Many therapists report problems in working with clients with dissociative disorders, especially in regards to developing the treatment plan, structuring the sessions, or managing the client's internal conflict, as well as working with those parts that are most challenging. When parts are stuck in trauma, it is easy to encounter a wide range of difficulties in therapy. Some of the main problems are related to the internal conflict presented by these clients, who show difficulties in regulatory capacities, distrust and hostility. Working with trauma requires approaching the difficulties of this clinical population, as well as developing skills to adapt the procedures and techniques.This book describes useful concepts to help therapists understand patients with dissociative disorders and organize the work plan with EMDR. In addition, a variety of techniques and tools for the different steps of the work will be illustrated, allowing for safe interventions with various types of clinical problems and dissociative parts. A conceptualization model developed specifically for the work with voices and dissociative parts is presented and illustrated through cases examples, as well as a guide to carry out a treatment plan adapted to several common difficulties. Reviews: What is a voice? The answer is easy, especially when you see it as a psychological experience and avoid superficially interpreting it as "psychopathological". In this fascinating book, Dolores Mosquera invites us to join her in a thorough and complete clinical journey reaching well beyond the psychiatric cliché that labels voices simply as schizophrenic symptoms. Dolores helps us understand that, first of all, voices are the manifestation of a complex (and often painful) structure of the personality. The wise and expert use of the trauma-informed lens creates the premises for acknowledging the importance, the reasons, and the protective goals of the different parts of the Self. These are often born out of traumatic experiences and raised in traumatizing environments, therefore it is common that the person will end up disowning and isolating these parts. In an unprecedented way, and with the rare talent of putting together clear therapeutic explanations with a multitude of real clinical cases, Dolores Mosquera shows us how to involve the clients in the work of observing and acknowledging "what is inside," starting from the voices, one of the most intense and scary aspects of their inner functioning. Dolores leads us in a fascinating journey from decreasing the phobia towards the different parts, to understanding the origin and function of the voices in order to better integrate them in a less conflicted, less dissociated and more adult Self. Each and everyone of these steps is carefully described and ordered in a way that generates constant interest in us, together with a genuine desire to apply these ideas straight away, with our next voice-hearing client. After the first part, more theoretical and descriptive, the reader will find an amazingly rich chapter with real clinical cases. In the end, you will very probably feel that this book is a wonderful gift for any psychotherapist and a must-read for anybody interested in the healing of people with complex trauma and dissociative disorders. Giovanni Tagliavini, MD Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist - Milan, Italy President, AISTED (Italian Association for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation) About the Author: Dolores Mosquera is psychologist and psychotherapist. She is the director of the Institute for the Study of Tauma and Personality Disorders (INTRA-TP), a private institution where she has worked for many years on cases related to severe traumatization. She works in a program for the treatment of abused women as well as in a male offenders program. Dolores also collaborates in the treatment programs of adolescents in youth correctional facilities. She has been trained in several psychotherapeutic approaches and is an EMDR Europe Consultant and Facilitator. Dolores has extensive teaching experience, leading seminars, workshops and lectures internationally. She has published many books and many articles on personality disorders, complex trauma and dissociation and is a recognized expert in this field. |