Suzette Boon och WONSA arrangerar webinar tillsammans

Suzette Boon har arbetat i över 30 år med patienter med komplex traumatisering och dissociativa störningar. WONSA anordnar utbildning med Suzette ungefär 1 gång per år.

Getting stuck in therapy with patients with a complex dissociative disorder: Treatment of “Difficult” Patients

A one day webinar on Friday October 23

Time: 9.00- 12.30 am and 1.30-17.00 pm.

Every therapist has encountered a “difficult patient” who engenders feelings of guilt, rage, shame, humiliation, helplessness, and incompetency, and who seems to resist virtually any efforts toward progress. In the face of massive resistance, the therapist may retreat into destructive enmeshment or distancing with the patient.

The actual prognosis of a ” difficult” patient depends to some degree on the goodness of fit between patient and therapist, and on the skills and experience of the therapist, as well as on certain prognostic indicators that should be used to screen for appropriateness for outpatient psychotherapy and to plan a workable therapy. The “difficult” patient can typically be understood as having extreme problems with four related issues:

1. dissociation
2. chronic defenses against perceived relational threat (e.g., criticism, rejection, abandonment, or engulfment and control)
3. chronic defenses against inner experience (e.g., affects, cognitions, physical sensations, wishes, needs)
4. difficulties in self regulation

On top of these problems there maybe ongoing abuse which makes the therapy more complicated.  Interventions are first directed to the therapist, who must learn to empathically understand the patient’s behavior, and act with reflection rather than with reaction. This reflective stance is a treatment strategy in itself for the patient, and paves the way for further interventions. Strategies for the therapist and patient will be discussed extensively.

This one day webinar can be followed by a second day of case consultations provided there are enough participants.

Suzette Boon, Ph.D.

Treatment of traumatic memories, realization and integration in patients with complex dissociative disorders

A one day webinar on Friday  December, 11

Time: 9.00- 12.30 am and 1.30-17.00 pm.

After a phase focusing on stabilization an symptoms reduction, in phase II the focus turns to working with memories of traumatic experiences. Effective work in this phase involves remembering, tolerating, processing, and integrating overwhelming past events. In this workshop several techniques to integrate traumatic memories will be discussed. First we will discuss a checklist to evaluate if a patient is ready for phase II work.  And if a patient is ready, where do you start? How do you plan and schedule the sessions? What is needed to maintain safety during this phase? How can patients contain their feelings if the work becomes too intense? How do we know that a memory is sufficiently integrated? Special focus will be on the “guided synthesis technique”  (Boon & van der Hart, 1995; Van der Hart, Nijenhuis& Steele, 2006; Steele, Boon & Van der Hart, 2018 ).

Participants in this webinar should be acquainted with stabilization techniques that were taught in earlier workshops.

Suzette Boon, Ph.D.