.png)
Beyond the Barriers: Strategies For Work With Defended Child Clients, Part 1
Fri, Aug 21
|3326 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd
Part 1 of a three-workshop series focused on working with highly defended child clients. Learn about defense states, what they are, and how to recognize them. Concepts apply across the age span.
Time & Location
Aug 21, 2026, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
3326 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd, 3326 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd, Durham, NC 27705, USA
Guests
About the event
Workshop 1: Recognizing & Understanding Defense States
Offered In-Person and Live Online
What are defense states, how do they show up, and what is happening in the brain and body when they are present? We begin here — because you can't work with what you can't name.
In this workshop, we will expand our understanding of defense states beyond Flight, Fight, and Freeze. Grounded in polyvagal theory and Ana Gomez, MC, LPC's framework for introducing defense states to children we explore the neurobiology of defense states and the wide range of presentations they may take. We will discuss ways these defense states present in session and how to recognize what may be activated for your client. This workshop includes experiential exercises and demonstrations of play-based strategies for identifying and naming these states.
Though taught through the lens of child therapy, the concepts apply to adolescent and adult work as well…