Intended Participants: Participants must be licensed mental health professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, mental health counselors) who are personally treating a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder or Dissociative Disorder NOS. Other health professionals, e.g., physicians and nurse practitioners, are encouraged to inquire about their interests with Lynette Danylchuk to determine if their background might fit the seminar content. While we are not interested in a homogenized group, and like diversity, we also must attend to the need to provide an educational experience where people's basic backgrounds will allow for individual growth in the context of growth for the group as a whole.

Meeting Frequency: Once monthly for 9 months.

Course Format: This course is designed for 2.5 hour sessions of combined literature discussion/lecture and discussion of cases presented by students. Actual session format is at the discretion of ISSTD faculty.

This course syllabus and bibliography are the property of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). Please do not copy or distribute without permission from the ISSTD. The ISSTD may be contacted at info@isst-d.org

Session-Specific Objectives

Session 1: Advanced topics on the development of dissociation.

Participants will:

1. understand the basic paradigms of attachment research.
2. understand the categories of infant-parent attachment.
3. understand the implications of attachment on the development of dissociation.

Session 2: Advanced topics on treatment frame/principles.

Participants will:

1. understand the role of resilience and treatment trajectories in treatment planning.
2. understand the relationship between phase oriented treatment and treatment trajectories.
3. illustrate the understandings of Objectives 1 and 2 through case presentations.

Session 3: Advanced topics on transference and counter-transference.

Participants will:

1. understand traumatic transference.
2. understand complex countertransference problems.
3. illustrate the understandings of Objectives 1 and 2 through case presentations.

Session 4: Advanced topics on countertransference and boundaries.

Participants will:

1. understand the range of countertransference responses to dissociative processes.
2. understand common vs. subtle countertransference problems.
3. illustrate the understandings of Objectives 1 & 2 via case presentations.

Session 5: Advanced problems on communicating with alters.

Participants will:

1. understand complex interaction patterns (e.g., unwillingness or inability to communicate, etc.)
2. understand the role of alter hierarchies in communication problems.
3. illustrate the understandings of Objectives 1 & 2 via case presentations.

Session 6: Advanced problems on treatment pitfalls & pacing.

Participants will:

1. understand complex pitfalls (e.g., reenactments).
2. understand approaches to management of pacing.
3. illustrate the understandings of Objectives 1 & 2 via case presentations.

Session 7: Advanced problems on memory work.

1. understand the differences between treatment oriented toward metabolizing traumatic memory vs. treatment oriented toward tolerating and managing emotions such as shame.
2. understanding the problem of patients who wish to act on their “recovered memories” through confrontation and/or legal action.
3. illustrate the understandings of Objectives 1 & 2 via case presentations.

Session 8: Advanced problems on adjunctive treatment modalities.

Participants will:

1. understand hypnosis as orientation to treatment vs. intervention strategy.
2. understand the role of interventions such as EMDR, TFT, EFT, etc., in the treatment of the dissociative disorders.
3. illustrate the understandings of Objectives 1 & 2 via case presentations.

Session 9: Advanced problems on integration and termination.

Participants will:

1. understand the controversy surrounding integration as a goal for all DID/DDNOS patients.
2. understand ways to manage re-splitting episodes.
3. illustrate the understandings of Objectives 1 & 2 via case presentations

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