Adult Self Training

The concept of the Adult Self refers to a well-integrated part of a person's identity or psyche that is capable of handling life's challenges with emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and responsibility.

It is in contrast with more reactive, childlike aspects of the Self, such as impulsive emotions, unprocessed trauma, and unconscious behavior and thought patterns.

In this training seminar, participants learn why and how it is useful to integrate adult emotional and social development into their parts work and overall conceptualization of an individual's system.

This training is an evolution from my original program, The CRM Adult Self.

BOOK YOUR PLACE

COURSE DETAILS

DATE

November 12th - 14th 2026

Time

Days 1-3: 10am-6pm New York / 3pm - 11pm London

Level

Advanced training for mental health professionals. Approved for 16 CE

Where

Live online via Zoom

Cultivating an Embodied Adult Self
for Stability & Wholeness in Clinical Practice

TRAINING DESCRIPTION

An Advanced Training in Healing Trauma and Attachment Wounding, Strengthening Internal Cohesion, and Developing Presence and Authenticity.

This 3 day advanced training is designed for clinicians seeking a deeper, neurobiologically informed understanding of the ‘Adult Self’— the integrated state of maturity and coherence that fosters healing, personal growth and authentic presence.

Participants will learn to recognize, develop, and strengthen the 'Adult Self' within their clients and themselves.

REQUIREMENTS

This seminar is open to all mental health professionals, as the training incorporates working from various modalities – although it is recommended that you have some experience with ego state and/or parts work, and a working knowledge of dissociation.

If you're unsure if this is suitable for you, please contact me directly in the first instance.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

18 hours direct learning time

Handouts and slides pdf

1 Study Group included

Additional monthly study groups optional

COURSE FEE

$655 USD for the 3 day class, 16 CEs (for U.S. licensed professionals) and a follow-up study group is included in the seminar fee.

Accessibility and reciprocity are core values in this work. Support options are available for those of Indigenous heritage, those in service to Indigenous communities, and anyone for whom finances are a consideration.

Please feel welcome to reach out directly, if this applies to you so we can find an arrangement that supports your participation.

COURSE CONTENT

Day 1 — Foundations of the Adult Self

  • Explore the developmental, psychological, and cultural foundations of the Adult Self.
  • Framing ‘Adult Self’ development within developmental, neurobiological, and cultural contexts
  • Distinguishing the Adult Self from parentified or adultified emotional survival states
  • Core developmental markers: attunement, trust, agency, autonomy, initiative, and curiosity
  • Neurobiological underpinnings of self-trust, safety, and regulation
  • Recognizing the impact of early caregiver traits, including narcissistic or 'antisocial patterns', on attachment and emotional regulation
  • Assessment strategies for Adult self-functioning, dissociation, and embodiment
  • Mapping ego states, caregiver influences, and multigenerational trauma patterns
  • Integrating concepts of Adult Self with IFS “Self” and CRM “Core Self”
  • Guided experiential: cultivating the felt sense of the Adult Self
development of the adult self training

Day 2 — Dissociation and Neurobiologically Informed Interventions to Develop the Adult Self

  • Deepen understanding of how dissociation impacts Adult Self development and explore clinical tools to support reintegration and regulation.
  • Recognizing the impact of dissociation on the development of the Adult Self
  • Working with pacing, education, and nervous system awareness to foster self-understanding and compassion
  • Developing templates of internal safety and co-consciousness among ego states
  • Strengthening emotional regulation, flexibility, and discernment
  • Applying Adult Self work with clients who experience complex trauma or dissociative disorders
  • Teaching and modeling healthy boundaries, self-care, and self-advocacy
  • Addressing fears of embodiment, emotion, and self-awareness
  • Working with intergenerational, gestational, and birth trauma
  • Exploring cultural and collective conditioning in the development of the Adult Self
  • Case vignettes and small group practice.
Adult Self Training with Elisa

Day 3 — Integration and Whole-System Healing 

  • Consolidate learning through clinical integration, reflection, and advanced application.
  • Identifying and resolving subtle defenses, paradoxes, and survival adaptations
  • Working with family, cultural, and societal conditioning that challenge Adult Self functioning
  • Addressing neurobiological templates of “nothingness” or the void, including work with powerful parts that lack empathy or remorse.
  • Weaving Adult Self work across modalities, populations, and cultural contexts
  • Therapist self-practice and personal integration
  • Closing circle and reflective discussion

Morgan Grace - Alchemy Collective

Elisa is one of the most gifted teachers and therapists I’ve ever had the privilege to learn from and work alongside. Her nuanced attunement and masterful teaching style create an environment of deep understanding, safety, and genuine curiosity. She invites her students to integrate new concepts with both confidence and compassion. Her Adult Self class transformed the way I conceptualize advanced parts work and support clients on their healing journeys. I truly cannot recommend her highly enough.

Morgan Grace

Alchemy Collective

Heather Hart Kennedy - Thrive Med

Adult Self work is THE clinical work that builds and creates the capacity to function and navigate life in a present-oriented way, allowing one to function from an integrated, mindfully aware place, attuned to the present environment and those within it.

Elisa approaches this work within a profoundly compassionate neurobiologically-informed framework that provides an understanding of the deeply complex challenges that clinicians encounter in working with clients. She teaches these concepts using nuanced clinical presentations that illuminate both the framework she is teaching, as well as the clinical conundrums. She is an exceptionally skilled teacher, and her compassionate therapeutic framework is a gift to each of the people in her class as well as the profession as a whole.

Heather Hart Kennedy

Juniper Health & Wellness

Melanie Swan - The Sacred Womb

This training truly supported me in learning the why, when and how of cultivating a genuine adult self with clients who have a range of presentations, systems, and goals. It's now woven through all of my work as a core component of healing. The developmental framework, alongside the grounded unblended and steadfast integration, supported both me and my clients to develop embodied, adult selves. This work provides much-needed relief, clarity, and compassionate internal leadership for all.

Melanie Swan

The Sacred Womb

Prapti Giri

Elisa’s Adult Self Seminar provided a powerful, cohesive framework that has transformed my clinical work. I now understand how to identify and un-blend adultified protector parts, recognize how core beliefs shape protector strategies, and clearly track the development of Adult Self qualities in my clients. Since integrating this work, I feel noticeably more ease as a therapist. Sessions feel less effortful and more precise. I can track how protector parts posture as though they control the nervous system, and I can also see what happens when the Adult Self begins to come online: Protector parts feel understood and are more willing to let go. As the adult self takes the lead, internal trust between parts emerges, and the nervous systems starts to settle. There is more hope. More compassion. More space. This training has significantly deepened both my understanding and effectiveness as a therapist.

Prapti Giri, RSW, MSW (Toronto, Canada)

C L Herder

The Cultivating an Embodied Adult Self seminar is invaluable to those working with Clients with trauma wounds, especially those with CPTSD. The resources regarding the impact of trauma on neurophysiology & case summaries were especially helpful to refer back to. Thank you Elisa!

C L Herder

Brett Summer

Elisa Elkin-Cleary's teachings on the adult self has filled in gaps in my conceptualization and practice in working with complex clients.This work will allow me to better guide my clients out of ‘stuck-ness' and into grounded and present-focused agency in their lives.

Brett Sumner, LPCC

Laurent

A big thank you Elisa for providing this training. The concepts demonstrated in this seminar were clear and very useful. I look forward to applying the techniques I have learned in my clinical work.

Laurent

Read more about Elisa

Background & Development

This training developed primarily through my personal work and work with my clients over the last 25 years, and this now is an increasing area of focus in several established therapeutic modalities around the world.

This seminar in advanced clinical work has been informed by Social and Emotional Developmental Theory (Erik Erikson, Lev Vygotsky, and Daniel Levinson), Attachment Theory (John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth), Cultural Attachment Theory, Parts Work (John and Helen Watkins, Hal and Sidra Stone), Family Constellation work (Bert Hellinger), and the work of Kathy Steele, Suzette Boon and Onno Van Der Hart.  The Comprehensive Resource Model (Lisa Schwarz), Dr. Kenneth Hardy, and Somatic Abolitionism (Resmaa Menakem) have also been a significant influence on this work.

CE CREDITS

This training is approved for 16 CE's. Full details regarding your specific licence can be found below.

Where do I apply for Credits?

Licensed Professionals should contact their regulatory board to determine course approval.

Certificates are awarded online after completion of the workshop. Participants print their own certificate after registering at CE-Classes.com, entering a keycode, and completing an evaluation form.

POLICIES

Cancellations: A full refund can be issued 2 weeks prior to the course start date minus a $75.00USD administrative fee. Your refund will be processed within 7-10 business days from receiving your refund request.  any requests falling outside the time frame stated in this policy, do not qualify for a refund,  Registration may be transferred to a future date without a charge.

Grievances: All grievances must be in writing to elisa@rootedsoulwork.com, and will be replied to within 5 - 10 business days. 

ADA assistance: This workshop is held online which is in compliance with the Americans Disabilities Act. Please contact Elisa if special accommodation is required.

Learning Objectives
  1. Summarize and define the 'Adult Self'
  2. Describe at least 2 essential functions of the 'Adult Self' in the treatment of complex trauma and dissociation as well as with more fully integrated clients.
  3. Identify and explain the developmental markers or neurobiological foundations of the 'Adult Self' EgoState, including (but not limited to): self trust, healthy boundaries, faith, autonomy, agency, and initiative.
  4. Explain how early experiences with caregivers who exhibit narcissistic or antisocial personality traits influence social–emotional and neurobiological development, particularly in relation to connection to self and the world, including the impact on capacities for self-motivation, trust, emotional regulation, and relational attunement.
  5. Distinguish between parentified or 'adultified' parts and the 'Adult Self'
  6. Recognize dissociation and explain its impact on accessing and strengthening the 'Adult Self.'
  7. Demonstrate trauma-informed interventions that foster the development of the Adult Self in therapy and daily practice.
  8. Identify and resolve common obstacles to the Adult Self in clients with complex trauma (i.e., fears of being an adult, fears of embodiment, fears of emotion, fears of change, and secondary gains to defenses & related emotions such as shame, anger, “victim” story, guilt, and grief).
  9. Recognize at least 3 applications of 'Adult Self' in the treatment of moderate to severe dissociation, including the improvement of internal co-consciousness, communication, and cooperation amongst parts of self, as well as an increase in self awareness in higher functioning clients.
  10. Recognize the importance of achieving a 'felt sense' (i.e., embodied experience) of the 'Adult Self' qualities, 'Adult Self' cognitions, and 'Adult Self' behaviors.
  11. Recognize at least 2 applications of 'Adult Self' work in the treatment of complex trauma, including the resolution of dysfunctional parent-child relational patterns, gestational trauma, birth trauma, and generational trauma.
  12. Describe at least two ways 'Adult Self' work can be integrated across clinical populations, including clients with complex trauma and dissociative disorders.
  13. Recognize cultural, familial, and systemic factors that shape the development and expression of the 'Adult Self', including perspectives from culturally sensitive approaches to attachment and relational communication.
  14. Identify the role of therapist embodiment in supporting 'Adult Self' development, including attention to countertransference, enactments, and modeling self-regulation.
conflicts of interest

There are no known conflicts of interests for this workshop

CE-Classes.com is approved by (click to expand):

CE-Classes.com is approved by:
·       The American Psychological Association (APA) CE-Classes.com is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CE-Classes.com maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
·       California Board of Behavioral Sciences. The California Board of Behavioral Sciences, BBS, recognizes relevant course work/training that has been approved by nationally recognized certifying bodies, such as APA, to satisfy renewal requirements.
·     California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP) Provider Number OS-12-174-0627 Expires 06-2027

California Board of Registered Nursing. CEP 15647 Expires 11/30/2026.
·       Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling Provider #852 BAP-Expires 3/31/2027
·       Florida Board of Nursing (CE Provider #: 50-4896) Expires 10/31/2026 Do not send certificates to the Florida Board of Nursing. You must keep this certificate for 4 years.
·       Florida Certification Board
·   Illinois - CE-Classes.com is a registered social work CE sponsor by the State of Illinois. License 159.001607 Expires 11/30/2027

·       Massachusetts Authorization Number: (TBD)
·       New York Mental Health Practitioners Board CE-Classes.com, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0260
·       New York Psychology Board CE-Classes.com, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0211
·       New York Social Work Board – CE-Classes.com is recognized by the New York State Education
Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0120.
·       Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board - Approval from a state licensing board for counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists is accepted by the OH CSWMFTB.
·       Oklahoma Board of Behavioral Health Licensure (LPCs, LMFTs and LBCs)
·       South Carolina - CE-Classes.com is approved by the S.C. Board of Examiners for Licensure of Professional Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapist, Addiction Counselors, and Psycho-Educational Specialists (#4696).
·       Texas Board of Social Work Examiners – CE-Classes.com meets the requirements for acceptable continuing education. Effective 1/1/24, at least half of the 30 hours must be obtained from a provider listed in 801.261(f). This course meets that requirement.
·       Texas Board of Professional Counselors – CE-Classes.com meets the requirements for acceptable continuing education.  Effective 1/1/24, at least half of the 30 hours must be obtained from a provider listed in 801.261(f). This course meets that requirement.
·       Texas Board of Marriage & Family Therapists – CE-Classes.com meets the requirements for acceptable continuing education. Effective 1/1/24, at least half of the 30 hours must be obtained from a provider listed in 801.261(f). This course meets that requirement.
·       This course is NOT available for NBCC credit.  This course does not offer ASWB ACE credit to social workers. However our state board approvals may be accepted for license renewal.  Check with your state board.