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A Practical Guide Through Complexity: Clinical Pearls and Supervision Series 2025

- An interactive, clinical consultation training series over 4 evenings between January and April 2025
A Practical Guide Through Complexity: Clinical Pearls and Supervision Series 2025
As trauma therapists, we regularly encounter profound layers of complexity that challenge even our deepest clinical expertise. Clients with persistent avoidance, dissociation, and complex personality dynamics often require us to pause, reconsider, and expand our approach. The Clinical Pearls series with Kathy Steele has been thoughtfully curated to address these nuanced challenges, providing both theoretical insights and practical supervision for working with the most intricate trauma cases.
Times:
Session 1: Navigating Extreme Avoidance and Amnesia in Complex Trauma Therapy
15th January 2025: Now available as a video course
Session 2: Navigating Personality Dynamics in the Treatment of Complex Trauma
19th February 2025:
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm, London UK
12:00 pm – 3:00 pm, New York, USA
Session 3: Narcissistic Defenses in Complex Trauma: Treatment Strategies and Insights
12th March 2025:
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm, London UK
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm, New York, USA
Session 4: The Roadmap to Healing: Treatment Planning in Complex Trauma
16th April 2025:
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm, London UK
12:00 pm – 3:00 pm, New York, USA
Webinar attendance links can now be downloaded directly from your ticket.
Check what time this course will be on in your time zone with our Time Zone Checker.
For more information on how to access webinar joining links, handouts and video recordings please click here
There is no known commercial support for this programme.
CPD and CE certificates will be issued separately for each session.
£ 288.00 Original price was: £ 288.00.£ 258.00Current price is: £ 258.00.

Receive a 5% discount if you buy more than one ticket for one course. Tell a friend!

Course Credits

Speaker(s)

Course length in hours
Location
Online streaming only
Full course information
This four-part series is designed to help you navigate the unique difficulties that arise when working with clients facing complex trauma and dissociative disorders. Whether it’s addressing extreme avoidance, understanding narcissistic defenses, or crafting coherent therapy plans amid crisis and comorbidity, each workshop provides you with actionable strategies, grounded in clinical wisdom and research.
What Makes This Series Stand Out?
One of the key features of the Clinical Pearls series is the integration of supervision throughout each workshop. Kathy Steele invites participants to bring real-life, anonymized therapeutic dilemmas for discussion, offering personalized, hands-on guidance. This supervision element ensures that the insights shared in the workshops are immediately applicable to your own clinical cases, making the series both intellectually enriching and clinically practical.
What Will You Explore in This Series?
- Workshop 1: Navigating Extreme Avoidance and Amnesia in Complex Trauma and Dissociative Disorders In this workshop, you will delve into strategies for breaking through the powerful defenses of avoidance and amnesia, which can block trauma survivors from engaging deeply in therapy. Learn how to work sensitively with clients who have significant dissociative barriers, while creating a therapeutic environment that fosters safety and gradual exploration. For for more information click here
- Workshop 2: Navigating Personality Traits and Disorders in Trauma Therapy This session focuses on how personality traits and disorders—often shaped by chronic trauma—complicate therapeutic interventions. Explore how to balance trauma processing while addressing rigid personality traits such as emotional volatility, distorted self-perception, and relational difficulties, all of which can hinder therapeutic progress. For for more information click here
- Workshop 3: Narcissism as a Trauma Response in Complex Trauma Narcissistic defenses, frequently misunderstood, can play a crucial role in protecting deeply traumatized clients from overwhelming vulnerability. In this workshop, you’ll gain tools to compassionately navigate these defenses, helping clients move from maladaptive coping strategies toward healthier, more adaptive functioning. For for more information click here
- Workshop 4: Treatment Planning in Complex Trauma Therapy Effective treatment planning is essential in trauma therapy, but in cases of complex trauma, it can feel overwhelming. Learn how to create structured, flexible treatment plans that address both trauma history and comorbid conditions, while maintaining therapeutic stability even in the face of ongoing crises. For for more information click here
Overall Learning Objectives for the Series:
- Identify and implement four advanced strategies for addressing extreme avoidance and amnesia in trauma clients: Develop nuanced interventions to help clients gradually approach repressed or dissociated content, without overwhelming their emotional tolerance. Clinicians will discuss how to balance safety with therapeutic progress, integrating pacing techniques and titration of exposure to avoid retraumatization.
- Analyze the intersection of trauma and personality pathology, differentiating between trauma-related symptoms and underlying personality disorders: Participants will assess complex personality traits (e.g., emotional dysregulation, distorted self-concept, relational conflict) in the context of trauma, understanding when these traits require separate or integrated treatment approaches.
- Formulate adaptive treatment plans for clients with complex trauma and dissociation, considering key prognostic factors: Structure treatment goals around clients’ dissociative capacity, emotional regulation, relational dynamics, and comorbid conditions. Clinicians will discuss how to prioritize interventions that balance immediate symptom management with long-term trauma processing.
- Apply tailored interventions for narcissistic defenses in trauma survivors, moving beyond surface-level presentations of grandiosity or self-centeredness: Clinicians will discuss how to recognize narcissistic traits as protective mechanisms and use compassion-based interventions to reduce resistance and engage clients in addressing their core vulnerabilities.
- Integrate at least five principles for navigating therapeutic challenges in clients with personality traits shaped by complex trauma: Clinicians will discuss specific strategies for working with difficult personality dynamics, including hypervigilance, emotional volatility, and avoidance. These strategies will include techniques for fostering emotional regulation, improving mentalizing, and guiding clients toward more adaptive interpersonal functioning.
- Critically evaluate the role of comorbidity in treatment planning for complex trauma: Participants will discuss the implications of comorbid conditions (e.g., depression, substance use, anxiety disorders) in the trajectory of trauma therapy. Clinicians will discuss how to adapt therapeutic approaches to manage these co-occurring challenges without derailing trauma processing.
- Enhance clinical practice through applied supervision: Utilize real-life clinical examples brought by participants to apply workshop principles in a practical, hands-on way. Through supervision with Kathy Steele, clinicians will refine their ability to adapt theoretical models to the complexities of their clients’ lived experiences, gaining personalized insights to improve their therapeutic approach.
Why Attend All Four Workshops?
Each workshop stands alone in addressing a vital theme in trauma therapy, but together, they offer a comprehensive approach to working with deeply traumatized clients. By attending the entire series, you’ll gain a full spectrum of insights that will allow you to see how these themes interconnect and inform one another. You’ll leave with a more integrated understanding of complex trauma, equipped with both the knowledge and the tools to navigate even the most difficult clinical challenges.
Moreover, the series allows for ongoing supervision with Kathy Steele, offering continuous professional development and a deeper exploration of the interconnected themes in complex trauma therapy. This supervision element is a unique opportunity for clinicians to refine their skills in real-time, receiving direct feedback and support as they work through challenging cases.
Maximize Your Learning or Pick and Choose
Whether you decide to attend the entire series or select specific workshops that resonate with your current clinical focus, each session offers valuable tools and strategies. By committing to the full series, you’ll experience the benefit of continuity, deepening your understanding of trauma therapy and enhancing your clinical effectiveness over time.
© nscience UK, 2024 / 2025
What's included in this course
- Presented by world-class speaker(s)
- Handouts and video recording
- 12 hrs of professionally produced lessons
- 1 year access to video recorded version
- CPD / CE Certificate
- Join from anywhere in the world
This four-part series is designed to help you navigate the unique difficulties that arise when working with clients facing complex trauma and dissociative disorders. Whether it’s addressing extreme avoidance, understanding narcissistic defenses, or crafting coherent therapy plans amid crisis and comorbidity, each workshop provides you with actionable strategies, grounded in clinical wisdom and research.
Learning objectives
- Identify and implement four advanced strategies for addressing extreme avoidance and amnesia in trauma clients: Develop nuanced interventions to help clients gradually approach repressed or dissociated content, without overwhelming their emotional tolerance. Clinicians will discuss how to balance safety with therapeutic progress, integrating pacing techniques and titration of exposure to avoid retraumatization.
- Analyze the intersection of trauma and personality pathology, differentiating between trauma-related symptoms and underlying personality disorders: Participants will assess complex personality traits (e.g., emotional dysregulation, distorted self-concept, relational conflict) in the context of trauma, understanding when these traits require separate or integrated treatment approaches.
- Formulate adaptive treatment plans for clients with complex trauma and dissociation, considering key prognostic factors: Structure treatment goals around clients’ dissociative capacity, emotional regulation, relational dynamics, and comorbid conditions. Clinicians will discuss how to prioritize interventions that balance immediate symptom management with long-term trauma processing.
- Apply tailored interventions for narcissistic defenses in trauma survivors, moving beyond surface-level presentations of grandiosity or self-centeredness: Clinicians will discuss how to recognize narcissistic traits as protective mechanisms and use compassion-based interventions to reduce resistance and engage clients in addressing their core vulnerabilities.
- Integrate at least five principles for navigating therapeutic challenges in clients with personality traits shaped by complex trauma: Clinicians will discuss specific strategies for working with difficult personality dynamics, including hypervigilance, emotional volatility, and avoidance. These strategies will include techniques for fostering emotional regulation, improving mentalizing, and guiding clients toward more adaptive interpersonal functioning.
- Critically evaluate the role of comorbidity in treatment planning for complex trauma: Participants will discuss the implications of comorbid conditions (e.g., depression, substance use, anxiety disorders) in the trajectory of trauma therapy. Clinicians will discuss how to adapt therapeutic approaches to manage these co-occurring challenges without derailing trauma processing.
- Enhance clinical practice through applied supervision: Utilize real-life clinical examples brought by participants to apply workshop principles in a practical, hands-on way. Through supervision with Kathy Steele, clinicians will refine their ability to adapt theoretical models to the complexities of their clients’ lived experiences, gaining personalized insights to improve their therapeutic approach.
You'll also be able to...
Develop the ability to interpret and modulate the body’s nervous system (sensory and autonomic) to regulate arousal levels in clients and for safer trauma therapy
Identify and acquire recovery options and strategies for trauma clients inappropriate for trauma memory processing, particularly for those who don’t want to and those who decompensate or dysregulate from memory work
Also develop the ability to interpret and modulate the body’s nervous system (sensory and autonomic) to regulate arousal levels for professional self-care

Kathy Steele, MN, CS has been treating complex trauma, dissociation, and attachment issues since 1985. She is in private practice with Metropolitan Psychotherapy Services and is Adjunct Faculty at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US. Ms. Steele is a Past President and Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) and has also previously served on the Board of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). She has been involved with developing treatment guidelines for Dissociative Disorders and well as for Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Ms. Steele has received a number of awards for her work, including the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from ISSTD, an Emory University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006, and the 2011 Cornelia B. Wilbur Award for Outstanding Clinical Contributions. She is known for her humour, compassion, respect, and depth of knowledge as a clinician and teacher, and for her capacity to present complex issues in easily understood and clear ways using an integrative psychotherapy model that draws from both traditional and somatic approaches. She is sought as a consultant and supervisor, and as an international lecturer.
She has co-authored three books as part of the acclaimed Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology: The Haunted Self: Structural dissociation of the personality and chronic traumatization (2006, Van der Hart, Nijenhuis, & Steele – W. W. Norton); Coping with trauma-related dissociation: Skills training for patients and therapists (2011, Boon, Steele, & Van der Hart – W. W. Norton); and most recently, Treating trauma-related dissociation: A practical, integrative approach (2017, Steele, Boon, & Van der Hart – W. W. Norton). She has also (co)authored numerous book chapters and journal articles.
Program outline
3 reasons why you should attend this course
- Courses delivered by internationally renowned experts.
- Our courses are stimulating, thought-provoking, therapeutically relevant and actionable.
- Join from anywhere: all registered delegates get access to a video recording after each event.


nscience UK is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. nscience UK maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
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