Session Three - Screening and Assessment of Dissociation in Children and Adolescents

April 2, 2025

Session Description
This module sets a framework for exploring and understanding dissociative symptoms as survival tactics necessary for coping with past trauma, that therapist and client mutually affirm. Exploring five classes of symptoms related to dissociation, sometimes with the aid of screening tools and clinical techniques, helps client and therapist arrive at a shared working model of how dissociation has protected them and currently gets in the way of accomplishing goals. Issues of diagnostic classification, differential diagnosis, and co-morbidity are revisited. 

Readings

  1. Silberg, J. (2021). Diagnostic Considerations. In The Child Survivor: Healing Developmental Trauma and Dissociation (pp. 39–47). Routledge.
  2. Silberg, J. (2021). Assessing Dissociative Processes. In The Child Survivor: Healing Developmental Trauma and Dissociation (pp. 47–69). Routledge.
  3. Baita, S. (2022). The Inside-Outside Technique: exploring dissociation and fostering self-reflection. In V. Sinason & R. Potgieter Marks (Eds.), Treating Children with Dissociative Disorders: Attachment, Trauma, Theory and Practice (pp. 155–167). Routledge.
  4. Cardeña, E., Gušić, S., & Cervin, M. (2021). A Network Analysis to Identify Associations between PTSD and Dissociation among Teenagers. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 23(4), 1–19.

Webinars

  1. Hosey, J., & Bennett, B.-J. Assessing for Dissociation: Improving Treatment Outcomes to Promote Post-traumatic Growth in Trauma Therapy with Children and Youth. Compounding and Confounding Components in the Assessment, Treatment, and Healing from Complex Trauma and Dissociation (2022 Virtual Conference). Virtual.
  2. van Eys, P. Assessing Complex Trauma and Dissociation in Youth with an Intergenerational Lens. The World Congress on Intergenerational Trauma (2021 Annual Conference). Virtual. 

Timed Outline
30 Minutes: Discussion of Readings 1– Diagnostic considerations
30 Minutes: Discussion of Readings 2 & 3, and Webinar 1 – Assessing dissociative processes
30 Minutes: Discussion of Readings 2 and Webinar 1 (cont.) – Screening and diagnostic assessment tools
30 Minutes: Discussion of Reading 4 and Webinar 2 – Assessing the child in context
30 minutes: Introduction of the case study
 

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Describe, with examples, the five classes of symptoms related to dissociation
  • Use several screening and diagnostic assessment tools designed for child and/or adolescent dissociative symptoms
  • Discuss the importance of a thorough exploration of transition moments as they relate to a shift in self-states into problematic symptoms and behaviors
  • Explain the concept of Imaginary Friends as it relates to “transitional identities” and likely precursors to dissociative self-states
  • Compare and contrast transdiagnostic symptoms that may suggest dissociation and/or competing diagnoses
Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 2.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 2.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2024 – 08/20/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 2.50 continuing education credits.
  • 2.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 2.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program. No certificate of completion is generated for this type of credit.
Course opens: 
11/01/2024
Course expires: 
07/31/2025
Event starts: 
04/02/2025 - 5:30pm EDT
Event ends: 
04/02/2025 - 8:00pm EDT
Part of: 
The Assessment and Treatment of Traumatic Dissociation in Children and Adolescents | Hosey 2025
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Available Credit

  • 2.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 2.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2024 – 08/20/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 2.50 continuing education credits.
  • 2.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 2.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program. No certificate of completion is generated for this type of credit.
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