Psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA AND POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

A specialised programme on work with trauma: The particular features of psychotherapeutic work with different kinds of trauma

Leader: Valentyna Nieikova-Mokhova

Registration is open for the group starting in autumn 2026!

START OF THE PROGRAMME: 16–17 October 2026

Today it is virtually impossible to work in psychotherapy and not meet the consequences of traumatic experience. War, loss, chronic stress, emotional neglect, difficult relationships or the experience of danger leave a deep mark on a person’s psyche and affect their ability to build relationships, to regulate emotions, to trust themselves and others, to feel safe and to live a life of their own.

Whatever the request a client comes with, in the therapeutic process we often meet the manifestations of traumatic experience. Trauma does not always appear directly in the request. It can show itself through anxiety, depression, difficulties in relationships, emotional exhaustion, bodily symptoms, panic attacks, feelings of shame or guilt, a loss of contact with oneself.

That is why it is an important competence to know the patterns by which traumatic reactions develop, and to build therapy that takes the particular features of the traumatic process into account.

It matters that a psychotherapist can tell shock trauma from complex trauma, understands the mechanisms by which post-traumatic symptoms form, and knows the effect of traumatic experience on the nervous system, the personality and a person’s relationships. It matters just as much to be able to recognise how the consequences of traumatisation show themselves in emotional reactions, behavioural patterns, bodily symptoms, ways of making contact and the client’s mechanisms of adaptation.

AIM OF THE PROGRAMME: The programme gives a contemporary understanding of psychological trauma and PTSD, introduces evidence-based and practically oriented approaches to working with different kinds of traumatic experience, and helps to form the clinical vision needed for safe and effective psychotherapeutic practice.

The aim of the programme: to raise the professional qualification of psychotherapists and counselling psychologists in work with different kinds of psychological trauma, through deepening theoretical knowledge, developing practical skills and mastering contemporary approaches to trauma therapy in line with international standards.

STRUCTURE OF THE WORK AND FORMAT OF THE TRAINING:

• 11 two-day seminars (220 hours), meeting once a month.

• The training takes place on Friday and Saturday.

• Time: from 10:00 to 18:00 (with a break for lunch).

• Format: online, on the Zoom platform.

THE PROGRAMME INCLUDES:

• a theoretical part, given as lectures with presentations and discussion of the material,

• practical exercises,

• body practices,

• work in small groups,

• demonstration sessions,

• clinical discussion of cases from the practice of the programme leader and of the group members,

• and work under supervision.

TOPICS OF THE PROGRAMME:

1. The foundations of psychotraumatology:

The concept of psychological trauma. The phenomenology of trauma and PTSD. The formation of post-stress disturbances. Differential diagnosis of disorders related to trauma and severe stress by the criteria of DSM-5 and ICD-11.

2. The foundations of crisis intervention and psychological first aid.

Stages and strategies of psychotherapy in work with crisis states. The particular features of work with combat stress trauma. Therapeutic help for service members with PTSD.

3. The particular features of work with single-incident trauma and PTSD in the gestalt approach:

The diagnostic process and its consideration within the field of relationship. The structure and stages of the work. Therapeutic interventions within the window of tolerance.

4. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD):

The dynamics by which CPTSD forms and the features of traumatic memory. Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory as a neurophysiological basis for understanding responses to trauma and for building therapeutic intervention. The particular features of psychotherapeutic work with CPTSD. Working with feelings of shame and guilt in complex trauma. The overlaps and differences between CPTSD and borderline personality disorder in clinical practice.

5. Trauma of early development:

Models of attachment and their influence on the formation of CPTSD. The consequences of early disturbances of attachment in the development of stress disorders. How childhood traumas are reflected in adult life: the symptoms of «infantile» trauma, the formation of a «traumatic» character. The transgenerational transmission of traumatic experience as a factor complicating personal development. The particular features of therapeutic work with narcissistic trauma.

6. Body-oriented trauma therapy (sensorimotor methods):

work with the client’s whole experience, including bodily sensations, feelings, images, movement and behaviour, as well as the completion of interrupted mobilisation responses (flight, fight) and of the undischarged energy of the immobilisation response (freezing). The particular features of working with the body on the «bottom-up» principle.

7. Therapeutic help for those who have suffered sexual violence and abuse.

A trauma-focused approach in work with people who have lived through sexual violence during military action.

8. The phenomena of dissociative symptoms.

Fragmentation and dissociation as mechanisms of adaptation in response to psychotraumatic events. The clinical manifestations of dissociation. The levels of structural dissociation of the personality: from primary to tertiary, according to the model of Onno van der Hart. Therapeutic approaches to building an alliance with dissociated parts of the self. Stabilisation, titration and integration in work with dissociation.

9. The syndrome of loss.

The psychology of living through loss. Reactions to loss. Complicated forms of grief. The particular features of psychotherapeutic work with loss.

10. The phase of recovery, reintegration and renewal — of the self, of relationships, of values and of ways of living.

Preventing relapse. The phenomenon of post-traumatic growth. The syndrome of emotional and professional burnout. The safety and effectiveness of the specialists who help people who have lived through psychotraumatic events.

11. The final stage of the programme is a certification meeting at which participants present their own clinical cases and show how they have integrated the knowledge and skills they have gained into their practice of working with psychological trauma.

CERTIFICATE: After completing the training and successfully defending a final piece of work, a KIGiP certificate is issued confirming professional development in work with psychological trauma and PTSD (220 study hours of theoretical and practical preparation, of which 80 hours are credited as group therapy).

SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS:

• module 1: 16–17 October 2026

• module 2: 20–21 November 2026

• module 3: 18–19 December 2026

• module 4: 5–6 February 2027

• module 5: 5–6 March 2027

• module 6: 2–3 April 2027

• module 7: 14–15 May 2027

• module 8: 11–12 June 2027

• module 9: 9–10 July 2027

• module 10: 6–7 August 2027

• module 11: 10–11 September 2027

Valentyna Nieikova-Mokhova

GROUP LEADER

• psychologist,

• gestalt therapist,

• trauma therapist,

• trainer and supervisor on international training programmes,

• specialist in the field of crisis psychology and trauma therapy with more than 20 years of experience,

• member of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS).

CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION:

• The specialisation in work with trauma is intended for practising gestalt therapists and for students of gestalt programmes who have completed at least 7 modules of training and who must hold a higher education degree in psychology, or professional retraining in psychology covering general psychological subjects and the foundations of psychological counselling.

• A necessary condition for admission to the programme is at least 50 hours of personal therapy, and regular therapeutic support throughout the whole period of training.

• Admission to the specialisation takes place only after a personal interview with the programme manager.

• After the interview, 100% payment for the first module is required (by this you reserve your place in the group; the number of places is limited).

• Over the whole period of the specialisation you may miss no more than one module — in the event of a clash with the modules of the second level of training, or for serious personal reasons. If more than one module is missed, the certificate of completion of the programme is not issued. A missed module is paid for in full, and the participant receives the corresponding theoretical and practical handouts.

COST OF PARTICIPATION: Payment for one meeting is 140 euros in the hryvnia equivalent, at the rate on the day of payment.

After you register, the programme manager will contact you shortly to confirm your participation and to arrange a convenient time for the interview.