Speaker Bio

The TOP DD Network Study is a web-based education program for people with dissociative disorders (DD) and their therapists. This program, called the “Finding Solid Ground Program” aims to help dissociative people understand and manage their symptoms and emotions, and enhance their safety and self-understanding. It also aims to teach therapists a conceptualization of DD patients’ symptoms and some basic interventions that stabilize DD patients’ struggles with self-harm and suicidality. Research shows this online program is associated with reduced symptoms and improved quality of life. Dr. Bethany Brand will describe Network study participants’ progress throughout the study and present an overview of the Finding Solid Ground program. She will also discuss the two books based on the program and the newest study which will continue the research on the Finding Solid Ground Program.

Speaker Bio

One of the most successful ways to support your inner community is to identify and relish your inner connections, using them to reduce our #traumatwisties. What might happen if you identifies and reinforced the positive ones? We'll define inner connections (and #traumatwisties!), learn the reasons the negative are so much more powerful, and identify at least ten positive ones you can strengthen. Our focus is on personal neuroplasticity and its beneficial use.

Speaker Bio

The recent #MeToo movement, documenting sexual violations across professional and occupational settings, makes clear that such events are alarmingly common.

This presentation will provide an overview of contemporary knowledge on SBVs, based on a recently published book on the topic, co-edited by three psychologists, including the presenter. Included will be a brief historical review, development of ethical prohibitions, prevalence findings, causes and severity, grooming tactics, as effected by racial and cultural contexts and issues of intersectionality, digital forms, aftereffects for victim and therapist, bystander action and inaction, intervention for both parties, and whether rehabilitation and a return to practice are possible for the offending therapist. This presentation is intended as a forum for discussion and as a educational effort aimed at awareness as prevention.

Speaker Bio

The holidays can be a stressful time even when there are some exciting aspects to them. We are often confronted with family expectations, our own expectations, time management and scheduling of commitments, finance reflection, budgeting and gift giving, food and meal prepping, tough topic conversations, boundary dilemmas, you get the gist, there is a lot wrapped up in the Holidays. Join me for a journey through some self-care practices to help you create your own unique self-care plan for you and your parts to help you all manage those pesky holiday triggers.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much”.-Helen Keller

Speaker Bio

One of the challenging aspects of healing the internal dissociative barriers in DID is finding pathways for disclosure of difficult narratives and communication between aspects of the self that hold those stories. Learning how to access a survivor’s story through the use of art journaling, therapeutic collage, mixed media exploration and other restorative processes can offer a powerful avenue for understanding. Lani will share from personal experience and from her work with trauma survivor’s how our story, expressed through Restorative Creativity, can support a collaborative path to wholeness.

Participants are encouraged to have blank paper or journal and pen for a creative exercise.

Speaker Bio

Clients and therapists alike often struggle with the problem of memory in trauma therapy. What is a real memory? How do previously repressed and dissociated memories emerge in treatment? How can clients process something they don't fully remember? Using structural dissociation theory and her own model of memory Susan will address memory work as a process of reassociation of the three components of memory: sensory, interoceptive or feeling state, and the narrative of what happened. She will distinguish between memory work needed for healing and memories needed for legal action and help treaters refine their role in addressing memory. She will describe the impact of non-belief of the client with themselves and the treater with the client and present a model for reassociating memory fragments. For more information about her work, visit Lotus Heart Counseling LLC

"Trigger warning. This presentation briefly discusses RA/MC. Please watch with care if you are sensitive to this."

Speaker Bio

Ever wonder how traumatic experiences alter the body and brain? Epigenetics is one way that external experiences are written into cells and can provide insight into the impact of trauma and mechanisms for healing. From the perspective of a neuroscientist and survivor, this seminar will explore mechanisms of epigenetics, discuss well-documented epigenetic markers of trauma, and explain how epigenetics both validates traumatic experiences and provides hope for healing. With this information, we can better understand why trauma is so impactful, how healing experiences change the brain in beneficial ways, and ways adverse childhood experiences can be overcome.

Speaker Bios

After several years of therapy, it was discovered that Shelley had DID due to early childhood sexual and ritual abuse. In this presentation, Shelley will read an excerpt from her book, "Brain Storm; a Life in Pieces.” She and Yael will discuss her therapeutic journey to wellness. Yael, who had treated patients with trauma for over 20 years, had not treated a patient with DID and whose history included ritual abuse. Using her experience, consultation, and research, she was able to piece together individualized healing modalities which worked for the different alters. Shelley was able to fully heal after about 7 years of intense work.

Speaker Bio

Sexual functioning is often an area of extreme challenge for those with DID and their partners. Improved sexual functioning is important to increase a sense of bodily agency, to enhance psychological well- being, and to allow full participation in desired adult relationships. This presentation will educate participants on specific strategies to increase sexual functioning and safety for survivors and supporters. These strategies include advanced system mapping strategies for sexual functioning, internal system communication including integration of somatic and sensory awareness and processing, enhanced interpersonal communication strategies for consent in sexual practice, and discussion of partner's specific needs, concerns, and considerations. An overview of pelvic pain and pelvic floor disorders will be discussed in the context of sexual recovery. This presentation will deliver a roadmap for the extremely complex task of sexual recovery for those living with DID. Additionally, it will provide a uniquely synthesized framework and strategies for therapists working with survivors of sexual abuse.

Speaker Bio

Supporting someone with DID can be challenging. Especially with an unstable system, the relationship can be confusing or volatile; and the supporter can feel alone in their experience. Yet, loving someone with DID can also open the supporter to healing opportunities that may not otherwise present. In this presentation, Michelle shares her story as a supporter loving someone with DID and how she healed in ways she never imagined because of this relationship.

Speaker Bio

Have you heard that yoga is a helpful tool for trauma recovery? Indeed it is, and yet as with most practices, when we are supporting people recovering from complex trauma and dissociative disorders, there are special considerations to take into account to minimize risk and maximize opportunities for healing. In this 90-minute workshop, Lisa Danylchuk, Founder of the Center for Yoga and Trauma Recovery, will share essential theoretical and philosophical underpinnings that you can apply to both clinical work and yoga class settings to support clients in their process of trauma recovery. You'll learn what role the nervous system plays, and how you can make choices with clients to support self-regulation in the face of trauma cues. After this session, you will be able to identify how differing styles, paces, and choices of yoga shapes and breathing practices can meet clients where they are and cultivate awareness, connection, and stability in a gentle, paced way. This workshop will include lecture, discussion, and short accessible practices. Please bring your questions and be ready to explore these practices for yourself.

Speaker Bio

Eating Disorders are highly prevalent in the DID community. Traditional eating disorder treatment does not always meet the special needs of the DID patient and likewise, DID treatment often does not include acute eating disorder care. In this discussion, we will learn about what makes eating disorders in the DID client so different. Can separate parts have separate eating disorders? They sure can! Using research studies and Dr. Kaufman's personal case study, we will review examples of how eating disorders in DID clients are recognized, how they are unique, and how they require their own individualized treatment planning. We will touch on some of the difficulties the DID patient faces when seeking ED vs. DID treatment and finally, we will also include some new findings on what happens with chronic eating disorder symptoms as symptomatic parts are integrated.

Speaker Bio

Clinicians who focus on working with dissociative disorders often do not have training in the variables surrounding the concept of neurotypes, such as autism, and how they can affect treatment progress. Historically, clinical training around working with autism focused on guiding the individual to behave more neurotypically. These kinds of models tended to create or increase dissociation for autistic clients for a variety of reasons. More recent forms of neurodiversity-affirming models have sought to correct this, and create an environment that is more affirming and supportive for the needs of those who are neurodivergent. However, these methods have not been widely applied to those with severe dissociative disorders who are also autistic, and as such have unique considerations. Since autism is a neurotype, all alters and parts within an individual will also be autistic. But they may present with different aspects, sensitivities, types of masking and traits. Knowing how to assess autism traits in different system members can assist with greater collaboration and growth internally as well as greater access to skills that can assist with regulation. In addition, autism sensitivities and trauma impacts should be considered as something to be held and worked on together with a client, since these issues can intertwine and escalate each other.

Speaker Bio

Medical care is generally offered with the intent to help. However, what happens when the medical care itself - and/or the context of it - ends up traumatizing, overwhelming, or re-traumatizing? Understanding of some aspects of trauma has improved, yet the realities of medical trauma are still very often dismissed or minimized, even though its impact can be profound and long-lasting. Moreover, because medical care is practically inescapable, traumatized persons may be left with no other way to cope but to dissociate. This can complicate medical interactions and lead to misunderstanding, stigma, additional stress, and further trauma. This presentation will explore the contexts, realities, and impact of medical trauma, along with the transformative possibility of trauma sensitive care, communication, and openness to creative solutions. Audience comments and questions will be welcomed.

Speaker Bio

A common frustration shared by individuals with dissociative disorders, experiences, or identities, is the problematic portrayal of dissociation in media, especially films and television. This presentation offers insights from the presenter's new book "Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Life" on what people who live with consistent dissociative experiences have to say about media portrayal. A call to action is made on how one can be an advocate for new and more responsible representation of dissociation in the public forum.

Speaker Bio

So many adults with DID struggle with sleep. Insomnia, recurrent nightmares, night terrors and other problems are very common complaints. The effects of poor sleep don't end with feeling tired or irritable. Sleep issues can increase self-harm, deepen depression, trigger dissociation, and damage physical health. Seeking help from doctors and therapists is often an exercise in frustration. This is understandable: standard treatment protocols rarely address the effects of a severely traumatic childhood and living as a dissociative system. Many people with DID fear going to sleep or being in bed in ways that other sleep therapy clients do not. Trauma treatment doesn't harness the power of the emerging neurobiology of sleep science. Learn how more targeted and trauma-aware sleep strategies can improve your nights as well as your days!

Cathy Collyer is a sleep consulting coach. For more information, visit her website at: www.360sleepconsulting.com

Speaker Bio

The opposite of dissociation is presence, however grounding is only one option for being present. It’s common for survivors to become triggered, or for people with chronic pain, body dysphoria, and other disabilities to have a low tolerance of grounding techniques or being present in their body. This presentation will discuss the problem of grounding, why presence is important, and offer up many alternatives for how to become more present without using physical grounding techniques. This topic is suitable for survivors, professionals and supporters.

Speaker Bios

Are you tired of watching Hollywood depict people with DID as murderers and rapists? Do you wish you had a film to show your friends/family to help them better understand the struggle of living with unhealed trauma and dissociation? Given that DID has often been inaccurately and negatively portrayed in film/television, Dylan Crumpler created his senior thesis film at Chapman University to realistically depict the life of a woman with DID. Dylan wrote a screenplay with his mother, Holly Crumpler, who has DID, and then developed it into a film.

Petals of a Rose was screened this February at the Healing Together Conference. The audience was blown away, declaring the film groundbreaking - the most accurate depiction of DID ever made. Since then, the film has received international acclaim, and has been used by numerous clinicians in training sessions, college courses, and therapeutic settings. Holly and Dylan have gone on to share Petals of Rose at numerous conferences and educational events. Due to the incredible global reception the film has received, the subtitles have been translated into multiple languages.

During this session, Petals of a Rose will be screened, followed by a discussion with Dylan, Holly, and Holly’s husband/Dylan’s father, Grady Crumpler, who wrote and recorded much of the music that is used in the film. The discussion will include insights into the vision for the film, the filmmaking process, how trauma response, dissociation, dissociative identities, and coping mechanisms are illustrated throughout the film, and ideas of how the film may be used for training and therapeutic purposes.

Dylan will share his experience of being raised by a mother who has DID, while Holly shares her story of being diagnosed with DID at age 51 and reflects on the impact of living with unresolved traumas and undiagnosed DID. Grady will reflect on his 38-year relationship with Holly and his role as a supporter to his wife with DID. They will also discuss how the making of Petals of a Rose has also been a crucial component of their healing journeys.

Following is the link where you can watch the film and learn more about its impact:

www.dylancrumpler.com

Speaker Bio

Finding a therapist familiar with dissociation isn't easy, but once you find a prospect, what should you ask about their background and approach? And once you start working with a therapist, what is reasonable and helpful to expect from them? What are some indicators that a therapist is not a good fit? And what are warning signs of unethical or potentially harmful behavior?

Speaker Bio

Trauma, like many of life’s inherent uncertainties, are out of our control. During recovery setbacks are inevitable. In context of October's impact on RA/MC survivors, Sharri addresses those with dissociative identity emphasizing hope and empowerment in times of instability and crisis. Sharing her personal journey with a mental health crisis after knee replacement surgery, severe sleep deprivation, and getting her husband confused with a former perpetrator, she ended up in the ER and spent 16 days in a behavioral health unit. She highlights the roadmap she used in making a psychiatric advance directive and crisis prevention plan with resources, support and alternatives to hospitalization and shares the importance of establishing safety and stability and found that crafting this plan during moments of stability and tranquility can profoundly shape our recovery trajectory. Without this strategic foresight, we may risk tumbling from crisis to crisis, grappling with disorientation and substantial regression. The power of preparation by proactively charting our course can counteract the unpredictabilities by navigating the intricate interplay of life’s challenges and triumphs. Drawing from her journey she offers advice on identifying the patterns and behaviors that are warning signs of a possible crisis or relapse, helps to build a resilience toolkit; imparting practical strategies.