Treating Complex PTSD, Dissociation and Dissociative Disorders
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Integrative Treatment: Understanding the Connection between Attachment, Complex Trauma and Dissociation AND Traumatic Shame and the Therapist: Complex Ethics for Complex Clients
Join Kimber Olson in learning about complex trauma and dissociative disorders. This training will establish an overall framework for the gold standard in the phasic treatment of complex trauma that may be co-morbid with dissociative symptoms and the use of dissociative agents such as substance abuse.
MAY 19, 2017: Day one focus onUnderstanding the Connection between Attachment, Complex Trauma, and Dissociation and will set the foundation for understanding how the three are correlated and compound one another exponentially. Participants will be taught therapeutic interventions for all three phases of treatment, from safety and stabilization, through trauma resolution, working within the alter system of dissociative clients, and through habilitation/integration, leaving with a basic understanding of the trauma treatment model and preparing them for further study in this area.
June 30, 2017:Day two will exploreTraumatic Shame and the Therapist: Complex Ethics for Complex Clientsincluding how the therapist reacts to clients with complex trauma histories, how enactments, re-enactments, transference and countertransference, dissociative attunement and projective identification play out in the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client.An emphasis on vicarious trauma prevention and treatment, and a deeper understanding of self care will be presented.Participants will leave with the understanding that those professionals who have a high standard of connection to their theoretical model and also a high connection to their understanding of their own countertransference will fair the best when working with clients who have a complex trauma history.Therapists will be taught specific techniques to improve self care, prevent vicarious trauma, and use countertransference to actually improve and move the therapy forward.
Clinicianscompleting the two-day trainingwill leave with an intermediate level of understanding of attachment, complex trauma and dissociative disorders, how they interact with and are correlated with substance use, eating disorders, and other diagnostic labels. They will be able to use their own theory and sense of self to facilitate a reduction in difficult symptoms such as self-injury, trance states, dissociative switching, rage reactions and other acting out. Additionally, they will gain skills in the area of ethics as it applies to complex trauma, which is significantly different from the treatment of non-traumatized clients.
There are a total of 14 expected credits available for this training, including 3 specific to ethics, 2 specific to substance abuse and 3 specific to Culture.
Kimber Olson, LCSW, BCD, C-ACYFSW
Kimber Olson is a board certified, licensed clinical social worker. Her nearly 20 years of mental health experience includes work in outpatient communitymental health centers, in school-based programs, providing city-wide on-call and crisis management services, home-based and hospital-based therapy, community health development coordination, and long-term residential treatment. She is currently in private practice where she specializes in the treatment of complex trauma and dissociation with both children and adults.
Kimber Olson is the co-author ofThe Thursday Group, a story and information for girls healing from sexual abuse, available from Neari Press and Amazon, and the author of thePathway to Hope Video Guidebook, a companion resource for thePathway to Hope: Healing Child Sexual Abusevideo developed to help Native communities in Alaska understand and address the sexual abuse of children and to promote healing. She co-authored, with Diane Payne and Jarad Parrish, thePathway to Hope: An Indigenous Approach to Healing Child Sexual Abuse(International Circumpolar Health Journal, 2013). Kimber is a faculty member of the Professional Training Program and also the Chair of the Alaska Regional Component Group for the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissocation. ISST-D supports therapists working in the field of trauma and dissociation, and promotes higher learning and increased skill in these areas. She has taught as an adjunct instructor in the social work and human services departments of the Kachemak Bay Branch of the Kenai Peninsula College in Homer, and has presented nationally and internationally, as well as throughout Alaska and in Indian Country on complex trauma, attachment, dissociation, eating disorders, ethics, compassion fatigue, and other topics. In her private therapy practice, Kimber specializes in working with individuals who have experienced attachment difficulties, complex developmental trauma, and dissociation. She has training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, including the Early Trauma Protocol, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy, and the Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping). She uses bottom-up brain based exercies and stabalization and grounding teachniques with individuals to create a calmer brain with which to eventually be able to process trauma.
Basic Schedule
Disorganized Attachment, Trauma and Dissociative Disorders
Substance Abuse as a dissociative agent and it's connection to trauma
Working with Dissociation, a phase based treatment
The Ethics of countertransference, re-enactments and self care
Treatment Interventions
The cost for this will be $250.00 for both days or $150.00 for an individual day
Who Should Attend?
This will be a course that is appropriate for therapists who already have knowledge of complex trauma and are in the beginning and intermediate stages of their understanding of treating dissociative disorders including DID. For those who are beginners, you are welcome as well. Those with training in EMDR and sensorimotor psychotherapy may have a particular interest in this course.