Complex Topics Regarding Complex Trauma

This program addresses vexing issues when treating adults with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). We’ll discuss conceptualizations/controversies regarding dissociative phenomena and specific ideas for symptom management and treatment planning. We cover common co-morbidities among people who have CPTSD with dissociation, including evidence-based methods for management of anger/aggression as well as substance abuse. Sociocultural considerations are addressed throughout as well as the implications of the neurobiology of trauma particularly as the latter relates to fear, anger, aggression, and the self-medication hypothesis regarding substance abuse.

• Discuss the controversies involving the Trauma Model of Dissociation versus the Sociocognitive Model of Dissociation.
• Describe techniques for treating people with dissociation that do not promote fragmentation.
• Explain techniques for symptom management of aggression and anger, especially when anger threatens therapeutic rapport.
• Describe the self-medication hypothesis regarding substance abuse as well as benefits and limitations of available treatment options.

Tamara McClintock Greenberg, PsyD, MS