DATE: 23-24.08.2019
PLACE: Research Centre for Trauma & Dissociation, SWPS University, Katowice (PL)
During a two-day workshop, held in English at the Research Centre for Trauma & Dissociation (Katowice, Poland), we will present basic theory behind trauma-related disorders and develop skills in the differential diagnosis of dissociative disorders, using a structured clinical interview Trauma & Dissociative Symptoms Interview (TADS-I). The interview allows for making a positive diagnosis of dissociative disorders (i.e. not by exclusion) and also of false positive diagnosis. However it requires some training and explanation of symptoms, which will be provided in the course.
We will present the possible answers that may be obtained in the interview and comment on intricate differences between dissociative and non-dissociative symptoms. These objectives will be obtained by presentation of clinical cases as well as video recordings of the interviews. The participants will perform a section of the interview using recorded material and will discuss the difficulties encountered in that task.
The theoretical part of this workshop will help participants understand why the concept of dissociation, used by various clinicians and researchers to denote different phenomena, has become unclear and misleading. Then, participants will become familiar with the theory of the structural dissociation of personality and how it can be applied to understand different mechanisms and symptoms in trauma survivors. This theory has been developed by Dutch clinicians (Onno van der Hart and Ellert Nijenhuis) in cooperation with Kathy Steele from US, who draw extensively on early ideas of the French clinician, Pierre Janet. During the workshop we will discuss in detail both psychoform and somatoform dissociation symptoms, illustrating them with video material. Popular screening tools for dissociation will also be presented.
The main part of the workshop will be based on TADS-I developed in recent years by Suzette Boon and Helga Matthes. Suzette Boon has worked together with Onno van der Hart within the framework of the theory of structural dissociation and the interview is the result of her 30-year experience in diagnosing and treating dissociative disorders. Helga Matthes is a German psychoanalyst and EMDR therapist and trainer.
PRESENTERS
Igor Pietkiewicz, PhD, is an academic teacher, researcher, certified psychotherapist and supervisor at the Polish Psychiatric Association. He is chair of the Research Centre for Trauma and Dissociation at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and a board member of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation. He has been conducting multiple studies in community health psychology and clinical psychology. He also conducts individual and group therapy in a day treatment centre and in his private practice. Read more
Radoslaw Tomalski MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist, certified psychotherapist and supervisor at the Polish Psychiatric Association and the Polish Society for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. He is the director of a day treatment center for psychosis in Sosnowiec and also has a private practice in Katowice. He has experience in both group and individual psychotherapy of adult patients with personality, dissociative, and psychotic disorders. He conducts research focused on dissociative disorders and related clinical issues and is a lecturer at SWPS University in Katowice. He is a country representative of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation (ESTD) for Poland.
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