Challenging Moments in Trauma Treatment: Working with Complex Dissociation

This workshop will describe the effects of complex dissociation arising from developmental trauma on mind, brain, and body and the devastating effects it can have on interpersonal relationships, leaving the traumatized individual feeling disembodied, isolated and estranged. The workshop will outline challenging moments in therapy related to dissociation, including working with dissociative flashbacks, voice hearing, chronic out of body states, self-mutilation, severe emotional numbing, as well as compartmentalization of emotion and related self-states. The neurobiology underlying chronic traumatization will be described and related to the phenomenology of traumatized individuals who experience dissociative symptomatology. Clinical case examples will be utilized to illustrate relevant concepts throughout the lecture; experiential exercises and role play will be used to illustrate key clinical interventions.

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Educational Objectives

At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Recognize, assess, and treat the dissociative and non-dissociative aspects of each of the four dimensions of consciousness,…