Robert J. Ackerman, Ph.D.

Childhood trauma does not end with childhood. When childhood is over the survivors are adults. Not all of the adult survivors become the walking wounded. Many are able to grow beyond the experience and develop resiliency skills to improve their lives physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This workshop will focus on how adult survivors of trauma can recover using emotional, social, and spiritual intelligences through the application of a strength-based model. Different outcomes from trauma and dysfunctional families will be addressed, such as appreciating gender differences in perceptions and in treatment. Topics will include identifying the benefits of a strength-based model, describing emotional and social intelligences as survivor skills that can be used to facilitate developing resiliency skills for recovery, techniques to achieve personal responsibilities, and the application of spirituality to overcome grief and loss due to trauma and its role for healthy living.