Early Trauma, Attachment, and Repair
There is a belief in the field that attachment repair has a window, and that once it closes the odds get long. Robert Cox opens this course by saying that is a mythology. Attunement and attachment are what clinicians are working toward with adult clients too, and the mechanism does not stop being available because someone turned eighteen.
Most of the five and a half hours is spent on why. He starts with what trauma is, and spends real time on the version that gets missed: not the single catastrophic event but the constant low-level criticism, the home where nothing was ever quite good enough and no one ever said they were glad you were there. He has seen a lot of young adults whose lives look fine from the outside and whose capacity to connect has been taken apart by exactly that.
From there it is brain development and what trauma does to it, then attachment and attunement, then the repair work itself. He teaches co-regulation as the practical core: the clinician or parent who can stay regulated while the other person is not is doing the work, and everything cognitive has to wait its turn behind it. He also splits the adult material by cognitive functioning level, which matters because he works heavily with developmental disability and most attachment training quietly assumes a client who can talk about their inner life.
You’ll walk away with
- Why attachment repair is available across the lifespan, and what changes with an adult client rather than a child
- Big T and little T trauma, and why the accumulating small version often does more damage to the capacity to connect
- What trauma does to the developing brain, and how that shows up later as learning, attention and behaviour problems
- Co-regulation in practice: staying regulated yourself so the other person has something to regulate against
- Specific mindfulness methods that work with children and with adults in an escalated state
- Emotional regulation taught as a skill, meaning the ability to choose your response rather than suppress the feeling
- Adapting all of it for clients with intellectual disability, where the usual verbal approaches do not land
- Behaviour read as communication, including oppositional presentations, and what it is communicating
- Rupture and repair in the therapeutic relationship, with worked case material
- Practical work with parents, including what to do with the child who holds it together at school and falls apart at home
Watch the course trailer
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Where this sits: this is the foundation course of Robert Cox’s four. Addictions and Attachment, and Personality and Dissociative Disorders, both build on the developmental material covered here.
Course Duration: 5.5 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders struggling with undiagnosed trauma - and practitioners working with clients whose behaviors don't respond to traditional approaches - can miss the critical connection between developmental differences and traumatic stress. Robert Cox has spent over 20 years pioneering this intersection, becoming one of the few experts who understands how autism and trauma interweave to create complex presentations that require specialised treatment approaches informed by lived experience with recovery.
As Owner/Therapist at Life Recovery Consulting and Executive Director of The Tristn Jevon Center for Recovery, Cox brings unique expertise grounded in both professional training and 33+ years of personal recovery from addiction (clean since 1988). His book The Life Recovery Method: Treating Autism From a Trauma Perspective represents groundbreaking work in understanding how developmental differences affect trauma processing and recovery. His role as President-Elect of the American Counseling Association of Missouri and presentations at Autism Society national conferences demonstrate his leadership in advancing trauma-informed autism treatment approaches.
Cox's expertise spans trauma treatment from an autism perspective, addiction counseling, complex trauma and PTSD, mindfulness-based interventions, dissociative disorders, and what he calls helping clients "live vulnerably in an uncertain world with real joy, connection and courage." His approach recognises that many individuals with autism spectrum disorders have experienced significant trauma related to their developmental differences - from bullying and social rejection to medical trauma and sensory overwhelm - but traditional trauma treatments may fail if they don't account for autistic processing differences. He specialises in cases where standard approaches haven't worked, particularly with clients who have dual diagnoses of autism and addiction, or trauma presentations complicated by sensory processing differences.
What sets his training apart is lived experience combined with clinical expertise. Cox doesn't just teach theoretical approaches - he shows practitioners how his own journey through addiction, trauma, and recovery informs his understanding of resilience and healing. His 30 years of mindfulness practice and specialisation in DBT mindfulness techniques give him deep insight into helping clients develop distress tolerance skills that work for neurodiverse populations.
For your practice, expect to gain specific techniques for treating trauma in autistic individuals, tools for adapting traditional trauma therapies for neurodiverse clients, and frameworks for understanding how developmental differences affect addiction and recovery processes. His approach particularly benefits clinicians working with autistic clients, those treating dual diagnosis presentations, or practitioners wanting to develop trauma-informed approaches for neurodiverse populations.
Quick Win: Cox's "sensory-informed grounding" technique helps autistic clients access present-moment awareness during trauma responses - sometimes providing the first effective self-regulation tool they've ever had while honoring their unique sensory processing needs.
Qualifications
- MA, Counseling, MidAmerica Nazarene University, 2015
- BA, Social Psychology, Park University, 2011
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Missouri
- National Certified Counselor (NCC)
- Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor (PLPC)
- 20+ years experience in mental health field
- 33+ years personal recovery experience (clean since 1988)
- 30 years mindfulness practice, specialised in DBT mindfulness techniques
Authored Publications
- The Life Recovery Method: Treating Autism From a Trauma Perspective (2016)
Leadership & Professional Service
- Owner/Therapist, Life Recovery Consulting, Richmond, MO & Liberty, MO
- Executive Director, The Tristn Jevon Center for Recovery, Richmond, MO
- Adjunct Professor, MidAmerica Nazarene University, Graduate Counseling Program
- President-Elect, American Counseling Association of Missouri, current
Professional Experience
- Opened trauma treatment center in Richmond, MO, December 2017
- Various capacities in mental health field for 20+ years
- Volunteer, Kairos Prison Ministry, Crossroads Correctional Center, Cameron, MO
- 20+ years working specifically with autism spectrum individuals
- Podcast Host, "Mindful Recovery," 2016–2018 (37 episodes)
- International speaker on trauma and addiction
Clinical Specialties
- Trauma treatment for autism spectrum disorders
- Addiction counseling for neurodiverse populations
- Complex trauma and PTSD in autistic individuals
- Mindfulness-based interventions adapted for autism
- Dissociative disorders and attachment issues
- Dual diagnosis treatment (autism and addiction)
- Sensory processing trauma and medical trauma
- Rural community mental health services
Ready to develop expertise in the overlooked intersection of autism and trauma? Discover how Robert Cox's Life Recovery Method can transform your understanding of how developmental differences affect trauma processing and give you the specialised tools needed to help neurodiverse clients achieve genuine healing and recovery.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 2
- Topics 5
- Duration 5.5 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English