Warm welcome in the online IoPT Café. This initiative is started to offer a place where we can meet each other and where we can learn something more about IoPT or IoPT-related topics. It is a place where we can share thoughts, where we can be curious and learn something more about healing from trauma and eventually learn something more about ourselves. It is also a place where you can bring your friends with you who are also interested in IoPT and in healing from trauma.

It is my deepest wish to offer a place where you can engage just as much or as little as feels right for you and where you have an opportunity to connect and get inspired.

In the next online IoPT Café meeting Amy Spatz will give a presentation on the topic of ‘IoPT and Mindfulnes’. Amy will talk about how mindfulness can be adapted to complement IOPT processes and integration, including an optional trauma-informed mindful body scan.

This meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, January 28th, 2025, from 3 pm CET/Amsterdam time to 5 pm CEST. The zoom room opens at 2.45 pm CET. Warm welcome to join this meeting if you want to.

Dr Amy Spatz has worked for two decades as a researcher and educator in psychology and medical education. She focuses on healthcare communication, empathy and wellbeing, having introduced or advised upon mindfulness education across several medical schools.

Her doctoral research explored the relationship between interpersonal mindfulness, empathy and early trauma in medical students. Drawing on the biopsychosocial model, she provides trauma-informed mentor training and academic support. She also offers Identity Oriented Psychotrauma Therapy (IOPT) for individuals and groups. She is a Fellow of the UK Professional Standards Framework.

Presentation by Amy Spatz

To sign up for the event, please send an email to Nanneke at info@ioptcafe.com Once you have signed up you will be kept updated about the future online IoPT Café meetings. You will find more meeting dates here.

Feel free to invite your friends and to let others know about these events.

Warm welcome.

In this online IoPT Café meeting Deirdre Kennedy gave a presentation on the topic of ‘Count on Connection’.

In her inspiring presentation Deirdre was delving into the biology of connection and the mystery of integrative healing with a lens on how IoPT has allowed her access mothers and fathers work with themselves in the relational dynamic. She gave insightful information about how our nervous system works and connected her sharing to how she experiences this in the self-encounters in IoPT. Deirdre’s persentation about connection is also aimed at the meaning of connection to self as a facilitator, intention holder and resonator. The recording is available, feel free to drop a little note to info@ioptcafe.com and ask for the link to the recording.

Deirdre is a trauma-informed specialist dedicated to helping adults heal from past physical and emotional trauma. Her work addresses how trauma can manifest as physical pain, unhealthy life patterns, and diminished well-being.

Her journey began with her own early-life trauma, leading her to pursue deep personal growth and professional training. She became a certified Craniosacral Therapist between 2004 and 2006, excelling in the field and contributing to intensive therapy programs across Europe and the USA.

Presentation by Deirdre Kennedy

In this online IoPT Café meeting Vivian Broughton gave a presentation on the topic of ‘Being an IoPT Practitioner: Absorbed or Attacked – The Child of the Narcissitically Traumatised Mother’.

Vivian gave an inspiring presentation about ‘Absorbed or Attacked. The Child of the Narcissistically Traumatised Mother.’ Vivian first shared what Narcissism is and shared some more about Narcissism in it’s ‘Grandiose’ form and ‘Enslaved/absorbed child’ form. It was about this last form that Vivian oriented her presentation around. In a clear and inspiring presentation Vivian showed how we can look with an IoPT – lens to the ‘Enslaved/absorbed child’ and how as an IoPT practitioner we can be with, and support a person who has had the experience of growing up with a Narcissistically Traumatised mother. The recording is available, feel free to drop a little note to info@ioptcafe.com to ask for the link to the recording.

Presentation by Vivian Broughton

In this online IoPT Café meeting we have celebrated the first anniversary of the online IoPT Café!

Franz Ruppert, the founder of IoPT gave a presentation. In his presentation Franz shared how IoPT has deceloped over the past decades, he shared how he came to understand more and more about the impact of trauma on our human psyche and how we can heal from the traumatic experiences. The presentation is recorded. If you want to watch Franz’s presentation feel free to send an email to info@ioptcafe.com to ask for the link to the recording.

Olaf Thaler has sung a heartwarming IoPT mantra in English, German, Portuguese and Russian language. This is also on the recording with Franz’ presentation.

Presentation by Franz Ruppert

Presentation by Anja Jaskolski with the topic: ‘IopT and Reiki’

Anja Jaskolski practices IoPT along with Jikiden Reiki Therapy to provide a cause-oriented and natural approach to healing. She finds joy and purpose in working with parents in particular to bring harmony to families and prevent the unconscious passing down of trauma to their children. She is a Berlin transplant now living in a rural forested valley in Western Canada, surrounded by mountains and wildlife.

In her presentation ‘IoPT and Reiki’ Anja invites us to her observations around the energy aspect of IoPT and shares her experience of how Reiki is a potent support for trauma healing.

Presentation by Jenny Hansen about “Breastfeeding as an expression of Love”

Jenny Hansen is an IoPT practitioner and -trainer. During her own training and a search for a ‘right’ method of parenting, she discovered that healthy parent-child relationships cannot be created through any parenting concept, but are a natural consequence  of knowing who we truly are and the establishment of a healthy, loving connection with ourselves.

 She will give a presentation on the topic of ‘Breastfeeding as an expression of Love’.

In this presentation Jenny shared her thoughts and findings as an IoPT practitioner surrounding the topic of breastfeeding in relation to the trauma trias as defined by IoPT theory. The presentation was an opportunity to discuss how the trauma biography can play out in mother-child bonding, and by shaping our identity, in virtually all subsequent relationships in life.

What’s love got to do with it? By placing the focus on this early relationship in self-encounters, we can learn a great deal about who we are and our innate capacity to love and be loved. And with a growing readiness for self-compassion we may possibly begin to discover what it is we have been looking for all along…

Presentation by Rens Meijkamp about ‘Wheel of Transformation, by healing trauma’.

Rens Meijkamp (1967) originally holds a PhD in Industrial Design Engineering from Delft University of Technology. After a career as a consultant and as a manager at large municipal organizations, he has developed through life experience, study and training courses in ‘people work’.

Rens: “Based on my theoretical insights and personal work with hundreds of clients, I have developed a PROCESS MODEL for healing trauma. I want to introduce that process model because it can provide insight and guidance into the process of healing and integration of trauma. I call the process model the “WHEEL-OF-TRANSFORMATION”.”

Presentation by Cherionna Menzam-Sills

Cherionna is a prenatal and birth therapist, movement therapist and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist. Drawing on 45 years experience, her background includes an M.A. in Somatic Psychology (Dance/Movement Therapy) and a Ph.D. in Pre- and Perinatal Psychology. Originally from Canada, Cherionna lives in Devon, UK, with Franklyn. As well as teaching and facilitating small womb surround process workshops online, she has a private practice currently focused on supervision and mentoring, often online. Cherionna is committed in her work & life to embodied presence.

Cherionna gave a presentation on the topic of Pre- and Perinatal Development. It is Cherionna’s passion to share and bring more awareness about Prenatal and Birth Experience and thier Lifelong Influences on our lifes. With her presentations, the training modalities she offers and with her books, she invites and encourages us all to embody who we truly are. Understanding more about pre- and perinatal development can support you in becoming more conscious about your own experiences.

Presentation by Irene Stendnes

Irene Standnes is an advocate for a Trauma-informed Society. Irene is an IoPT teacher at the Institute for Traumawork in Norway, she has also a private practice as Supervisor and Traumatherapist IoPT, in addition to a former member of the Professional-Ethical Board of the Association for Traumatherapists IoPT.

She is also a lawyer with former positions as Chief Municipal Executive, Official and Political Adviser. She offered a presentation at the IoPT Conference in Olso in 2023 with the topic: Domestic Violence – why and how do trauma-victims turn into trauma-perpetrators?

Presentation by Katrina Mikiah

Katrina Mikiah is an IoPT Practitioner based in Missoula, Montana. She studied last year at the Institute for Trauma Work in Norway and embarked on an IoPT focused study of the traumatizing effects of religion. She started her own study exploring this topic and wrote an article. Katrina has been “specifically interested in exploring what happens when children are born into religious systems with a negative view of human nature, strict dogma, and a black and white understanding of right and wrong with harsh and unceasing consequences for “wrong” behavior. It is logical that those who are part of religious communities, unless they are there under force, likely feel that religion has a positive influence on their lives. In her article she explores how religion can also have a negative impact on the formation of a healthy identity and, in that sense, be traumatizing.”