Working with Complex Trauma and Dissociation 101
Friday 23 June 2023
Workshops run 9.30am - 4.00pm - via ZOOM
*This training will only be held once per annum. Please contact us if you are interested but unable to make this date.
Content of this one-day webinar:
Working with Complex Trauma and Dissociation
This interactive webinar considers what trauma is and what we mean by complex trauma. It addresses why complex trauma and related dissociation requires adjustments to our practice. If we are more familiar with general counselling work, complex trauma and dissociation bring a new depth and dimension many professionals struggle to cope with. Some providers worry they will 'get it wrong' or 'make things worse' and mistakenly believe that there are 'many specialists out there' so they do not offer help to these clients at a time when there is such unprecedented demand and so few specialist providers in Aotearoa.
It is designed to assist you in how to adapt your approach to start working with clients with these needs and to do so with increased confidence. A useful framework is offered to expand your ability to pace the work and to learn how to widen your window of tolerance to the complex material you may hear. This training will help you in turn to help your client to build their own confidence and window of tolerance to move towards recovery from the trauma they have suffered. As you put on your oxygen mask, you are then better placed to help the other to put on theirs, as they are coming up for air from their trauma experiences.
Diane Clare is an experienced therapist and clinical psychologist working for over 40 years in the field of trauma and dissociation across a range of different settings. She has worked with clients with high levels of complexity often having complex PTSD and Dissociative difficulties. She offers supervision and training to providers who are challenged by the way that complex trauma impacts on their practice and on their capacity to manage their own responses to some of the confronting issues arising.
Through GROW, Diane already offers a range of workshops on practical skills relating to the issues arising in general therapeutic practice (e.g. working with BPD, NSSI, STEPPS for managing emotional intensity and ACC assessments). During these training days it has become clear that there is a need to understand why and how working with complexity brings new challenges and how to manage them.
The Learning Outcomes:
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Stance of the therapist: Understand the key principles and implications for changes in practice when working with complex trauma and dissociation.
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Unfortunate consequences: Grasp the implications and risks if these adjustments are not made. This will be illustrated by the washing machine of chaos, the avoidance void, and the rabbit in the headlights.
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Pacing the work and timing your interventions will be demonstrated with the ISSTD Tri-phasic model for working with complex trauma (International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation). The pacing is there for the safety of the client and of you!
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Establishing a framework for best practice. A few guiding principles are recommended and illustrated within this tri-phasic approach to help build your client's window of tolerance.
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Resources that can assist these phases are offered and anonymised cases are used to illustrate their usefulness.
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Caring for you too! Understanding how hearing about trauma can traumatize you (vicarious traumatisation) is a crucial part of the work. This will be discussed as how you too can manage within your own window of tolerance, and to gradually expand it over time.
Who Should Attend:
Counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other therapists and mental health workers who are engaged in general counselling practice currently but who want to gain more confidence working with complex trauma and dissociation. If you often have people who consult with you, but you are not sure how to frame a suitable approach, this webinar may also help you to pace the work effectively and safely.
Additional Training:
There may be time to briefly look at a few case examples in the Complex Trauma & Dissociation workshop or webinar. However, for any more detailed discussion, a follow up workshop or group based supervision option may be offered for those interested after attending this initial webinar. This could be Complex Trauma and Dissociation 201 in keeping with the other workshops and will be offered based on feedback received form the initial webinar..
Extremes of dissociation like Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously multiple personality disorder) are not covered in detail in this introductory workshop. If there is sufficient interest in DID and similar complexity, a further follow up workshop will be offered at a later date
