Trauma & Dissociation: Assessment & Treatment
New to GIFR? Welcome! Create your account by clicking here. If you already have an account, please log in to proceed.
Training Description
This course is designed to fulfill the goal of describing the presentation and course of treatment of dissociative identity disorder in childhood trauma survivors.
This course is designed for professionals who have seen between five and 15 cases of some type of dissociative disorder within the past five years, or who have no experience with these disorders and would like an update and overview of where the field is now. This course examines the major theory and research contributions to our understanding of the dissociative disorders, with particular attention on trauma, resilience and attachment research. The course will also focus on assessment, with a review of screening as well as diagnostic instruments and ways to understand and assess the frequently-appearing comorbid disorders of borderline personality disorder (and other personality disorders), somatoform disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder as well as issues of factitious disorder and malingering.
In addition, the course focuses on the treatment of dissociative disorders, including issues of treatment frame and boundaries, communicating with “alters,” transference/countertransference problems, use of specialized techniques such as hypnosis, EMDR, art therapies. Special problem areas that will be covered include problems with memory, treatment trajectories and integration. Risk management issues will be discussed throughout the course.
Trainer Biography
Steven Frankel PhD, JD, ABPP (Clinical and Forensic), is founding President and Curriculum Director of the Steve Frankel Group (SFG). He is a Clinical Psychologist (PSY3354) and an Attorney at Law (SBN192014), and is a Diplomate in both Clinical and Forensic Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. He earned his PhD at Indiana University, and interned at the Psychiatric Institute of Columbia University. He then joined the full-time faculty of the University of Southern California, where he served for eleven years, including five years as the Chair of Clinical Psychology (Director of Clinical Training). Although he is no longer full-time, he remains a Clinical Professor of Psychology at USC.
After leaving full-time university service, Dr. Frankel entered clinical practice, with both in- and outpatient responsibilities. Beginning in 1980, his psychology practice focused increasingly on the diagnosis and treatment of post-traumatic and dissociative disorders. He began consulting relationships with trauma treatment programs of private psychiatric hospitals in 1990. In 1993, he joined with Walter and Linda Young in the opening of a unit for the treatment of traumatic and dissociative disorders at Del Amo Hospital in Torrance, CA and remained a consultant to the program until July of 2000. An ISSD member since 1990 and Fellow since 1998, he was elected President of the ISSD for 2001-02.
Dr. Frankel began the practice of law upon graduation from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law. His legal practice is in health and
Learning Objectives
This training is designed to help you:
- Identify three component symptom clusters caused by trauma
- List at least three factors associated with high degrees of resilience
- Be able to define resilience
- Distinguish between dissociation and repression
- Define “trauma-bonded: alters
- Distinguish between “problems” and “principles”
- Describe at least two varieties of “switching”
- Describe at least two forms of affect management
