Gestalt Parts Work for Trauma

Credit

Program Information

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

A small portion of the material for this CE activity was developed with limited assistance from generative AI. All AI-generated information was reviewed for accuracy by the instructor, an independent content reviewer, or PESI staff.

Speaker

Karol Darsa, PsyD Related seminars and products

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Karol Darsa, PsyD, is an accomplished trauma psychologist with over 25 years of experience who has been featured as a key expert on Katie Couric’s nationally syndicated program, The Doctors, ABC, CBS, Well + Good, and other media outlets and podcasts.

The author of The Trauma Map: Five Steps to Reconnect with Yourself and The Trauma Bridge: Reconnecting Body and Mind for Clinicians and their Clients, Dr. Darsa is also the founder of the Reconnect Trauma Center and creator of the Reconnect Integrative Trauma Treatment Model (RITTM).

Dr. Darsa lectures about trauma treatment at several universities, including the University of Southern California, UCLA, and Cal Lutheran and has presented at various conferences including the Global Exchange Conference. She also co-created The Invisible War Recovery Program, an intensive trauma treatment program for veterans suffering from military sexual trauma, inspired by the Academy-Award nominated documentary The Invisible War.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Karol Darsa maintains a private practice and is the founder of Reconnect Integrative Trauma Treatment Center. She receives royalties as a published author. Karol Darsa receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Karol Darsa has no relevant non-financial relationships.

 

Additional Info

Program Information

You will have access for 90 days after the program for review. For live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. Please note that this requirement may vary by credit type. Please see detailed credit information for specific requirements for each credit type.

Please note: There will be a 70-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.

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Objectives

1. Identify the clinical features of relational trauma.
2. Examine the relationship between body awareness and emotion regulation.
3. Utilize Gestalt chair dialogues between vulnerable child parts, disowned parts, and internalized critical parent voice.
4. Choose chair work variations (e.g., child vs. critical parent, conflicted parts) to help clients reduce shame and self-criticism.
5. Utilize chair dialogues to help clients process abandonment wounds, unmet needs, and critical introjects.
6. Integrate chair work as a clinical tool to strengthen therapeutic presence and resilience.

Outline

Foundations of Relational Trauma & Safety

• Relational trauma and its impact on self-concept and relationships
• Historical roots: Gestalt, art therapy, and parts work approaches
• Why experiential interventions are effective for unresolved relational wounds
• Principles of safety: resourcing, containment, and pacing to avoid re-traumatization
• Clinical cautions and contraindications

Somatic Awareness & Grounding Techniques

• The role of the body in Gestalt chair work and trauma resolution
• Teach clients to track somatic cues (breath, tension, posture, movement) during dialogues
• Integrate grounding and resourcing before and after emotional activation
• Demo: Therapist using somatic tracking to regulate affect during chair dialogue
• Case vignette: use body awareness to prevent emotional flooding and promote integration
• Research, risks and limitations

Gestalt Empty Chair: The Basics

• Theory and rationale for chair work in trauma treatment
• Step-by-step structure of the technique
• Sample therapist scripts and framing language
• Demo: therapist guiding client into dialogue with a vulnerable part
• Analysis and clinical takeaways
• Research, risks and limitations

Gestalt Empty Chair: Variations & Adaptations

• Apply chair work with critical parent voices, protector parts, or other disowned parts
• Integrate somatic awareness in chair dialogues
• Demo: Critical parent vs. child dialogue
• Case vignette illustration
• Troubleshoot: manage dissociation, resistance, or emotional flooding

Repair the Relational Template

• Use chair work and writing to address
• Abandonment wounds and unmet needs
• Critical/neglectful parent introjects
• Reclaim voice, creativity, and play
• Case vignette: healing dialogue with a punitive parent voice
• Scripted closure: help clients reparent and integrate safely

Explore the Clinician’s Own Parts

• Why therapists benefit from exploring their own wounded and protector parts
• Reflection prompts for journaling and non-dominant writing
• Strengthen therapeutic presence through personal experiential work
• Ethics and boundaries when introducing inner child/parts work with clients

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counselors
• Registered Therapists
• Psych Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals