach to hypnosis that allows you to safely evoke hypnotic states; relieve pain with evidence-based protocols; and elicit a greater sense of hope, well-being, and empowerment in survivors. You may even experience your own transformative trance during recorded demonstrations and experiential activities as you discover how to: Safely guide clients into hypnotic states, effectively frame suggestions, and activate innate healing responses Develop both direct and indirect suggestions for relieving anxiety, pain, and depression Resolve subconscious beliefs that may be maintaining pain states Provide self-hypnosis techniques clients can use to evoke self-compassion, motivate themselves, and stop self-defeating behaviors Read More

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CE Offerings

October 19, 2022

The Therapeutic "Aha!": 10 Strategies for Getting Your Clients Unstuck

Courtney Armstrong

A concise guide to shaking things up in therapy. Courtney Armstrong’s The Therapeutic “Aha!” explores the thrilling and rare moment when a client reaches an elusive realization, allowing them to make meaningful change. In 10 straightforward strategies, this practical book demonstrates how to shake things up in therapy when a client is stuck or stalled to jumpstart progress. Readers will learn how to spark the “emotional brain”—the part of the brain that houses automatic, unconscious patterns—and create new neural pathways that engage and advance the healing process. Divided into three parts—(1) Awakening a Session, (2) Healing Emotional Wounds, and (3) Activating Experiential Change—the book walks readers through specific techniques for harnessing the emotional brain and re-patterning its routine. Elegant therapeutic insights and coping strategies only go so far; until we intervene with something our emotional brain can understand—a compelling felt experience—old, established neural patterns will persist. The brain-based strategies Armstrong presents include how to enliven the therapeutic alliance; elicit exciting goals; identify the root of an emotional conflict; reverse trauma with memory reconsolidation; invoke inspirational imagery; and use stories, humor, music, poetry, and even mindfulness to induce change. Concise, reader-friendly, and filled with helpful case stories and client–therapist dialogue, this wonderfully accessible book puts a new spin on neuroscience knowledge, showing clinicians exactly how it can be used to make those once-elusive therapeutic breakthroughs more frequent, leading to greater healing for your patients. Read More

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CE Offerings

October 19, 2022

Rethinking Trauma Treatment

Courtney Armstrong

Creating safety, hope, and secure attachment to transform traumatic memories. In this accessible guide, Courtney Armstrong distills discoveries from attachment theory, brain science, and post-traumatic growth into practical strategies you can use to: 1) build trust and a secure therapeutic relationship; 2) transform traumatic memories into stories of triumph and courage; and 3) help clients cultivate resilience and a positive post-trauma identity. Packed with dozens of scripts, step-by-step worksheets, and inspiring client stories, this book gives you tools for each phase of the trauma therapy process and shows you how to: Engage and motivate clients based on their attachment style Manage trauma-related dissociation, anxiety, and anger Transform traumatic memories so they no longer haunt your client Work with different types of trauma, from sexual abuse to traumatic grief Evoke inner resources for healing and positive emotional states Counter compassion fatigue and burnout so youcan thrive as a therapist Read More

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CE Offerings

October 19, 2022

The New Rules for Treating Trauma: Integrating Neuroscience to Rewire the Brain

Courtney Armstrong

Discover the trick to reprogramming brain mechanisms involved in trauma conditioned responses Get a simple 5-step protocol that quickly reconsolidates a traumatic memory and activates the brain’s innate capacity for healing and resilience Help your clients reclaim their lives after trauma! Were you taught to use medication, CBT, exposure and other traditional therapy approaches to treat trauma? Did you know that these approaches are limited when it comes to healing trauma at the deeper, emotional level of the brain? Also, do you know that memory reconsolidation is a recent neuroscience breakthrough that revealed the brain’s own rules for healing traumatic memories and allows you to clear trauma at its roots? During this seminar, I’ll provide you with step-by-step instructions and techniques you can use in each phase of trauma treatment. This is the only trauma training that specifically gives you skills in the phenomena of memory reconsolidation. Let me show you why memory reconsolidation is necessary for effectively and permanently healing trauma. I will give you a simple protocol to use to reconsolidate a traumatic memory in as little as one session! Don’t get the impression that you have to get lengthy, expensive training and certification in certain modalities in order to be able to successfully treat trauma. My workshop will let you walk away knowing exactly what to do to help your clients reclaim their lives after trauma! Courtney Armstrong, LPC, MHSP OUTLINE The Emotional Brain: A User Friendly Guide How an almond, a seahorse, and a Mohawk can help you understand your brain A healthy emotional brain & how it develops The 7 primary emotional systems and how to influence them How trauma and disrupted attachment alter the brain 3 neuroscience breakthroughs that change how we treat trauma Rewire the brain for resilience, connection and post-traumatic growth The 3-Phase Model of Trauma-Informed Treatment Interventions for Assessment, Safety and Stabilization 5 simple questions to assess for PTSD Beyond words: build trust and safety with right brain to right brain communication Help your clients understand trauma responses Activate the brain’s instinct to heal through alpha-theta states Calm fear with mindfulness and imagery techniques Deal with dissociation: practical tools for grounding and orienting Shift shame and nurture self-compassion Defuse anger with play and humor Empower with movement and metaphor Painlessly Reprocessing Traumatic Memories Revise not relive: why exposure can re-traumatize Memory reconsolidation: the brain’s own mechanism for healing trauma 5 simple steps for painlessly reconsolidating a traumatic memory Create the future-self template and the brain’s blueprint for healing Neutralize negative beliefs with resourceful emotional states Facilitate corrective emotional experiences with powerful imagery, metaphor, music and movement techniques Facilitating Post-Traumatic Growth The 3 qualities of post-traumatic growth Create a positive post-trauma identity Nurture a secure attachment system after trauma Find meaning and purpose after trauma Hardwire happiness and the power of intention Applications for Special Populations Heal experiences for sexual trauma survivors Recover from childhood abuse and neglect Transform traumatic grief after sudden or violent deaths Rebound from medical trauma, car accidents and disasters Assist military, police and first responders Foster resilience in children and adolescents after trauma Respectfully work with different cultures and faith traditions Prevent burnout and vicarious trauma with simple self-care techniques OBJECTIVES Assess how emotional trauma is processed in the brain. Distinguish why exposure techniques alone are not enough to relieve post-traumatic stress symptoms. Identify the 3 phases of trauma-informed treatment. Describe the recent neuroscience discoveries regarding memory reconsolidation and its implications for treating trauma. List the 5 steps that all evidence-based trauma therapies have in common and how to apply them to safely and painlessly reconsolidate traumatic memories. Utilize two experiential techniques that can be used to resource, uplift, and empower clients and diminish feelings of shame and helplessness. Apply two interventions you can use to help clients reconnect to a healthy sense of self, relationships, and the world. Read More

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CE Offerings

October 19, 2022

New Rules for Treating Trauma: 2-Day Master Class

Courtney Armstrong

In this breakthrough recording, you'll discover the new rules for treating trauma. You’ll discover how memory reconsolidation is a recent neuroscience breakthrough that revealed a new way to heal trauma at its roots by process of recalling and updating a memory. During this workshop, I’ll provide you with step-by-step instructions and techniques you can master in each phase of trauma treatment. This is the trauma training that specifically gives you skills in the phenomena of memory reconsolidation. Let me show you why memory reconsolidation is necessary for transforming your trauma work with clients. I will give you a simple protocol to use to reconsolidate a traumatic memory in as little as one session! Full of thought provoking lecture, engaging case studies and guided instruction, you will learn the essential skills that your clinical practice is missing to help your clients move forward in living a meaningful life. Leave this master class armed with tools you can use in your very next session. Read More

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CE Offerings

October 19, 2022

New Rules for Treating Trauma: 2-Day Master Class

Courtney Armstrong

In this breakthrough recording, you'll discover the new rules for treating trauma. You’ll discover how memory reconsolidation is a recent neuroscience breakthrough that revealed a new way to heal trauma at its roots by process of recalling and updating a memory. During this workshop, I’ll provide you with step-by-step instructions and techniques you can master in each phase of trauma treatment. This is the trauma training that specifically gives you skills in the phenomena of memory reconsolidation. Let me show you why memory reconsolidation is necessary for transforming your trauma work with clients. I will give you a simple protocol to use to reconsolidate a traumatic memory in as little as one session! Full of thought provoking lecture, engaging case studies and guided instruction, you will learn the essential skills that your clinical practice is missing to help your clients move forward in living a meaningful life. Leave this master class armed with tools you can use in your very next session. Read More

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CE Offerings

October 19, 2022

New Rules for Treating Trauma: Integrating Neuroscience for Resilience, Connection and Post-Traumatic Growth

Courtney Armstrong

Were you taught to use medication, CBT, exposure and other traditional therapy approaches to treat trauma? Did you know that these approaches can be limited when it comes to healing trauma at the deeper, emotional level of the brain? Memory reconsolidation is a recent neuroscience breakthrough that revealed a new way to clear trauma at its roots by process of recalling and updating a memory. During this recording, I'll provide you with step-by-step instructions and techniques you can use in each phase of trauma treatment. This is the trauma training that specifically gives you skills in the phenomena of memory reconsolidation. Let me show you why memory reconsolidation is necessary for transforming your trauma work with clients. I will give you a simple protocol to use to reconsolidate a traumatic memory in as little as one session! Don't get the impression that you have to get lengthy, expensive training and certification in certain modalities in order to be able to successfully treat trauma. This recording will let you walk away knowing exactly what to do to help your clients reclaim their lives after trauma! Courtney Armstrong, LPC, MHSP Read More

The Playful Therapist

Magazine Article

May 22, 2022

The Playful Therapist

7 Clinicians Share Their Best Strategies

Frank Pittman, Cloe Madanes, Steve Andreas, Ron Taffel, Courtney Armstrong, Lynn Lyons, and Kirsten Lind Seal

In this collection, master therapists share how they’ve used humor in ways that both enliven and enrich the work of therapy. Read More

Courtney Armstrong, LPC, MHSP, is a Board Certified Fellow in Clinical Hypnotherapy and has trained thousands of mental health professionals in creative, brain-based strategies for healing trauma. She's a bestselling author of the book, The Therapeutic “Aha!”: 10 Strategies for Getting Clients Unstuck and Transforming Traumatic Grief and is the owner/director of Tamarisk: A Center for Mind-Body Therapy in the state of Tennessee.