Trauma and addiction often go hand in hand for both men and women. Childhood trauma can impact an adult for years, causing serious substance abuse and mental health issues. For women with histories of mental, physical and sexual abuse, attempts at recovery from an addiction to drugs or alcohol can often lead to worsening symptoms, relapse and more trauma and abuse if the co-occurring mental health issues are not addressed.
Teresa Valliere, LCSW, LADC, CCS, director of inpatient services at Crossroads for Women in Maine, will be a featured speaker at this week’s Mapping the Addiction Maze event put on by the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Office of Community Health Improvement and Benefits in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The event is on Friday, September 19th from 8:30am – 1:30pm at the Fireside Inn.
The title of this year’s meeting is “Trauma and Addiction – An Update on Best Practice” and will “explore the multi-faceted nature of these co-occurring disorders and discuss the current best practice for assessment and treatment.”
Valliere’s presentation will focus on women, trauma and addiction using a relational gender-responsive approach. Matthew Friedman, MD, PhD, executive director of the US Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and professor of Pychiatry and of Pharmacology and Toxiology at Dartmouth Medical School, will do a presentation on the National Center for PTSD’s perspective of the relationship between addiction and trauma.
Registration for the event is now closed, but if you’re there and see Teresa, stop by and say hi.
