Dr. Soumya has worked in the Mental Health field for over 15 years and has been committed to training the younger generations of mental health professionals through course offerings, training presentations, and supervision.
A positive learning environment is a respectful environment where we can feel safe acknowledging our vulnerabilities and what we do not know, so we can lean into the discomfort of learning something new. It entails a space where our diversity of identities, worldviews, values, learning needs and styles are held and honored. Growth often begins at the edge of our comfort zone; and our ability to venture out of our comfort zone often is dependent on trusting the anchors that will hold us and not let us go off the deep end. Dr. Madabhushi strives to build a relationship that can be such an anchor.
As a supervisor she attends to relational components of the therapy work a mental health provider has with their clients as well as the supervisory relationship. We are the instrument in this work of therapy and being able to bring our most authentic selves to this work is therefore crucial. Self-reflection is critically important as therapists and Dr. Madabhushi encourages her supervisees to use the space in supervision to explore their reactions to their clients, their understanding of their clients’ reactions to them, their own identities, beliefs, and values and to better understand how their unique backgrounds shape their approach to their work and impact their interactions with clients. She attends to the transferences and counter-transferences as they arise in therapy, in supervision and parallel processes that may be present.
Dr. Soumya Madabhushi believes in a trauma-informed approach to all relationships, including supervision. Life is difficult and can be wounding in many ways and none of us escape unscathed. We all have our wounds and battle scars and when we attempt to authentically relate across these there can be ways in which we can trigger one another’s pain. Building a holding environment is important where such pain can be held with care and dignity. She doesn’t take safety and trust for granted and is happy to put in the work necessary to build those in her supervisory relationships. She strives to create a space that facilitates openness and self-exploration. As part of this process, she brings her-self into this work as well and shares appropriately her struggles, challenges, and vulnerabilities, her own multiple social identities and her cultural/sociopolitical context. She also leans into conversations around power differentials based on identities and roles.
Signature Trainings
Trauma: Recovery and Transformation
Trauma and violence are widespread, harmful, and costly public health concerns. Traumatic events may often lead to a wide range of psychological, physical, and interpersonal problems.
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These include sleep and appetite difficulties, anxiety, depression, helplessness, social withdrawal, nightmares, avoidance of emotions, and terror or horror. Trauma has no boundaries with regard to age, gender, socioeconomic status, caste, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation and places a heavy burden on individuals, families, and communities. For these reasons, the need to address trauma is increasingly seen as an important part of recovery and healing and effective mental health care. This introductory and experiential training is intended for enhancing skills of mental health professionals working with individuals who have experienced significant trauma or loss. The training program involves lecture, demonstration, and, practice.
Core Psychodynamic Problems: Conceptualization and Treatment
As clinicians we sit with clients who come in with a variety of issues and unique life stories and particular needs and goals. Are these concerns entirely unique or are there underlying commonalities that might allow for focus in the process of therapy?
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It has been posited that there are a finite number of problems that have individual variations. While it is crucial to be able to pay exquisite attention to the details of each individual’s unique experience and hold it with reverence, it is also important for effective therapy to be able to identify essential patterns and relational themes. Summer and Barber (2012) list six core psychodynamic problems: Depression, Obsessionality, Fear of abandonment, Low Self-esteem, Panic Anxiety and Trauma. Using didactic presentation and clinical material, Dr. Madabhushi will elucidate these core problems and their treatment.
Depression: Understanding the Nuances
Depression is a ubiquitous phenomenon among clients who come for psychotherapy. But the word Depression alone is as broad and uninformative as the words “emotional distress”. Depression means different things to different people—lay individuals and clinicians, alike.
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Therapists would be well-advised to think about their clients’ “distress” in a more qualitatively nuanced way—one that goes beyond simply looking at symptoms and behaviors, and delves into what that experience is like for the client. If a client presented for treatment, it would be important for the therapist to make distinctions between hopelessness and helplessness, anger and fear, and shame and guilt; all of these have implications for good case conceptualization and, proper treatment interventions. In this training, Dr. Madabhushi will elucidate these nuances toward the goal of conceptual clarity.
Death, Dying and Mourning: Helping People Grieve
Death is a part of life and Grief is the natural response. This training is designed to help professionals enhance their knowledge and skills to support clients through this tumultuous journey.
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Dr. Madabhushi will offer an overview of the major theories, process models, cultural issues, religious issues and other related content and offer practical approaches to grief support to use in your work. In this highly interactive training, participants will be exposed to tools and techniques that help clients to process the intense emotions that many grievers struggle to manage.
Understanding Suicidality
Statistics about suicide are alarming. Worldwide more people die by suicide than from all homicides and wars combined. However, research also shows that therapists consistently underestimate clients' suicidality.
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For therapists, the responsibility of treating a person in a suicidal state can cause anxiety and apprehension. Suicidal clients can even induce feelings of dislike or malice in their therapists. This training aims to increase understanding of the psychological pain and processes underlying suicidal tendencies, increase awareness of risk factors and signs and heighten awareness of clinician’s counter-transferential reactions. This training will also include effective practices for assessing and treating suicidal clients.
Sexual Violence: Dynamics of Consent and Power
Sexual violence is sexual activity when consent is not obtained or not freely given. It is a serious public health problem with substantial health and economic consequences.
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In this training Dr. Madabhushi will offer an overview of the dynamics of sexual violence including discussion of consent, power and coercion. Sociocultural factors that contribute to sexual violence and the impact on survivors, loved ones, and communities will be discussed. Principles of prevention, advocacy and empowerment will.
If interested in receiving Supervision or in scheduling a training CONTACT
What they Say About Me…
“Soumya has an incredible understanding of the field and did an amazing job moderating the discussion in the room”.