Dissociative Identity Disorder: Best Practices for Working with Complex Trauma, Attachment Wounds, and Multiplicity

Credit

Program Information

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Speaker

Greg Nooney, MSW, ACSW, LISW, LCSW Related seminars and products

Narrative Space LLC

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Greg Nooney, MSW, ACSW, LISW, LCSW, has worked with clients with serious mental illness and dissociative disorders for over 35 years. He’s received specialized training in treating severely dissociated clients and is the author of Diagnosing and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Guide for Social Workers and All Frontline Staff (National Association of Social Workers Press, 2021).

A highly respected trainer on trauma-related dissociation, dissociative identity disorder, ethics, narrative therapy practices, treating severe trauma, and burnout, Greg shares his years of knowledge and clinical experience with professionals at seminars and conferences throughout the country.

He has worked in mental health centers, psychiatric hospitals, private practice and most recently at Burgess Health Center where he was the director of the mental health section for a decade. He is an adjunct instructor at the University of Iowa School of Social Work and has served as a field instructor for Master of Social Work Students at the University of Iowa, University of Nebraska, and the University of North Carolina. Greg earned his master’s in social work from Loyola University in Chicago and is available to provide workshops and trainings as well as supervision to social workers, and consultations for therapists working with clients with DID. He can be contacted through his website at www.gregnooney.com.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Greg Nooney has employment relationships with the University of Iowa School of Social Work and Burgess Mental Health. He receives royalties as a published author. Greg Nooney receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Greg Nooney is a member of the National Association of Social Workers.

Additional Info

Program Information

For live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. You will have access for 90 days after the program for review.

Please note: There will be a 70-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.

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Objectives

1. Analyze the role of attachment wounds and early childhood trauma in the development and treatment of clients with dissociative disorders.
2. Use dissociative-related enquiries in initial assessments to better identify dissociative symptoms in clients.
3. Differentiate dissociative identity disorder from other disorders to make more accurate diagnoses and avoid false positives or false negatives.
4. Use cognitive and somatic approaches to aid in the stabilization phase of treatment in clients with DID.
5. Manage rapid personality switching with in-session strategies to lessen disruption to the therapeutic process.
6. Use trauma-focused approaches to improve traumatic memory processing in the treatment of clients with DID.

Outline

Etiology of Dissociative Identity Disorder and OSDD

• Attachment: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized
• Multiplicity Continuum
• History and Prevalence: developmental model, inaccuracy of the sociocognitive model
• Research limitations and potential risks

Diagnostic Process:
False Negatives, False Positives and Co-Morbid Disorders

• Initial Assessment Interview: important questions often overlooked
• DSM 5™ criteria
• Co-morbid disorders
• False positives and false negatives
• Case study demonstrating detailed steps

The Three Foundational Pillars

Resourcing

• Attunement
• Mindfulness/Somatics
• Imagination

Getting to Know the Alters

• Introductions
• Roles
• Internal World

The Three Cs 

• Communication
• Cooperation
• Co-consciousness

Working with Memory Gaps, Rapid Switching and Other Challenges

• Introduction of the ten aspirations designed to maximize positive clinical outcomes
• Maximize attunement: therapist to themselves, therapist to client, and client to themselves
• Finding ways around dissociative barriers
• How to handle secrets and unreliable memory
• Decompensation: how to work with rapid switching
• Compassion fatigue and the dangers of countertransference

Dimensional Scale of Clients’ Inner Worlds

• Structure
• Organization
• Layers of Alters
• Responsible Adults
• Dissociative Barriers
• The Three Cs
• Child alters

Trauma Specific Work with DID Clients

• Determine which alters need to be involved in the processing
• Components of the traumatic memory
• Alters and preferred resourcing method
• Clinical guidance for processing
• How to end the session and return the client to the present
• Safety planning
   

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Mental Health Professionals
• Crisis Intervention Specialists
• Psychiatric Providers
• Physicians
• Nurses