Course Description

It is imperative that children with complex trauma receive effective treatment early in their lives before their symptoms reach an apex necessitating hospitalizations, residential placements, or ruptured home placements. A child’s use of dissociative strategies has a profound influence on attachment, affect regulation, behavior control, cognition. This workshop will describe core symptoms of dissociation, and how these can overlap with other disorders and a review of the use of a comprehensive dissociative checklist for caregivers and children. The use of a specialized doll, ©Allmee, will demonstrate how to help children describe their inner life of self-states and how to lay the groundwork for treatment. An example of how to manage hostile self-states effectively with playful EMDR interventions will be described during the phases of EMDR treatment with children with dissociation.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to describe core dissociative symptoms and differentiate dissociative symptoms from other disorders. They will be able to distinguish self-states and use developmentally appropriate ego- state language through play therapy with a specialized dissociation doll, specialized doll, ©Allmee.
2. Participants will be able to apply prescriptive play therapy activities/somatic resourcing to decrease dissociative episodes in and out of the playroom during preparation and reprocessing phases of EMDR.
3. Participants will be able to demonstrate identifying different types and roles of emotional parts, including angry and hostile self-states, and initiate internal communication and cooperation in drawings and work towards resolution of perpetrator memories using Phase 4.

Presenter(s)

Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT

Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a Registered Play Therapist, and a faculty member of both the Child Trauma Institute and of University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Annie travels throughout the US and internationally providing trauma-informed trainings and agency and therapist consultation. She is a trainer of EMDR, Progressive Counting, and Attachment & Dissociation, and is the Chair of the EMDRIA Child and Adolescent Special Interest Group. She has extensive training in complex trauma, family therapy, play therapy, and restorative justice, and over 25 years’ experience in serving children, teens, families, and adults.

Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S

Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S, has a private practice in Buffalo, New York specializing in attachment and child trauma, and she also works with adult survivors. She is a Registered Play Therapist and supervisor and Approved Provider of play therapy continuing education, an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant, and a faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute, in addition to serving as the training chair for the EMDRIA Special Interest Group for children and adolescents. She has given trainings around the US and Asia. Her primary interest is in the intersection of play therapy and EMDR and has previously published on this topic.

Fran Waters, DCSW, LMSW, LMFT

Frances S. Waters, DCSW, LMSW, LMFT, is an internationally recognized trainer, consultant, and clinician in childhood trauma, abuse, and dissociation, and past president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation. Ms. Waters is author of Healing the Fracture Child: Diagnosing and Treating Dissociative Youth (2016) and has published many chapters and articles on childhood trauma and dissociation. Ms. Waters developed a comprehensive checklist of indicators of trauma and dissociation, CIT-DY(2020) (Parent & Youth Versions), that is a developmentally sensitive rating system for preschoolers through adolescents. She is the recipient of numerous awards.