Working with Trauma, Dissociation, and Psychosis

Develop a humanistic understanding of how adverse life events can lead to reactions such as dissociation and psychosis, and then learn approaches and skills which will allow you to support people in changing those reactions and turning toward recovery!   

After taking this course, you will be able to bring a truly trauma informed perspective into your work with people who are struggling with the most serious disorders.   

Topics covered include:   

·        Optimal style of therapy

·        Shifting from “what’s wrong” to “what happened” & “what next”  

·        Building coherent, self-compassionate recovery narratives  

·        Incorporating mindfulness approaches  

·        Overcoming dissociative splits  

·        Shifting from suppression to boundaries along with some openness  

·        Finding & working with themes in metaphorical expressions  

·        Spiritual considerations
 

Work toward the possibility of true healing, not just “managing an illness”!
 

Though mainstream approaches still commonly focus on biological factors, a large body of research now provides strong evidence that psychosis is often an understandable reaction to trauma, abuse, and other adverse experiences, with dissociation commonly at the center of that reaction. 
 

This course presents a science based yet very humanistic and understandable conceptualization of the complex difficulties which can occur in response to adverse life events, and then teaches how CBT and other approaches can be used to help people change their relationship with these experiences, opening up possibilities for recovery. 
 

Included in the course are video lectures, slides with some diagrams, lots of case examples, exploratory exercises, and links to additional resources for study.   

The course will take 6 hours to complete.

Who this course is for:

• This course will primarily be of interest to mental health workers who work with people who have experienced both trauma and psychosis
• The ideal student might be a therapist, but case managers, peer support specialists, nurses, medical providers and other support workers will also find much they can use.
• The course may also be of interest to people with lived experience of psychosis and to family members who would like to better understand these tricky experiences and what might possibly help people do better.