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Be confident to identify and treat dissociation, so that your interventions start working effectively for people with complex trauma.

Dr Catherine Hynes, developed in partnership with Pracademics

Enrol in the course and get free access to our mini-course Structural Dissociation Made Simple now

  • What is Complexity to Clarity?

    In Complexity to Clarity, Catherine helps trauma therapists move people with complex trauma forward in treatment, without learning yet another therapy. This course will help even when your client's favourite response is "yeah, but ..."! This means survivors will be ready to safely explore their trauma and ultimately start healing.

  • Does this sound familiar?

    Your client consistently attends appointments and engages well, but your usual strategies don't seem to work and they aren't getting better. Or maybe every time you try to teach a skill that other clients benefit from - they don't want to try it, they don't seem to get it or they flat our refuse saying "this wouldn't be helpful." After repeated sessions like this, you might start to wonder if your client is getting any benefit and question your competence as a therapist. Meanwhile your client interprets their lack of progress as further evidence of being flawed and unworthy - which makes them feel worse.

  • What if ...

    What if you already have the skills you need to effectively treat your client, you just need to re-formulate their presentation? Often, these clients have a dissociative disorder that interferes with the efficacy of usual evidence-based treatment. Once the dissociation is identified and addressed, then your usual suite of evidence-based tools will start to be effective.

Pay upfront and save

The full course fee is $750 with 3 monthly instalments, but if you pay upfront you can save $65

Feedback from our February 2024 intake

See why other clinicians loved this course.

5 star rating

Highly recommended

Samantha Harskamp

Give theory and practical skills to apply. This is an amazing course

Give theory and practical skills to apply. This is an amazing course

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5 star rating

Essential training for trauma therapists

Margie Fry

This is a great course and the missing link for me. The course is easy to follow, interesting, a great mix of videos, cases and text (not big slabs!). Cather...

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This is a great course and the missing link for me. The course is easy to follow, interesting, a great mix of videos, cases and text (not big slabs!). Catherine is so engaging and I know my work is already improving from having done this course and I feel at low risk of burn out too.

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5 star rating

Satisfied customer

Annelise Beckmann

Hello, to whomever reads these reviews :) I'm writing to primarily convey my delight & gratitude about this very accessible course. The layout was beaut...

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Hello, to whomever reads these reviews :) I'm writing to primarily convey my delight & gratitude about this very accessible course. The layout was beautifully balanced, with 'bite sized' concepts presented with mixed media that supported understanding as well as allowing much needed mental breaks. There was also just the right level of repetition. A great application of education principals (ie building on already presented ideas), that worked for me (a student approaching 'trauma informed practice' for the first time, well after only dipping my therapeutic toes in). If I was asked 'what else could be added' (& encouraged to be greedy) I'd suggest just a couple of things: a) suggestions to assist clients who reject practices such as mindfulness & visualisation (the bedrock of grounding & containment I think); b) reference to the cultural attributes (of both clinicians & clients - eg religion or class) that can make it tricky to apply some of the recommended methodology; and, c) a gentle challenge to all clinicians to explore their own experience of disassociation (that some of my colleagues refer to as 'advanced compartmentalising') & ensure they remain accountable to quality supervision. It may also be worth adding that perhaps structural disassociation could be more common for those of us attracted to the helping professionals than is talked about. The latter assertion is my guess/opinion of course but I found similar convictions in the work of Janina Fisher (see Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors).

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5 star rating

Course review

Gabriele Thomson

Excellent

Excellent

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5 star rating

Learned a lot

Jack Menges

The quality of the content and the clarity with which it is delivered are both exceptional. I really appreciate the way Catherine is able to take complex con...

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The quality of the content and the clarity with which it is delivered are both exceptional. I really appreciate the way Catherine is able to take complex concepts and make them easy to understand and put into practice. Thank you

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5 star rating

complexity to Clarity - Feb 2024

Donna Fyfe

great course and resources provided along with relevant videos, was the right mix of reading and videos.

great course and resources provided along with relevant videos, was the right mix of reading and videos.

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What does the program include?

The program includes A LOT of content and contact with Catherine. The amount of content in this course would usually take about 12 months to teach a new supervisee. In addition, you have access to ask Catherine all your key questions through the Community of Practice page and Live Q&A. So if you attended the equivalent 15 supervision sessions you would pay $3,750 (15 x $250p/h). This course is 3 monthly payments of $250... but if you pre-order, it is only $685, which is amazing value!

  • Monthly e-learning modules, outlining key theoretical contents with engaging and interactive content - that you can work through at the times you learn best.

  • Monthly live consultation practicums with Dr Catherine Hynes to answer your questions on the content and troubleshoot challenges you may experience applying the content to your clients.

  • A suite of resources that you can use for assessment and treatment, including worksheets, videos to explain key concepts and in-between session activities.

  • Access to a community of practitioners at a similar stage of learning to help you learn vicariously and understand the content at a deeper level by engaging with others. You can also join an optional free peer supervision group at the conclusion of the training to continue the development of your knowledge and skills in this area.

Engaging interactive content and community

The strategy that will transform your practice.

This course is embedded in neuroscience, yet delivers the content in a way that is easy to digest and practical to apply. You will learn how to identify and stabilise dissociative experiences, map the structure of your clients dissociative parts and develop harmony between parts so they are prepared for resolving past traumas.

Our instructor Dr Catherine Hynes

Catherine explains if this course will help you.

Don't just take our word for it

Read some of the reviews from our 2023 students.

5 star rating

Great Training

Ian Macdonald

Excellent conversion training for complex material into an application format. Particularly useful for anyone who may have already read literature surroundin...

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Excellent conversion training for complex material into an application format. Particularly useful for anyone who may have already read literature surrounding structural dissociation or other parts models and trying to unify their understanding.

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5 star rating

Hugely informational course

Janice Liew

This course did a great job at making dissociation easier to understand and provided a great framework to work with structural dissociation. The Q&A sess...

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This course did a great job at making dissociation easier to understand and provided a great framework to work with structural dissociation. The Q&A sessions with Catherine were top-notch & helped to bring everything together to make sense. I've come away knowing that I have lots of learning still to do but feeling like I have a good foundation as to where to start. Highly recommend.

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5 star rating

helpful foundational knowledge

Tina Moynihan

excellent introduction to dissociation and trauma work

excellent introduction to dissociation and trauma work

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5 star rating

An accurate descriptor for the course content

Margaret Askew-Walinda

Solid reinforcement of how to treat dissociation with some nuanced ideas that improve parts work. e.g Internal Reparenting; getting clear on values

Solid reinforcement of how to treat dissociation with some nuanced ideas that improve parts work. e.g Internal Reparenting; getting clear on values

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5 star rating

Excellent training

Viktoriya Kalmykova

One of the best training I had in life, from the content to the format, using different modalities of presentation of material which makes it very interactiv...

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One of the best training I had in life, from the content to the format, using different modalities of presentation of material which makes it very interactive and easy to focus. Excellent structure great combination of simple to digest language and depth. Looking forward to more training from Catherine!

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5 star rating

complexity to clarity module 1

Merri Hughes

Module 1

Module 1

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5 star rating

MODULE 3

Jennifer Smith

Really found the mapping of parts - SUPER helpful. Hearing Chelsea present the client and Catherine list down all the parts she hears was excellent. Thank yo...

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Really found the mapping of parts - SUPER helpful. Hearing Chelsea present the client and Catherine list down all the parts she hears was excellent. Thank you. Really found the role play video’s fantastic too, in learning what we can say as well as pace of the session. Also learnt that i really need to ground my client in the room more, i just felt like i was bugging them, but repeating this…. Thank you. There is a lot to learn, and this module provided concepts and a framework to keep in mind when working with clients with Dissociation. The different interactive multimedia modes were engaging and kept my attention. But I did feel under pressure to read and digest the content before the Q&A in order to get the most out of the session. I wonder if having longer to review the content before the Q&A could help?! The Q&A sessions are an invaluable aspect to this course too.

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5 star rating

Fantastic

Kim De Deckker

An incredibly helpful course. I have worked through this course very slowly, taking each part of my learning back to relevant clients and essentially workin...

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An incredibly helpful course. I have worked through this course very slowly, taking each part of my learning back to relevant clients and essentially working through the course with them - I found the pace fantastic and the content very relevant and helpful.

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Pay upfront and save!

This is our last intake for 2024, so if you are keen to join us - you can pay upfront and save $65.

Course Modules

Select the arrows to see lessons in each module

  • 1

    Welcome

    • Course Navigation

    • Our community of practice.

  • 2

    Module One: Structural Dissociation Made Clear

    • Welcome from Catherine

    • Optional Video: Polyvagal Theory

    • Optional Video: Neuroscience of Emotion

    • Lesson One: How do I know if my client has dissociative parts?

    • Lesson Two: A map of dissociative parts

    • Lesson Three: The neurobiological underpinnings of emotional (child) parts

    • Lesson Four: Surviving trauma with internal protectors

    • Lesson Five: Therapy - BYO Adult

    • Lesson Six: You are more than the sum of your parts - integrative capacity

    • Lesson Seven: What now?

  • 3

    Module Two: Preparation

    • Welcome to Complexity to Clarity

    • Lesson One: Sliding Doors

    • Lesson Two: Julie comes to treatment

    • Lesson Three: The neurobiology of dissociation

    • Lesson Four: Monitoring and engaging the frontal lobes

    • Lesson Five: Teaching functional compartmentalisation

    • Lesson Six: Building a safe therapeutic relationship

  • 4

    Module Three: Formulation

    • Lesson One: Psychoeducation about trauma and adaptation

    • Download: Psychoeducation video for clients

    • Lesson Two: Introducing the language of parts

    • Lesson Three: Your turn to practice introducing parts

    • Lesson Four: Mapping parts

    • Lesson Five: Time to harmonise

  • 5

    Module Four: Harmonisation

    • Lesson One: Overview of Harmonisation

    • Lesson Two: Mutual Awareness

    • Lesson Three: Time Orientation

    • Lesson Four: Role Identification

    • Lesson Five: Gratitude and Compassion

    • Lesson Six: Learning Internal Parenting

    • Lesson Seven: Developing new roles

    • Lesson Eight: Building a Sense of Authenticity

    • Final video

Who is this course for?

  • This course is perfect if...

    You have undertaken some basic training in treating clients with PTSD or Complex Trauma, but are new(ish) to working with dissociation.

  • This might not help if ...

    You are completely new to working with trauma and looking for an introduction to this area - OR you are already confident in working common dissociative presentations.

FAQ

  • When do we get the modules?

    You will get access to our mini-course "Structure Dissociation Made Clear" within a week of pre-ordering. The first module "Preparation" will be released when the course officially begins on 16th Sept and the following modules will be released on the 7th October and 11th November. You will then have ongoing access for 12 months.

  • When is the live Q&A practicum?

    The live Q&A practicums will be held monthly at 7:30-9:30am on Wednesday mornings on 2nd October, 23rd October and 27th November 2024.

  • What if I can't make the live session?

    If you can't make the live session, you can submit your questions ahead of time and Catherine will answer them during the session. We will also record the session and give you access to it the next day.

Nuanced, essential and practical

Pilot participant

This course has absolutely transformed the way I understand, conceptualise, and attend to dissociation in my practice. Nuanced, essential and practical are words that come to mind when reflecting on the content of this training. Highly recommended.

Catherine has a knack of making this seem like a simple topic"

Email from course participant

"I just wanted to say how fantastic the course is. I really appreciate the quality of the content and the extremely clear way in which it is presented. Catherine has a knack of making this seem like a simple topic! I do think so many people frame dissociation as some mystical, secret set of skills and I'm glad Catherine doesn't do that."