Smoky Mountains Symposium On Relational Trauma
Date:
October 21 - 23, 2026
Place:
Dollywood DreamMORE, 2525 DreamMore Wy, Pigeon Forge, TN, 37863
The Smoky Mountains Symposium on Relational Trauma is a continuing education conference designed for mental health professionals and helping providers seeking advanced, evidence-informed training in the assessment and treatment of relational trauma and its psychological, neurobiological, and systemic impacts. This interdisciplinary symposium brings together clinicians and educators with expertise in betrayal trauma, intimate partner violence, trauma processing, attachment disruption, systemic betrayal, nervous system dysregulation, personality structure, and therapist resilience.
Participants will explore practical and ethically grounded approaches for working with complex relational trauma presentations, including betrayal trauma, coercive control, sexual abuse, institutional betrayal, shame-based trauma responses, and trauma-related disruptions in emotional regulation and self-trust. Training topics address both client care and clinician sustainability, recognizing the cumulative impact trauma work can have on therapists and healthcare providers over time.
Conference sessions integrate current research, neuroscience, trauma-informed care principles, and experiential learning to strengthen clinical assessment, treatment planning, emotional stabilization, ethical decision-making, and intervention sequencing. Participants will examine approaches including Psychological First Aid (PFA), Predictive Processing FLASH techniques, somatic interventions, EMDR-informed applications, parts work, attachment-informed approaches, and personality-based conceptualization using the Enneagram framework.
Educational content emphasizes practical application to clinical work with individuals, couples, survivors of interpersonal violence, and clients impacted by relational and systemic trauma. Through lectures, experiential exercises, case discussion, role-play, and interactive learning, participants will strengthen their ability to recognize trauma-related responses, support client stabilization, assess readiness for relational interventions, and implement evidence-based strategies that promote safety, accountability, resilience, and therapeutic effectiveness.
The symposium also addresses the role of therapeutic systems and institutions in trauma recovery, examining how clinical responses can either reinforce mistrust or support restoration of self-trust, agency, and relational safety. Special attention is given to ethical considerations in trauma treatment, culturally responsive care, therapist self-awareness, and reducing the risk of iatrogenic harm in clinical practice.
This conference is designed for psychologists, counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, substance abuse professionals, healthcare providers, educators, graduate students, and other helping professionals seeking advanced training in relational trauma treatment and therapist resilience.