In the Room Together: Building Trust and Treatment Plans with Dissociative Identities/clients with DID
A deeper dive into diagnostic discernment, transference, and collaborative care
This two-part advanced webinar continues the work of Who Is Really in the Room and invites clinicians into the nuanced, ethical, and relational terrain of working with dissociative identities. Over two 4-hour sessions, we’ll explore:
- Ongoing diagnostic assessment and differential diagnosis
- Recognizing and responding to transference and countertransference
- Establishing safe, flexible boundaries in complex trauma treatment
- Identifying contraindications and comorbidities (e.g., EDs, SUDs)
- Understanding internal systems and parts dynamics
- Co-creating collaborative, sustainable treatment plans
Target audience: This course is appropriate for all mental health professionals
Content level: Intermediate
Educational Objectives
This webinar will teach the participant to
- Discuss strategies for identifying transference and countertransference when working with clients with DID.
- Apply a collaborative treatment planning framework that incorporates getting to know parts, obtaining parts involvement, and client readiness.
- Describe the importance of therapist self-awareness in the therapeutic relationship.
Syllabus
Transference, Collaboration, and Treatment Planning
- Brief reflection on Day 1
- Embodiment or parts-attunement exercise
Transference & Countertransference in DID Therapy
- Understanding transference across parts
- How countertransference can support or hinder progress
- Self-of-therapist practices for emotional regulation and repair
- Patient vignettes, lived experiences & discussion
Contraindications & Complicating Factors
- When DID treatment might not be appropriate—or safe
- Interference from ongoing abuse, coercive dynamics, or untreated addictions
- Working with denial parts
Collaborative Treatment Planning
- Establishing shared goals with systems
- Balancing part-specific needs with overall therapeutic direction
- Creative approaches to pacing the work and communication
Integration & Fusion are not what you think they are...
- Participant Q&A and lived experience/patient vignette reflections
- Final integration activity (e.g., journaling, part-voice check-in)
- Suggested next steps in DID-informed practice
- Resources and Consultation
