ODL 395: Attachment Trauma: Techniques and Strategies to Promote Awareness and Foster Healing

Created On:  3/11/26                  

Target Audience:

This course is targeted for social workers, psychologists, counselors, nurses and case managers.

Counselor Skill Groups: 

4. Counseling Services

Overview:

Trauma has a heavy presence in counseling settings, and it is salient to find effective and efficient ways to help clients heal. As mental health professionals, it is our responsibility to not only work on our traumas but also help our clients identify their traumas and guide them on their healing journey. Individual trauma is an event or circumstance resulting in physical, emotional, and/or life-threatening harm. The event or circumstance has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s mental health, physical health, emotional health, social well-being, and/or spiritual well-being. 

Attachment trauma is one type of trauma that begins in childhood and can shift as individuals form other relationships. For clients to have healthy and meaningful relationships with themselves and others, and understand how they are showing up in those relationships, they must be aware of their attachment styles and heal the wounds creating insecurities within them. 

Integrating various cross-cultural techniques, such as trauma-informed narrative and mindfulness, allows clients to process trauma symptoms in the body, regulate their nervous system, and regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors while effectively meeting the needs of marginalized populations. This presentation will guide you in using specific tools to help increase your client’s awareness of their attachment traumas and insecurities, reduce reactiveness and negative cycles within relationships, and have more self-confidence and self-love.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the session, the participant will be able to:

• Identify attachment formation, style, and trauma.
• Discuss the concept of attachment wounds and inner child healing.
• Examine physiological responses and triggers to attachment trauma.
• Analyze the relationship between core beliefs formed from attachment trauma and unhealthy relationship cycles.
• Apply mindfulness strategies to provide grounding and help clients address their triggers within personal relationships.
• Apply trauma-informed narrative to reduce reactiveness and increase self-confidence, strength, and resilience. 

Presenter:

Shama Panjwani, PhD, LPC, ACS, NCC, CCMHC

Dr. Shama Panjwani is an Asian-Indian speaker and expert in trauma-informed care, focusing on attachment, immigration, cultural/racial, and intergenerational traumas while integrating holistic wellness approaches to addressing trauma in a culturally competent manner. She is currently a professor in the clinical mental health counseling program at Keiser University. Dr. Panjwani has a private practice, SoHolisticEnergy Counseling & Consultation, LLC, where she provides clinical services to clients and supervisees. She also provides consulting services to organizations and institutions on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) and workplace wellness.

Dr. Panjwani has a PhD in counselor education and supervision with a specialization in cross-cultural psychology and organizational leadership. She is a national certified counselor, a certified clinical mental health counselor, a board certified telemental health provider, licensed professional counselor and an approved clinical supervisor. 

Her research presentations and publication focus on topics such as reducing mental health stigma, immigration, acculturation, trauma, social justice and advocacy, multiculturalism and diversity, psychedelic-assisted therapy, crisis counseling, as well as approaches used to increase cross-cultural awareness and wellness, and leadership skills within academia and other institutions. Dr. Panjwani has been working in the mental health field for more than 9 years. She is actively involved in doing consultations, workshops, and presentations to create awareness and destigmatize mental health and wellness for the Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) community on an individual and organizational level by increasing their access to effective and culturally responsive treatment.