Upcoming Seminars

Please select the blue "View & Purchase" button below next to the event you wish to attend.

Course Information

Challenges in Treating Structural Dissociation: A Practical, Integrative Approach

The treatment of highly dissociative patients remains a significant challenge for therapists who work with complex trauma. Evidence based treatments for this population are still in their infancy. Kathy Steele is a renown expert in the field who, along with her colleagues Suzette Boon, Ph.D and Onno Van Der Hart, PhD, has developed a model of intervention based upon advances in neuroscience, neuropsychology, and trauma research, as well as decades of extensive experience working with and supervising others who work with this population. This two-day workshop will introduce participants to this integrative, phase-oriented model of treatment for structural dissociation.

Day One:
Day One will explore the neurobiology and psychology of structural dissociation, and distinguish it from other phenomena that are also called dissociation in the literature. This theoretical overview gives a strong foundation for practical clinical approaches recommended by practice guidelines. These specific approaches will be discussed throughout the workshop. Participants will learn how to formulate a rational and step-wise treatment plan that allows clients to progress toward better integrative functioning in a sequenced way that is within a window of emotional tolerance. The most effective ways to work with a subjective sense of separateness will be discussed. We will explore the tasks and goals of therapy with dissociative disorders across phases of treatment; what is similar and different in treatment for clients with dissociative disorders; prognostic indicators that can guide treatment; and stabilization approaches specific to clients with structural dissociation.

Day Two:
Day Two will explore common challenges and dilemmas in treatment. These include difficulties with the therapeutic relationship, such as dependency, challenges to therapeutic boundaries, and avoidance of connection; how to develop a collaborative relational approach that emphasizes safety rather than attachment; common resistances and how to work with them; and how to recognize and manage re-enactments.

There is no conflict of interest or commercial support for this program.

 

Presenter

Kathy Steele, MN, CS, APRN

2010 – 2017 Member, Complex PTSD Treatment Guidelines Task Force, a joint project of ISSTD and Division 56, American Psychological Association.
2008 - Present Editorial Board, Journal of Trauma and Dissociation
 

Target Audience:

Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, Nurses, MFTs, Counselors, Substance Abuse Counselors, Occupational Therapists

 

Course Objectives:

  • Explore the neurobiology and psychology of structural dissociation and how it differs from other phenomena also called “dissociation”.

  • Provide a strong theoretical foundation for practical clinical approaches recommended by practice guidelines.

  • Learn to formulate a step-wise treatment plan that facilitates progress towards better integrative functioning

  • Discuss the tasks and goals of therapy with dissociative disorders across phases of treatment

  • Discuss throughout the workshop specific therapeutic approaches for addressing those tasks and goals

  • Explore common challenges and dilemmas in treatment including difficulties with the therapeutic relationship (e.g. dependency, boundaries, avoidance of connection), common resistances, and managing re-enenactments

 

Agenda

Agenda

 

Day 1 Morning

9:00-10:30 Introduction to dissociation

Four phenomena described as dissociation in the literature

Is a normal to pathological continuum helpful?

Disorganized attachment: The unsolvable dilemma at the

heart of dissociation

10:30-10;45 Break

10:45-12:00 An evolutionary perspective on dissociation: The polyvagal

theory in clinical practice

Interruptions to the development of self in dissociative

Disorders

12:00-1:00 Lunch

Day 1 Afternoon

1:00-2:30 Case formulation in dissociative disorders

Phases of treatment

2:30-2:45 Break

2:45-4:15 Goals of treatment

Stabilization approaches in dissociative disorders

Day 2 Morning

9:00-10:30 Integrative approaches to working with dissociation

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:00 Challenges in attachment and dependency

A different model of relationship: Collaboration vs.

Attachment

12:00-1:00 Lunch

Day 2 Afternoon

1:00-2:30 Challenges in the therapy frame and boundaries

2:30-2:45 Break

2:45-4:30 Working with resistance, counterresistance, and

re-enactments