Complex PTSD. Managing the patient in psychotherapy sessions

Crises frequently occur in the lives of people who have experienced complex trauma. When a crisis happens in a therapy session, the therapist faces both a challenge and an opportunity that can alter the course of the therapy and the client’s life.

In this class, filmed examples of in-session crises will be viewed in order to illustrate key principles and tactics for preserving safety and restoring co-regulation and client self-regulation. Therapist countertransference, vicarious trauma, and self-regulation also will be considered as a key focus. A trans-theoretical approach integrating crisis management, therapeutic alliance building and trauma memory processing will be presented. The crises and therapist responses will include:

• Dissociation by a mother, son and daughter

• Dissociative identity disorder by a young man

• Dissociative self-harm by a young woman

• Rage directed by a father toward his son

• A young mother overwhelmed by hopelessness
 

Attendee cases also will be discussed to demonstrate the application of a complex trauma framework through crisis resolution principles and tactics in the session.