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Module 1:

In this updated material, the structured clinical intake interview method is offered using an interview form as a handout. Beginning with enabling the client to choose “Attila,” the structured intake method, over the “Kindly Aunt,” the workshop reviews needed categories of information across client life domains. It also discusses how to embed questions in order to listen for undiagnosed dissociative conditions. It includes a video demonstrating the method. Finally, it will discuss indications for additional assessment.

Module 2:

This topic is based on Paulsen’s 2018 article in the journal Frontiers in the Psychotherapy of Trauma & Dissociation. The module greatly updates and expands on the article addressing case formulation and treatment planning in a refreshing way. It examines in what developmental phase trauma(s) occurs, whether there is narrative or just implicit memory, whether there is structural or somatic dissociation.

It examines whether and what type of preparation is indicated, and whether the case is suitable to standard or intensive treatment. It explores how the client’s self-system is structured, and how that determines loyalty to the aggressor and the need for ego state therapy. It addresses whether the client has positive and negative affect and soma tolerance.

All these indicate how long to “nest” or engage in Phase II Preparation, by identifying the need for somatic therapy, ego state therapy, Early Trauma EMDR or unmodified EMDR. There will be modules following this one to address in detail the first three elements of N.E.S.T., namely Neuroaffective Embodied Self interventions. The T in N.E.S.T. represents Therapy, reminding us that the eight phases of EMDR Therapy within the framework of AIP Theory subsumes and organizes all these methods and guides our clinical thinking.