On-Demand Course 
Watch anytime, anywhere, with your 1 year access!
Challenges in the Therapeutic Relationship with Complex Trauma and Dissociation:
What Our Treatment Models Don't Tell Us
with Kathy Steele, MN, CS, APRN

Course Description

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Most contemporary trauma approaches emphasize trauma processing, making an implicit assumption that the therapeutic relationship will not be problematic or challenging, or at least not offering intensive treatment approaches. But we know that enactments of trauma are common - even expected- and find expression in the relationship between client and therapist.

 

We will explore a variety of relational challenges, both from the perspective of the client and their transferences, and the therapist and their countertransferences. Although this is not an issue for all clients with complex trauma and dissociation, many do have intense relational distress that emerges in the therapeutic relationship. These experiences are tremendous opportunities to resolve avoidance, excessive demands, disappointments and ruptures, and overwhelming yearning in relationships. Many clients with dissociative disorders may have multiple and contradictory experiences of the therapist, adding an additional layer of complexity.

 

Participants will learn about a number of different relational difficulties and effective approaches to their resolution. Enactments of trauma create intense relational conflicts, and the therapist may unwittingly participate by becoming defensive and withholding, or by appeasing or caretaking the client. Participants will learn a particular collaborative model to begin treatment with clients, approaching attachment issues once safety has been established and the client has sufficient skills to tolerate the intensity of attachment processing. 

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Learning Objectives 

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Participants will be able to: 

1. Describe the basic underlying neurobiological and evolutionary foundations of attachment and dependency problems in complex trauma and dissociation.

2. Apply at least five (5) strategies to effectively manage relational challenges in therapy with complex trauma survivors.

3. Discuss one (1)  collaborative model for the therapeutic relationship that can be effective in containing and treating relational difficulties in complex trauma.

4. Identity at least two (2) multiple and contradictory transferences present in clients with complex dissociative disorders and

5. Utilize at least three (3) interventions to reduce the client’s conflicted transference.

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1 YEAR access:  Your registration comes with 1 year of access to the recorded program and to any materials the presenter has made available. Once you finish the program's requirements, you can receive a certificate with CEs for home study learning. *Exception applies, see CE section