Clinical Topics & Methods Category

Parsing the Contributions of Attachment and Trauma in Pathways to Dissociation, Suicidality, and Borderline Personality Disorder

1.5 CE Hour
3 members have taken this course
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About the Course

Disorganized attachment processes have been theorized to contribute to a range of trauma-related psychopathologies in adulthood. Dr. Lyons-Ruth will focus on the current state of knowledge regarding parent-child interaction patterns associated with trajectories toward dissociation, borderline psychopathology, and suicidality, and present new interactional and neurobiological findings from recent longitudinal work. She will discuss recent findings regarding controlling, role-confused, and disoriented forms of parent-child communication and how these varied facets of disorganized relationships may contribute differentially to different forms of trauma-related psychopathology. She will also focus on findings distinguishing the effects of trauma and attachment in these trajectories, and advance a model of how traumatic events and attachment processes may interrelate in development.

This course is based on the recorded webinar, Parsing the Contributions of Attachment and Trauma in Pathways to Dissociation, Suicidality, and Borderline Personality Disorder created by Karlen Lyons-Ruth, PhD in 2020.

Publication Details

Publication Date: May 2020

Course Material Author

Karlen Lyons-Ruth, PhD

Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Biobehavioral Family Studies Lab, and a supervising psychologist at the Cambridge Hospital. Her work has focused on understanding the adaptations in attachment relationships that occur in high-risk environments over the infancy, childhood, and adolescent periods and has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and private foundations. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, a former Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University, and has served on the Board of Directors of the World Association of Infant Mental Health, as well as the Editorial Boards of Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and the Infant Mental Health Journal. She maintains a private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Karlen Lyons-Ruth, PhD authored the material only, and was not involved in creating this CE course. They are identified here for your own evaluation of the relevancy of the material this course is based on.

Course Creator

Sandi Cardaman

Sandi Cardaman has been a Licensed Mental Health Counselor for more than 15 years. She has worked with eating disorders, domestic violence and clients who are working with the dependency system.

Target Audience

Counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychologists and social workers. This course is appropriate for all levels of knowledge.

Learning Objectives

After taking this activity, you should be able to:

  1. 1 Describe the features of parent-child interaction most predictive of dissociation, borderline features, and suicidality in young adulthood
  2. 2 Discuss differences in limbic development associated with early attachment disturbance rather than later childhood maltreatment
  3. 3 Explain how early attachment experiences and later maltreatment may contribute in distinct ways to trauma-related psychopathology and neurobiological development

Disclosure to Learners

CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME's Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity – including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests).

The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity's planners, faculty, and the reviewer:

Planners and Reviewers

The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

Material Authors

There are no known relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Course Creator

Sandi Cardaman – None to report.

Commercial support

There is no commercial support for this distance-learning course.

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Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling (FL CSW, MFT, MHC)

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New York Education Department Board of Marriage and Family Therapy

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CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0045.
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