3-Hour Dissociation Treatment Made Simple

Credit

Speaker

Antonieta Contreras, LCSW R, CCPT II Related seminars and products

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Antonieta Contreras, LCSW R, CCPT II, is a licensed clinical social worker, trauma specialist, author, and educator with over a decade of clinical experience working with individuals impacted by complex trauma, developmental trauma, dissociation, and relational injury. She is the author of Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders (Routledge, 2023) and How Deep Is the Wound? A Guide to Investigating, Understanding, and Resolving Your Emotional Pain (2025).

Her work focuses on clarifying the full spectrum of emotional injury – from extreme and complex trauma to more common yet highly impactful emotional wounds – through a neurobiological and systemic lens. She supports clinicians in moving beyond oversimplified nervous system explanations toward precise, developmentally informed case conceptualization and effective treatment planning. Her approach integrates neuroscience, attachment theory, dissociation theory, and relational models into clear, accessible frameworks that enhance clinical decision making without sacrificing depth or nuance.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Antonieta Contreras has employment relationships with NY Counseling Services, The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, Instituto Medico Imaya, Instituto Peruano de Psicología Contextual S.A.C, Udima University of Madrid, IPC, and New York University. She is the developer of the Emotional Architecture Model and Structural Emotional Reorganization framework. Antonieta Contreras receives royalties as a published author. Antonieta Contreras receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Antonieta Contreras is the co-founder of the New York Association of Trauma therapists and a member of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation.

 

Additional Info

Program Information

You will have access for 90 days after the program for review. For live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. Please note that this requirement may vary by credit type. Please see detailed credit information for specific requirements for each credit type.

Please note: There will be a 15-minute break mid-morning. Actual break start time is at the discretion of the speaker. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.

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Objectives

1. Distinguish dissociative presentations based on their underlying mechanism and level of psychological organization (e.g., perceptual, regulatory, compartmentalized, structural, or personality-level).
2. Identify how dissociative presentations including depersonalization, derealization, amnesia, identity discontinuity, and structural fragmentation differ in developmental origin, neurobiological substrate, and treatment implications.
3. Differentiate dissociative processes from other trauma-related responses (e.g., avoidance, emotional numbing, shutdown states) by recognizing their distinct phenomenological and neurobiological mechanisms.
4. Recognize and differentiate dissociative processes as they emerge in session, distinguishing transient regulatory states, attachment-triggered shifts, chronic dissociative patterns, and non-pathological dissociative experiences through clinical observation and relational attunement.
5. Apply targeted clinical interventions that address dissociative processes at the appropriate level of organization while maintaining regulatory safety and systemic coherence.
6. Develop a structured treatment roadmap that aligns trauma processing, pacing, and intervention decisions with the client’s level of dissociative organization.

Outline

Foundations of Dissociation Research and Neurobiology

• Understand the neurobiology of the development of dissociative processes
• Understand trauma research and the limitations of pathology focused models
• Develop an accurate assessment and effective treatment in dissociation
• Introduction of dissociation as a spectrum of processes

Dissociative States and the Spectrum of Dissociation

• Common dissociative processes and how to recognize them in session
• Key differences between adaptive, overload-based, and trauma-related dissociation
• Momentary regulation vs. attachment triggered vs. chronic dissociation
• Recognize dissociative states in the therapy room through clinical observation

Clinical Skills to Identify Dissociation in Real Time

• Clinical interventions for spotting and addressing non pathological dissociative states
• Apply clinical observation and relational attunement skills for coregulation
• Clinical intervention for spotting and addressing trauma-based dissociation
• Understand when stabilization supports treatment and when it shifts into avoidance

Working with Dissociation Without Destabilizing the Client’s System

• Match clinical interventions to the level of client’s dissociative organization
• Clinical skills for supporting integration without reinforcing fragmentation
• Clinical skills to maintain regulatory safety within clients’ window of tolerance
• Practical strategies for addressing dissociation during trauma processing
• Clinical scenario and guided discussion

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Counselors
• Psychologists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Psychiatrists
• Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
• Social Workers
• Other Mental Health Professionals