Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) and Long-Term Health Conditions
This one day CPD event will examine how we can use the DIT model to provide a meaningful therapeutic intervention for long term health conditions, including Long Covid.
About this training
Patients presenting with functional somatic symptoms and long-term health conditions are very common in clinical practice. These patients are often considered to be ‘difficult-to-treat’ or 'hard-to-reach'. This CPD day will start with a brief discussion of recent advances in the psychodynamic understanding of these patients that open up important new avenues for the treatment of these patients. Relevant empirical evidence is discussed, including a series of recent meta-analyses of brief psychodynamic treatment for patients with functional somatic disorders and long-term health conditions.
The rest of the day will focus on key adaptations of Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) for this group of patients, including: (a) a greater emphasis than in “standard” DIT on empathic validation, and supportive and normalizing interventions more generally, particularly in the first phase of treatment, to counter feelings of misunderstanding and epistemic mistrust, (b) a greater emphasis on the DIT therapist’s use of flexibility in moving along the spectrum of interventions aimed at fostering mentalizing and interventions that focus on increasing insight into the patient’s IPAF, and (c) interventions aimed at increasing embodied mentalizing through micro-slicing of (interpersonal) experiences and events.
The training will be highly interactive and participants will have ample opportunity to discuss particular challenges of working with this group of patients -based on role-play and small group work.
Who is this training for?
This training is for all DIT practitioners as well as those who are completing the 20-Day DIT course. While knowledge of the DIT model is important, the course may be helpful for other clinicians who are working with long-term health conditions.
Dr Patrick Luyten
Programme Director, MPhil/PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies
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