The Defensive Adult: Revisiting Decontamination

Event price: £12

Booking details: https://www.trybooking.com/uk/FBYR

Decontamination, or ‘Adult strengthening,’ is often seen as one of the foundational stages of therapeutic work. Yet this process can easily stall, with clients appearing to hit a kind of internal plateau or homeostasis. This stuckness is frequently rooted in defensive material — such as early scripts or unresolved trauma — that resists change. In this workshop, we’ll explore the dynamics that interrupt or block decontamination, and consider the protective function behind these responses.

By understanding the internal purpose of the stuckness, we can begin to work with it rather than against it. We’ll also introduce practical tools to support clients during this phase of therapy, helping to strengthen their Adult ego state while respecting their defensive needs. We encounter clinical presentations that challenge our theory, touch our own histories, and test our capacity to remain regulated and relational. The Clinically Complex workshop series is…