The 36th Annual conference, to be held in NYC in March, 2019, will offer a complete array of Pre-Conference workshops featuring some of the world’s leading trainers and thinkers in the field. The Pre-Conference sessions have been set up to provide clinicians and researchers full day, in depth sessions of cutting-edge information. A lot of time goes into the preparation of these days and the Annual Conference Committee hopes that the information within these sessions rejuvenates, educates, and excites our attendees. The list of Pre-Conference sessions include: Thursday:
- Sandra Baita: Shame, Avoidance and Rejection in the Clinical Work with Dissociative Children and adolescents
- D. Michael Coy and Jennifer Madere: Integrating the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation into Clinical Practice .
- Heather Hall and Michael Salter: Dissociative Disorders and Public Health
- Rochelle Sharpe Lohrasbe: Harmonizing Body and Mind – Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Trauma, and Dissociation
- Billie Pivnick, Jill Bellinson, Moderated by Joan Turkus: Remembering the Vanishing Forms of 9/11: Ruptures, Ripples, and Reflections
Friday:
- Kathy Steele, Dolores Mosquera, Suzette Boon: Integration Failures Across Diagnostic Categories in Traumatized Individuals
- Ken Benau and Sarah Krakauer: Pride and Shame in Psychotherapy with Relational Trauma and Dissociative Disorders
- Rick Kluft: Putting Ideas and Techniques to Work in the Treatment of DID: A Case Study-Driven Approach
- Adah Sachs and Michael Salter: Organized Abuse: The Criminology of Sexual Exploitation and Therapeutic Approaches
- Christine Forner and Mary-Anne Kate: Dissociation 101: A Comprehensive Exploration into the Field of Dissociation and Complex Trauma
As you can see, there are a variety of topics that cover issues with children, adolescents and adults. There is the updated Dissociation 101, which is designed to educate people who are beginning to work with complex trauma and dissociation. There will be a special course designed to explore, learn about and understand the impact of trauma and terror; this will include information regarding 9/11. There is a workshop on understanding how to use, and apply to clinical practice, the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation. There is a session that examines dissociation as a public health crisis, and another that examines organised sexual exploitation, with input from both criminology and therapeutic perspectives. Some of the most asked-for sessions are those which address difficult clinical issues. We have attempted to make sure that the pre-conference workshops have a heavy emphasis on this. In addition to the above workshops, we also have sessions which examine: the differentiation of the various types of integration failures that occur with different disorders, something that is sure to assist with complex case formulation; the difficult and ubiquitous issues of pride and shame in therapy; as well as the practice of specific clinical techniques such as sensorimotor psychotherapy. Of course, we look forward to hearing the clinical wisdom of Rick Kluft, shared through a unique case-presentation format. As a member of the conference committee since 2011, I have had the great vantage point of seeing the variety of sessions offered every year. We are working hard to include discussions that have been requested of us. If any Members have a great idea or a suggestion of a Pre-Conference lecturer or topic please send word to the conference committee. We will work towards including it in future conferences. If you have never made the investment of attending the Pre-Conferences, I highly recommend you consider attending. During these courses, all participants get a chance to intimately connect with experienced clinicians, researchers and innovators within the field of trauma and dissociation, most of whom have been doing this challenging work for decades. These classes are set up to be intimate, and full of content that you may not get anywhere else, all designed to advance your clinical practice, broaden your thinking, and challenge your research