Content
Have you learned about the Sleeping Dogs method, but do you find it difficult to use it, or have you been trained a while ago and your knowledge is a bit rusty? Using the Sleeping Dogs method in families with developmental trauma, neglect and intergenerational ongoing trauma can be challenging. Many children also have parents with sleeping dogs and that can complicate treatment as they can refuse to collaborate or deny what happened or struggle with guilt and shame too much. This face-to-face level II training is a unique opportunity for you.
In this two-day workshop participants will practise using the Sleeping Dogs method in more challenging cases. Participants will practise analysing barriers and making plans on how to motivate and engage children and young people. Participants will practise conversations with traumatized parents who have abused or neglected their children but also have their own history of trauma or have limited abilities due to their own problems such as PTSD, borderline, ADHD, ASD, drug or alcohol addiction or an intellectual disability. We will discuss and practice ways to engage these parents in their own way in treatment for their children, and how to manage their own trauma reactions and teach them skills. We will practise making compensation plans when the parents have little abilities, so these parents can still support their children in a way that suits and fits with them. We practice how to talk to parents about acknowledgement of the child’s innocence and their own responsibility for the abuse. And we will discuss how parents who deny or dispute the abuse, can still contribute to their child’s healing.
This workshop is a mixture of presentation, exercises in groups, watching and analysing videos and roleplay to maximise learning outcomes. Participants can bring their own cases to practise with. Do you want to become more experienced and confident in motivating and engaging children and young people for trauma treatment? This is a unique opportunity, join our face-to-face Sleeping Dogs level II training!
Requirements
Participants need to have read the book (Struik, 2019) ttps://www.ariannestruik.com/materialer/?lang=da
and completed the Workshop Treating Chronically Traumatized Children with the Sleeping Dogs method. This two-day workshop can be done as a home study (https://www.ariannestruik.com/calendar-2/treating-chronically-traumatized-children-with-the-sleeping-dogs-method/) or face-to-face in Copenhagen on 19 and 20 January 2026 (https://www.safechildren.dk/services)
Underviser
Trainer
Arianne Struik is a clinical psychologist, family therapist and EMDR consultant from Agnes Water, QLD, Australia, originally from the Netherlands. She is director of the Institute for Chronically Traumatized Children (ICTC) from which she provides specialized trauma treatment in remote areas, as well as workshops, training, supervision and research. She developed the award-winning Sleeping Dogs method, described in the book Treating Chronically Traumatized Children and teaches internationally on the treatment of trauma and dissociation in children. She is member of the ESTD Child and Adolescent Committee.
We are both proud and honored to welcome this special Level II workshop with Arianne Struik to our own premises in Køge, Sjælland. This is a unique opportunity for professionals in Denmark to deepen their work with the Sleeping Dogs method – directly with the method’s founder.
In our daily work with traumatized children, young people, and their families, we clearly see the importance of having solid, trauma-informed methods and tools. The Sleeping Dogs method provides exactly that – a way to understand and work with the often hidden mechanisms that can block treatment and development, both in children and in their parents. That is why we are excited not only to host the workshop, but also to actively participate alongside you.
We look forward to creating a safe and inspiring learning environment in Køge, where dedicated professionals from across the country can come together for shared professional development. It will be two intensive and meaningful days filled with new knowledge, hands-on exercises, and reflection – all with the shared goal of strengthening the treatment and support of some of the most vulnerable children and families.