Out of It: Trauma-Related Dissociation and Powerful Tools to Promote Reconnection
A client tells you they go blank. Another describes watching themselves from outside their own body. A third shuts down so completely mid-session that they stop responding at all. A fourth says the little girl she can see in her mind has nothing to do with her. All four get written up as dissociation, and if you treat them the same way, three of them will not move.
Kathy Steele has specialised in complex trauma and dissociative disorders since the mid-1980s, and her starting point here is that the word is doing too much work. She separates four kinds: problems of attention and awareness, physiological shutdown, depersonalisation and derealisation, and dissociation of the sense of self. Each has a different first intervention. Mindfulness is right for the first and will do very little for the second, where you need to work with the body before anything else. Getting that wrong is one of the most common reasons this work stalls.
Six hours, with most of the time on the fourth kind. She walks through how structural dissociation develops out of a child’s impossible position when the person they must attach to is also the person they must defend against, why that produces separate islands of experience rather than a dramatic split, and what that means for how you talk to a client about their parts. Then assessment, the interviewing that gets you there without blowing the client out of the water, and a set of treatment principles designed to sit inside whatever model you already work in rather than replace it.
You’ll walk away with
- Four types of dissociation separated clearly, with the different first intervention each one calls for and the reasoning behind it
- Physiological shutdown recognised on sight, including how muscle tone distinguishes it from freeze, and a graded way back that starts with small movements rather than asking someone to get up and walk
- How you use your voice with a client who has gone into shutdown, and why the usual therapeutic questions are the wrong tool in that moment
- Depersonalisation handled with acceptance rather than removal, on the same principle used with chronic pain, since trying to get rid of the symptom entrenches it
- A developmental account of structural dissociation that makes dissociative identity disorder ordinary rather than exotic, built on the child’s impossible choice between attaching and defending
- The passivity symptoms to ask about: feelings that do not feel like the client’s own, thoughts arriving or being taken away, movements the client watches their own body make
- Qualitative differences between voice hearing in dissociative clients and in psychosis, covering internal versus external, child voices, onset age, and conversation versus command
- Assessment instruments named and honestly appraised, including which is a screen rather than a diagnosis, and her argument for clinical interviewing first because these questionnaires can destabilise the client you are assessing
- A systems approach to parts, where the acting-out part is the identified patient and the system is what you are treating, illustrated with cases where the conflict was elsewhere entirely
- Safety as the non-negotiable, including how to read a client’s insistence on telling the trauma against the part that is signalling stop
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CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: 6 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Complex trauma survivors with dissociative disorders - and therapists working with clients who don't respond to traditional trauma treatments - often encounter therapeutic impasses that leave both client and clinician feeling stuck and overwhelmed. Kathy Steele has spent over three decades developing and refining approaches to the most challenging trauma presentations, becoming one of the world's leading authorities on structural dissociation theory and helping thousands of clinicians understand how to work effectively with dissociative disorders and complex PTSD.
As Past President and Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) and co-author of the groundbreaking The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization, Steele represents the pinnacle of expertise in trauma and dissociation treatment. Her award-winning book Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists (co-authored with Suzette Boon and Onno van der Hart) has become the definitive resource for practitioners worldwide. Her recognition with the Lifetime Achievement Award from ISSTD in 2010 and the Cornelia B. Wilbur Award for Outstanding Clinical Contributions reflects her transformative impact on the field.
Steele's expertise spans complex trauma, dissociative disorders (including DID), structural dissociation theory, attachment trauma, Complex PTSD, therapeutic resistance and impasses, and clinical supervision. Her approach, grounded in structural dissociation theory, helps clinicians understand how chronic traumatisation creates distinct parts of the personality that require specialised treatment approaches. She specialises in cases where clients have been unsuccessful in previous therapies, where dissociative symptoms complicate treatment, or where therapists feel overwhelmed by the complexity of trauma presentations.
What sets her training apart is theoretical depth combined with practical compassion. Known for her humor, warmth, and ability to present complex issues clearly, Steele doesn't just teach theory - she shows clinicians how to create safe therapeutic relationships with the most vulnerable and fragmented clients while maintaining their own emotional stability. Her 35+ years of private practice experience gives her unmatched insight into the long-term therapeutic process required for complex trauma recovery.
For your practice, expect to gain specific techniques for working with dissociative parts, tools for managing therapeutic resistance and impasses, and frameworks for understanding how structural dissociation affects treatment planning. Her approach particularly benefits clinicians working with complex trauma survivors, those encountering dissociative presentations, or practitioners seeking advanced supervision and consultation skills.
Quick Win: Steele's "parts mapping" technique helps therapists quickly identify and understand the different parts of a dissociative client's system - often reducing therapeutic confusion and creating a roadmap for safe, effective treatment that honors each part's protective function.
Qualifications
- MN, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 1983
- BS, Nursing, University of South Carolina, 1978
- Clinical Specialist in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing (CS)
- Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN)
- Adjunct Faculty, Emory University, current
- 35+ years private practice experience (1985–2022)
Authored Books
- The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization (co-author with Onno van der Hart and Ellert Nijenhuis, award-winning)
- Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists (co-author with Suzette Boon and Onno van der Hart, award-winning)
- Treating Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Practical, Integrative Approach (co-author with Suzette Boon and Onno van der Hart)
- Numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles on trauma and dissociation
Leadership & Professional Service
- Past President and Fellow, International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD)
- Board Member, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), two terms
- Task Force Member, International Task Force on Dissociative Disorders Treatment Guidelines
- Task Force Member, Joint International Task Force on Complex PTSD Treatment Guidelines, current
Professional Experience
- International Trainer & Consultant, Complex Trauma and Dissociation, 1990–present
- International Speaker & Lecturer, Complex Trauma Topics, 1990–present
- Private Practice, Adult Psychotherapy, Atlanta, GA, 1985–December 31, 2022 (35+ years)
- Clinical Director, Metropolitan Counseling Services (non-profit psychotherapy and training center), until 2016
- Member, Metropolitan Psychotherapy Associates, Atlanta, GA, 1988–2022
Clinical Specialties
- Structural dissociation theory and treatment applications
- Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and other dissociative disorders
- Complex PTSD and chronic traumatisation
- Attachment trauma and developmental trauma disorders
- Therapeutic resistance and treatment impasses
- Clinical supervision for complex trauma cases
- Psychotherapy integration approaches for complex presentations
Media & Recognition
- The Trauma Therapist Project podcast guest (2021)
- International recognition as expert in structural dissociation theory
- Regular contributor to professional trauma and dissociation literature
- Known for humor, warmth, respect, and ability to present complex issues clearly
Ready to work confidently with the most complex trauma presentations? Discover how Kathy Steele's structural dissociation approach can help transform your understanding of dissociative disorders and give you the tools to help even the most challenging clients find integration and healing.
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This course includes:
- Lessons 5
- Topics 0
- Duration 6 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English