Not Everything is Trauma: Assessing the Depth of Emotional Wounds for Effective Treatment
November 17 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm ESTVirtual Event
with Antonieta Contreras, LCSW-R, BCN, EMDRIA, CCPT-II
Monday, November 17, 2025
6:30 - 8:30 PM EST
Virtual, on Zoom
(this event will be recorded, if you miss it, please reach out for the recording)
2 Continuing Education Credits.
Many clients arrive in pain, yet not every hurt is trauma—and calling it so can keep them going in circles due to the use of the wrong interventions. This workshop shows how to distinguish between genuine survival responses and the normal, if painful, work of adaptation. Drawing on the forthcoming How Deep Is the Wound? (August 2025), we'll trace the neurobiological line that divides emotional wounds from traumatic injuries. You'll learn "observing-self" exercises and participate in small-group case mapping to read the body-brain clues that reveal a wound's depth.
We'll explore how culture, temperament, and development shape threat perception; when unfinished survival impulses matter; and how to move clients from helpless labels to informed self-assessment and agency. Attendees will leave with practical tools, clear handouts, and interventions they can use both in session and as client homework.
Antonieta Contreras is the author of the award-winning book Traumatization And Its Aftermath. A former banker and business consultant born in Mexico, she is a Gestalt-trained psychotherapist, who graduated as a social worker from NYU. She obtained a specialization in Trauma Studies from the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy (ICP), in Human Sexuality from NYU The School of Medicine, and is a Board Certified Neurofeedback Clinician.
In her private practice, Antonieta integrates various modalities she’s certified on focused on trauma treatment alongside contemplative techniques she learned during her time in India and from Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Actively engaged in the field, she has been given presentations in clinics and hospitals about trauma since 2015. She serves as a Board member and Treasurer of the New York Association of Trauma Therapists (NYCATT). Antonieta, former co-director of the ICP Trauma Studies Program, is a presenter, supervisor, and EMDRIA approved consultant. Her new book How Deep is the Wound?—A Guide to Resolving Your Emotional Struggles from Everyday Insecurities to Ceaseless Abuse is available in Aug 2025.
