If there is one common factor among most forms of mental illness, it is trauma. Due to children’s limited abilities, they are unable to effectively deal with early traumatic experiences. Instead, these experiences are buried away in what we call the unconscious. Unresolved trauma can disrupt development and cause a wide range of emotional and physical symptoms throughout the lifespan. We will be looking closely at the earliest experiences of trauma and how they influence the course of development, impact relationships with others, along with how these early experiences can affect one’s ability to function at an optimal level in meeting life’s challenges. We will also look at how psychoanalytically oriented therapies offer a way to treat the underlying trauma thus reducing the impact of trauma on both mental and physical health.

Chester Smith, M.Ed., LPC is a psychoanalyst and licensed professional counselor in private practice here in St. Louis. He also serves as the Director of Clinical Training at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute’s Schiele Clinic Practicum Program. Mr. Smith has been in practice for over 30 years. He also teaches on psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in training programs at the Institute. In addition, Mr. Smith provides supervision in his private practice and to practicum students at the Institute.

Attendees will be able to: 1. discuss the central role of attachment in development 2. discuss how early attachment trauma can disrupt development 3. identify and discuss various forms of attachment trauma 4. discuss how psychoanalytically oriented therapies provide the deepest and most enduring changes for those who have experienced early trauma

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Part of the Centene Charitable Speaker Series