Building Stability, Fostering Safety: The Power of Finding Solid Ground

Abstract
Purpose
This day-long workshop will provide clinicians with a clear conceptual framework for understanding clients’ unsafe and risky behaviors, along with evidence-based, practical strategies for stabilization. Participants will be introduced to research-proven ways of working with highly dissociative clients and will learn how the Finding Solid Ground (FSG) program supports stabilization by teaching clients to get grounded, separate past from present, meet needs safely, and regulate emotions.

Population
This workshop is designed for mental health professionals who treat individuals with complex trauma and dissociation. Both clients and clinicians benefit from Finding Solid Ground: research shows that the program not only helps clients reduce unsafe behaviors and symptoms, as well as build self-compassion and healthy ways of managing emotions and triggers, but it also increases therapists’ confidence, knowledge about how to help dissociative clients, and ability to manage complex clinical situations. In addition, the program has been shown to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, which is a crucial predictor of treatment success.

Main Points
Dr. Bethany Brand will present a conceptualization of unsafe and risky behaviors, highlighting the most common triggers for dissociative clients. She will review the growing evidence base demonstrating the effectiveness of Finding Solid Ground in helping clients achieve greater stability. Workshop participants will be introduced to core components of the program, including journaling and skill-building exercises that can be integrated directly into clinical practice.

The workshop will also include:
-Demonstration of compassionate clinical approaches through a video from Finding Solid Ground
-Role plays addressing common roadblocks in treatment, such as when clients have amnesia for self-harm or are reluctant to give up unsafe behaviors
-Opportunities to discuss and practice applying these interventions to real-world clinical challenges
-Clients’ perspectives and artwork that vividly illustrate the lived experience of using Finding Solid Ground to support recovery

Conclusion
By the end of this workshop, participants will leave with practical, ready-to-use tools to stabilize clients’ unsafe behaviors and trauma-related symptoms. They will gain a deeper understanding of how to identify and respond to the triggers most likely to destabilize dissociative individuals. Importantly, clinicians will also see how applying Finding Solid Ground strengthens their therapeutic effectiveness and enhances the client–therapist relationship. This workshop will provide a rich, interactive learning experience that blends research findings, clinical strategies, and client voices.
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