A one-day workshop delivered over two mornings, for experienced practitioners who wish to supervise work with dissociation.

• Live online: 9.30am–1.00pm GMT, 6 & 7 May 2027 (or watch the recording later)
• CPD: 7 hours
• Trainers: Dr Fiona Kennedy & Dr Helen Kennerley
• Fee: £80

Why should I attend this training?

If you already have expertise in working with dissociation, or have completed our Dissociation Practitioner Training, you may wish to offer supervision yourself, enabling other clinicians to deliver effective, high-quality interventions. This course covers the particular features of supervising dissociation work in the NHS and private sectors, and helps you network with other potential supervisors. It also connects you to supervision on your own supervision, should you wish.

Who is this course for?

Practitioners with high-level skills in working with dissociation who wish to offer supervision in NHS or private settings.

Course content

• Taking the temperature: participants’ concerns and needs when becoming a supervisor for dissociation work
• Refreshing the basic principles and practices of supervision
• Monitoring the quality of supervision
• Use of language in DDs: the dialectic between subjective multiplicity and objective singularity
• Specific issues arising from work with DDs, including therapists’ own PTSD, the emotional toll of the work, and invalidation from colleagues
• Requirements for supervision of supervision

Learning methods

Instruction, demonstrations, role-plays in breakout rooms and video material, in a safe, enjoyable environment where you can learn and network with other professionals.

What you’ll take away

• Supervision resources and materials
• Access to a Supervisor Network
• Access to supervision of supervision

Your trainers

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a respected, knowledgeable and engaging trainer with a knack for making complex ideas accessible without losing their richness. She has many years’ experience managing and delivering services in the NHS, and is Director of GreenWood Mentors Ltd. She is author of Get Your Life Back: The Most Effective Therapies for a Better You (shortlisted for the BMA Popular Medical Book of the Year 2018), with a therapist’s companion in the Routledge CBT Distinctive Features series, Integrating CBT and Third Wave Therapies. She co-edited Cognitive Behavioural Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Dissociation and developed the CBT theory of dissociation.

Dr Helen Kennerley is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and a Senior Associate Tutor with the University of Oxford. A founding fellow of the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre, she is co-author of An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (now in its 4th edition), co-edited Dialogues for Discovery with Dr Christine Padesky, and in 2026 received an Honorary Fellowship from the BABCP.

Dates, times & venue

6 and 7 May 2027, 9.30am–1.00pm GMT each day, or watch the recording later. Online only.

A one-day workshop delivered over two mornings — the fifth and final course in our Dissociation Practitioner Certificate (completing the certificate), or a stand-alone training.

• Live online: 9.30am–1.00pm GMT, 8 & 9 April 2027 (or watch the recording later)
• CPD: 7 hours
• Trainers: Dr Fiona Kennedy & Dr Helen Kennerley
• Fee: £80

About DID

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is not rare: it affects around 1.5% of the general population, and is much more prevalent in mental health services. DID is present when a person experiences two or more distinct identities or personality states, each with its own enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self. Some cultures describe this as an experience of possession.

The disruption in identity involves changes in sense of self and agency, and in behaviour, consciousness, memory, perception, cognition and motor function. There are frequent gaps in memory of personal history — people, places and events, both recent and distant — that are not consistent with ordinary forgetting, and the symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment. People with DID may experience disremembered behaviours, trance states, fugues, fluctuations in skills or knowledge, voice-hearing, hallucinations, analgesia, unexplained somatoform symptoms, abrupt changes in mood, and intrusive thoughts, feelings or urges that do not feel like their own (passive influence). Because they are usually diagnosed with several other conditions, you have very likely already met people with DID in your own practice.

Why should I attend this training?

Vlodomir came to therapy desperate for help. He was eager to do his homework and read everything his therapist suggested. After a few weeks he arrived saying he had no idea what he had been doing with his therapist until then; he was sceptical, unwilling to share information about the past week, and expressed serious doubts about carrying on. Shortly before the end of the session he became very frightened and crouched in the corner of the room, sobbing and hiding his face.

Working with DID calls for specific understanding and skills. This course helps you make sense of what is happening and respond effectively.

Who is this course for?

Therapists meeting clients whose presentation seems puzzling and variable — often with amnesia of various kinds, lost periods of time, and different parts or identities seen in the room or reported by the client or their relatives. These clients have often struggled to find effective therapy and felt invalidated by mental health services. Both NHS and private practitioners will benefit from this training.

Course content

• What is DID? Varieties of presentation
• Assessment of DID, including understanding when a presentation is not DID
• Specific challenges of DID: severe amnesia; risk; therapeutic relationship challenges; length of therapy; organised abusers; inter-generational abuse; involvement of professionals in abuse
• Neurodiversity and DID
• Cultural considerations
• Case studies and vignettes, including participants’ own cases
• Service adaptations and requirements for establishing effective services (including freeing up therapist time)
• Supervision requirements and arrangements

Learning methods

Instruction, demonstrations, role-plays in breakout rooms and video material, in a safe, enjoyable environment where you can learn and network with other professionals.

What you’ll take away

• A free article from Dr Kennedy
• Completion of the Dissociation Practitioner Certificate (including your certificate)
• Psychoeducation resources and materials

Your trainers

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a respected, knowledgeable and engaging trainer with a knack for making complex ideas accessible without losing their richness. She has many years’ experience managing and delivering services in the NHS, and is Director of GreenWood Mentors Ltd. She is author of Get Your Life Back: The Most Effective Therapies for a Better You (shortlisted for the BMA Popular Medical Book of the Year 2018), with a therapist’s companion in the Routledge CBT Distinctive Features series, Integrating CBT and Third Wave Therapies. She co-edited Cognitive Behavioural Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Dissociation and developed the CBT theory of dissociation.

Dr Helen Kennerley is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and a Senior Associate Tutor with the University of Oxford. A founding fellow of the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre, she is co-author of An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (now in its 4th edition), co-edited Dialogues for Discovery with Dr Christine Padesky, and in 2026 received an Honorary Fellowship from the BABCP.

Dates, times & venue

8 and 9 April 2027, 9.30am–1.00pm GMT each day, or watch the recording later. Online only.

A one-day workshop delivered over two mornings — the fourth course in our Dissociation Practitioner Certificate, or a stand-alone training.

• Live online: 9.30am–1.00pm GMT, 4 & 5 March 2027 (or watch the recording later)
• CPD: 7 hours
• Trainers: Dr Fiona Kennedy & Dr Helen Kennerley
• Fee: £80

About the dissociative disorders

The DSM-5 dissociative disorders include:

• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
• Dissociative Amnesia
• Other Specified Dissociative Disorder
• Unspecified Dissociative Disorder
• Depersonalisation/Derealisation Disorder

In addition, Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder (DSM-5) or Dissociative Neurological Symptom Disorder (ICD-11) — including non-epileptic seizures — has dissociation as a central mechanism, and similarly unexplained medical symptoms are often dissociative in nature.

Why should I attend this training?

Vivienne was stuck in a bad situation: she dared not leave the house, as she so often collapsed without warning, as if she was having an epileptic fit — yet all the tests had been negative. Even at home she frequently fell to the floor, unresponsive for an hour or more, and remembered nothing when she came round. If it weren’t for her loving husband, she would be lost. She desperately needed help.

Subash had a problem: he could not remember anything about his childhood. He had seen a few therapists and, when asked, would just say “yeah, everything was fine, thanks” — but he had a feeling it really wasn’t. Now that he had a son of his own, he was worrying about taking him to stay with his grandparents.

• The lifetime prevalence of DDs ranges from 9% to 18% in the general population.
• In inpatient and outpatient samples, the prevalence of DDs is up to 46%.
• Because DDs often result from chronic, repetitive trauma beginning in early childhood, the vast majority of people with DDs also experience comorbid cPTSD.
• The diagnosis of PTSD includes a dissociative subtype in up to 70% of cases.
• Comorbidity is high: people with DID, for example, are often diagnosed with psychosis, BPD, autism, eating disorders, cPTSD, anxiety or depression.

The cost of not treating DDs. Untreated dissociative disorders are associated with high rates of self-harm and suicide, addictions, re-victimisation, and chronic mental and physical health problems; high use of mental-health and physical hospitalisation, imprisonment and special educational needs; impaired functioning; and inability to work. Once you are equipped to help people with DDs, you will see these aspects of their lives improve — and you’ll also be offering a hard-to-find, effective treatment approach.

Who is this course for?

Therapists who meet clients who cannot remember their pasts, have fugue states, non-epileptic seizures, unexplained medical symptoms or unexplained physical disabilities; and those working with trauma, PTSD, complex emotional needs and personality-related difficulties.

Course content

• The diagnostic criteria for dissociative disorders (DDs) and somatic disorders
• Assessment and formulation of DDs and somatic disorders, including understanding when a presentation is not a DD
• Specific challenges of DDs: severe amnesia; risk; therapeutic relationship challenges; length of therapy
• Neurodiversity and DDs
• Cultural considerations
• Case studies and vignettes, including participants’ own cases
• Service adaptations and requirements for establishing effective services (including freeing up therapist time)
• Supervision requirements and arrangements

Learning methods

Instruction, demonstrations, role-plays in breakout rooms and video material, in a safe, enjoyable environment where you can learn and network with other professionals.

What you’ll take away

• A free article from Dr Kennedy
• Psychoeducation resources and materials
• The foundations for the next workshop in the Dissociation Practitioner Certificate

Your trainers

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a respected, knowledgeable and engaging trainer with a knack for making complex ideas accessible without losing their richness. She has many years’ experience managing and delivering services in the NHS, and is Director of GreenWood Mentors Ltd. She is author of Get Your Life Back: The Most Effective Therapies for a Better You (shortlisted for the BMA Popular Medical Book of the Year 2018), with a therapist’s companion in the Routledge CBT Distinctive Features series, Integrating CBT and Third Wave Therapies. She co-edited Cognitive Behavioural Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Dissociation and developed the CBT theory of dissociation.

Dr Helen Kennerley is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and a Senior Associate Tutor with the University of Oxford. A founding fellow of the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre, she is co-author of An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (now in its 4th edition), co-edited Dialogues for Discovery with Dr Christine Padesky, and in 2026 received an Honorary Fellowship from the BABCP.

Dates, times & venue

4 and 5 March 2027, 9.30am–1.00pm GMT each day, or watch the recording later. Online only.

A one-day workshop delivered over two mornings — the third course in our Dissociation Practitioner Certificate, or a stand-alone training.

• Live online: 9.30am–1.00pm GMT, 13 & 14 January 2027 (or watch the recording later)
• CPD: 7 hours
• Trainers: Dr Fiona Kennedy & Dr Helen Kennerley
• Fee: £80

Why should I attend this training?

Ramesh had been an anxious child. At university he smoked cannabis with some friends and had a terrible time; he thought he might be going mad. Afterwards he was haunted by the thought “I’ve broken my brain”. He felt disconnected from the world around him, as if he was always walking through fog. He didn’t recognise himself in the mirror and felt indifferent towards those he loved, in a way that disturbed him. He just wanted to feel present and live his life to the full again.

As well as being a DSM/ICD diagnosis, DPDR can be a trans-diagnostic target affecting clients across many presentations. It is probably the easiest of the dissociative disorders to treat, and responds well to adapted CBT and Third Wave strategies and techniques. This course shows you how to recognise and respond to DPDR, so you can help people straight away with practical strategies and techniques from familiar, evidence-based therapies.

Who is this course for?

Therapists who want the confidence to recognise and formulate depersonalisation and derealisation, and to take away practical, accessible approaches they can use immediately.

Course content

• What is DPDR?
• Recognising DPDR
• Assessing for DPDR
• CBT models of DPDR
• Adding DPDR to your clinical formulation
• Intervening with and treating DPDR

Learning methods

Instruction, demonstrations, role-plays in breakout rooms and video material, in a safe, enjoyable environment where you can learn and network with other professionals.

What you’ll take away

• A free article or chapter from Dr Kennedy
• Psychoeducation resources and materials, including assessment tools and tips
• The foundations for the next workshop in the Dissociation Practitioner Certificate

Your trainers

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a respected, knowledgeable and engaging trainer with a knack for making complex ideas accessible without losing their richness. She has many years’ experience managing and delivering services in the NHS, and is Director of GreenWood Mentors Ltd. She is author of Get Your Life Back: The Most Effective Therapies for a Better You (shortlisted for the BMA Popular Medical Book of the Year 2018), with a therapist’s companion in the Routledge CBT Distinctive Features series, Integrating CBT and Third Wave Therapies. She co-edited Cognitive Behavioural Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Dissociation and developed the CBT theory of dissociation.

Dr Helen Kennerley is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and a Senior Associate Tutor with the University of Oxford. A founding fellow of the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre, she is co-author of An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (now in its 4th edition), co-edited Dialogues for Discovery with Dr Christine Padesky, and in 2026 received an Honorary Fellowship from the BABCP.

Dates, times & venue

13 and 14 January 2027, 9.30am–1.00pm GMT each day, or watch the recording later. Online only.

A one-day workshop delivered over two mornings — the second course in our Dissociation Practitioner Certificate, or a stand-alone training.

• Live online: 9.30am–1.00pm GMT, 3 & 4 December 2026 (or watch the recording later)
• CPD: 7 hours
• Trainers: Dr Fiona Kennedy & Dr Helen Kennerley
• Fee: £80

Why should I attend this training?

Do you have clients for whom you have done your very best, but nothing seems to work? For these clients, dissociation is often a hidden block to change — keeping the client from being fully present with you, numbing emotions, blanking thoughts, or producing odd perceptual experiences. Ignoring it does not help: it stops a person taking in information and responding, and it blocks change in therapy.

Whether you are treating anxiety, depression, complex emotional needs, psychosis, OCD or eating disorders, dissociation occurs in up to 45% of people who use mental health services, regardless of the diagnosed condition. If you have reached a dead end in your work with a client, investigating and targeting dissociation is often a good way forward.

This course shows you how to recognise, assess, formulate and target dissociation in any clinical presentation, so you can provide effective help. Adding dissociation to your clinical formulation can transform a client’s responses and make your intervention work.

Who is this course for?

Therapists who want to know more about dissociation and to increase the effectiveness of their therapy across conditions, with practical, accessible approaches they can use immediately.

Course content

• Dissociation across disorders: prevalence
• The CBT model of dissociation
• How to assess dissociation
• Adding dissociation to a clinical formulation
• Strategies and techniques for intervention
• Formulating and planning work on your own cases

Learning methods

Instruction, demonstrations, role-plays in breakout rooms and video material, in a safe, enjoyable environment where you can learn and network with other professionals.

What you’ll take away

• A free article from Dr Kennedy
• Free, digitally scored clinical assessment scales
• Psychoeducation resources and materials
• The foundations for the next workshop in the Dissociation Practitioner Certificate

Your trainers

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a respected, knowledgeable and engaging trainer with a knack for making complex ideas accessible without losing their richness. She has many years’ experience managing and delivering services in the NHS, and is Director of GreenWood Mentors Ltd. She is author of Get Your Life Back: The Most Effective Therapies for a Better You (shortlisted for the BMA Popular Medical Book of the Year 2018), with a therapist’s companion in the Routledge CBT Distinctive Features series, Integrating CBT and Third Wave Therapies. She co-edited Cognitive Behavioural Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Dissociation and developed the CBT theory of dissociation.

Dr Helen Kennerley is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and a Senior Associate Tutor with the University of Oxford. A founding fellow of the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre, she is co-author of An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (now in its 4th edition), co-edited Dialogues for Discovery with Dr Christine Padesky, and in 2026 received an Honorary Fellowship from the BABCP.

Dates, times & venue

3 and 4 December 2026, 9.30am–1.00pm GMT each day, or watch the recording later. Online only.

A one-day workshop delivered over two mornings — the first course in our Dissociation Practitioner Certificate, or a stand-alone training.

• Live online: 9.30am–1.00pm GMT, Thursday 5 & Friday 6 November 2026 (or watch the recording later)
• CPD: 7 hours
• Trainers: Dr Fiona Kennedy & Dr Helen Kennerley
• Fee: £80

Why should I attend this training?

Two short stories show how dissociation can present:

Cathy walked into the GP surgery and sat down to wait. Suddenly she stood up and collapsed on the floor, becoming unresponsive to being spoken to or even gently shaken. The nurses found her pulse normal, even a little slow, and she seemed physically well. They decided she might be attention-seeking — one said she had seen her do this before — reassured the other patients, and carried on. After an hour Cathy came round, sat down looking confused, and was told she had missed her appointment and would have to book another.

Julien went to his appointment with his therapist. She asked him a question about his childhood and he suddenly drifted off, feeling as though the room wasn’t real and he’d landed from another planet, so alien did he feel. He was disturbed by this and shared it with his therapist, who reassured him that such reactions are common and that there were things they could do together that would help.

Dissociation shows up in many settings — GP surgeries, A&E, policing and prisons — and occurs in up to 45% of people who use mental health services. Professionals are often unfamiliar with what they are seeing and feel uncertain about how to respond. Ignoring dissociation does not help: it stops a person taking in information and responding, and it blocks change in therapy. This course shows you how to recognise and respond to dissociation in any setting, so you can help people straight away.

Who is this course for?

Anyone who works with the public in health, social care, prison and mental health services; and therapists starting out on their journey of understanding dissociation who want practical, accessible approaches they can use immediately.

Course content

• What dissociation is, and why it matters
• How dissociation disrupts memory, sense of self, perception and consciousness, and bodily functions
• The CBT model of dissociation (perception, experience, self)
• How to recognise dissociation — what to look for in the room, and what people may tell you about their lives and experiences
• Basic psychoeducation for clients: normalising and giving hope (“it may take time, but I can get better”)
• Basic treatments from Finding Solid Ground: grounding, mindfulness, present versus past, “I’m not going mad”, and “these are the things I can do that help me”
• How to refer on into the mental health system

Learning methods

Instruction, demonstrations, role-plays in breakout rooms and video material, in a safe, enjoyable environment where you can learn and network with other professionals.

What you’ll take away

• A free article or chapter from Dr Kennedy
• Psychoeducation resources and materials
• The foundations for the next workshop in the Dissociation Practitioner Certificate

Your trainers

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a respected, knowledgeable and engaging trainer with a knack for making complex ideas accessible without losing their richness. She has many years’ experience managing and delivering services in the NHS, and is Director of GreenWood Mentors Ltd. She is author of Get Your Life Back: The Most Effective Therapies for a Better You (shortlisted for the BMA Popular Medical Book of the Year 2018), with a therapist’s companion in the Routledge CBT Distinctive Features series, Integrating CBT and Third Wave Therapies. She co-edited Cognitive Behavioural Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Dissociation and developed the CBT theory of dissociation.

Dr Helen Kennerley is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and a Senior Associate Tutor with the University of Oxford. A founding fellow of the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre, she is co-author of An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (now in its 4th edition), co-edited Dialogues for Discovery with Dr Christine Padesky, and in 2026 received an Honorary Fellowship from the BABCP.

Dates, times & venue

Thursday 5 and Friday 6 November 2026, 9.30am–1.00pm GMT each day, or watch the recording later. Online only.

On-demand training with Dr Fiona Kennedy

DID is more prevalent than schizophrenia or OCD, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood and stigmatised conditions. This specialist training shows you how to apply CBT and Third Wave therapies to recognise, formulate, and treat DID – helping clients move towards integration and choice.

What You’ll Learn

• Aaron T. Beck’s cognitive model of the self, personality, and self-states, applied specifically to DID
• How dissociation affects perception, experience, and sense of self (PES model)
• Practical strategies to reduce dissociation and support mindful observation of self-states
• Tools to help clients work with, rather than against, their self-states—turning conflict into cooperation
• How to assess and formulate DID cases using CBT and Third Wave approaches
• Structured methods to enhance client commitment, clarify shared values, and foster a “team” approach to self-states

Key Clinical Applications

• Reducing dissociation between self-states with grounding, mindfulness, and experiential work
• Using ACT and DBT to clarify values, reduce therapy-interfering behaviours, and build skills for self-regulation
• Developing a compassionate observing self to increase psychological flexibility
• Applying the therapeutic relationship to build safety and break down barriers created by shame and invalidation
• Supporting clients to integrate and align self-states into a functioning, cohesive system

Learning Experience

This training combines clear teaching, demonstrations, role-plays, and case examples. Complex ideas are made practical, accessible, and engaging—equipping you to approach DID with confidence and compassion.

Takeaways

• The D-ISS (Dissociation-Integration of Self-States Scale, in development)
• A free article by Dr Kennedy
• Practical skills to assess, formulate, and treat DID using CBT and Third Wave models
• Credit towards the BPS Approved Certificate in Working with Self-States Across Disorders (if completing all modules)
• Access to an ongoing supervision and support network

Your Trainer

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a highly respected clinician, author, and trainer. She brings decades of NHS leadership experience and has co-authored and edited key texts on CBT and dissociation. Known for her clarity and warmth, she makes complex material engaging, practical, and enjoyable to learn.

Ready to grow your skills?

Access this On-Demand training today and learn at your own pace. Gain practical tools, evidence-based strategies, and expert insights you can apply immediately in your work. Register Now

On-Demand Training With Dr Fiona Kennedy

This specialist 7.5-hour CPD training explores how to recognise, understand, and transform self-states in dissociative disorders using CBT and Third Wave approaches such as DBT, ACT, and CFT. It is part of the BPS Approved Certificate in Working with Self-States Across Disorders, but also available as a stand-alone module.

What You’ll Learn

• The CBT model of self, personality, and self-states, based on Aaron T. Beck’s theory
• How self-states (or modes) are formed and why they can dominate behaviour in dissociative disorders
• Practical techniques to help clients increase awareness, acceptance, and control of self-states
• How to work effectively with depersonalisation, derealisation, fugue states, PNES, and somatoform symptoms
• Ways to reduce dissociation and strengthen a compassionate observing self

Key Topics Covered

• Trauma and dissociation – how helplessness during trauma disrupts information processing and memory
• Self-state dissociation – why adversity in childhood can fragment self-states and limit awareness and choice
• Clinical presentations – understanding depersonalisation, fugue states, PNES, and medically unexplained symptoms
• Interventions – from grounding techniques and mapping self-states to ACT/DBT value-based work, mindfulness, and exposure without dissociation

Learning Experience

This training blends theory, demonstrations, role-plays, and case examples to make complex ideas accessible, practical, and engaging. You’ll leave with new tools to approach dissociative presentations with clarity and confidence.

Takeaways

• The D-ISS (Dissociation-Integration of Self-States Scale, in development)
• A free article by Dr Kennedy
• Credit towards the BPS Approved Certificate in Working with Self-States Across Disorders (if completing all modules)

Your Trainer

Dr Fiona Kennedy is an internationally respected clinician, author, and trainer. She has extensive NHS leadership experience, has authored multiple influential books on CBT and dissociation, and is known for making complex concepts clear, practical, and enjoyable to learn.

Ready to grow your skills?

Access this On-Demand training today and learn at your own pace. Gain practical tools, evidence-based strategies, and expert insights you can apply immediately in your work. Register Now.

On-Demand Training with Dr Fiona Kennedy

Gain practical, evidence-based strategies for working with dissociation and self-states across complex presentations—including cPTSD, EUPD/BPD, eating disorders, and psychosis.

In this 7.5-hour CPD training, Dr Fiona Kennedy shares innovative, integrative approaches that bring new depth to CBT and Third Wave therapies. Learn how to connect more meaningfully with clients, address “treatment-resistant” patterns, and build confidence in navigating even the most challenging presentations.

Ready to grow your skills?

Access this On-Demand training today and learn at your own pace. Gain practical tools, evidence-based strategies, and expert insights you can apply immediately in your work. Register Now.

On-demand training with Dr Fiona Kennedy

This course introduces you to Aaron T. Beck’s cognitive model of the self and shows how dissociation and self-states play a role in common mental health problems. Using CBT and Third Wave approaches (ACT, DBT, CFT), you’ll learn how to identify, formulate, and intervene with self-states to create lasting change in your clients.

What You’ll Learn

• The CBT model of self, self-states, and dissociation
• How dissociation affects perception, experience, and sense of self (PES model)
• Formulating anxiety, depression, and OCD through the lens of self-states
• Interventions that increase awareness, acceptance, and choice over self-states
• Practical tools to help clients strengthen a compassionate observing self

Key Clinical Applications

• Anxiety: Managing dissociation, intrusive imagery, and frozen states that block therapy progress
• OCD: Working with inflated responsibility, compulsions, and self-state conflicts
• Depression: Addressing hopeless, numb, and suicidal self-states, plus fatigue and loss of joy
• PTSD and trauma links: Understanding how dissociation splits emotional and “apparently normal” selves

Interventions and Techniques

• Mindfulness practices to build a compassionate observing self
• Parts work, chairwork, schema and gestalt techniques
• Creative tools such as art, journaling, or scrapbooking to represent self-states
• DBT and ACT skills to clarify values, commit to change, and manage therapy-interfering behaviours
• Compassion-focused approaches to strengthen kindness, wisdom, and acceptance across self-states
• “Team-building” strategies to align self-states towards shared goals

Learning Experience

This training combines clear teaching, case demonstrations, role-plays, and group work to make complex ideas practical and engaging.

Takeaways

• The D-ISS (Dissociation-Integration of Self-States Scale, in development)
• A free article by Dr Fiona Kennedy
• Foundations for further modules on PTSD, cPTSD, EUPD/BPD, depersonalisation, fugue, PNES, and DID
• Credit towards the BPS Approved Certificate in Working with Self-States and Dissociation Across Disorders (if completing all modules)

Your Trainer

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a highly respected clinician, author, and trainer with decades of NHS leadership experience. She is known for making complex concepts engaging and accessible, and has authored influential books including Get Your Life Back and Integrating CBT and Third Wave Therapies.

Ready to grow your skills?

Access this On-Demand training today and learn at your own pace. Gain practical tools, evidence-based strategies, and expert insights you can apply immediately in your work. Register Now.

On-Demand Training with Dr Fiona Kennedy

Integrating CBT, DBT, ACT, and CFT

Gain the skills to understand and work with multiple self-states and dissociation across a range of mental health presentations. Using evidence-based approaches, this on-demand training equips you to help clients develop awareness, acceptance, and control over their self-states, improving resilience and overall functioning.

This certificated course is delivered online in four modules, totalling 32 hours CPD, with the option to complete individual modules.

About the Course

Dissociation is a common response to trauma, often learned in childhood, which can persist into adulthood and affect many mental health presentations, from anxiety and depression to complex trauma and dissociative disorders. Yet, training in this area is limited.

Developed from Dr Fiona Kennedy’s Cognitive Theory of Dissociation, this course integrates insights from CBT, DBT, ACT, and CFT to provide practical, clinically relevant strategies. You’ll learn how to assess, formulate, and intervene with self-states and dissociation, helping clients regain choice and coherence in their lives.

What You Will Learn

• The CBT model of self and self-states, including the concept of the working self
• Cognitive model of dissociation and its impact on perception, experience, and behavior
• How dissociation manifests across anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, cPTSD, EUPD/BPD, depersonalisation, PNES, and DID
• Assessment tools, including the D-ISS (Dissociation-Integration of Self-States Scale)
• Evidence-based interventions to increase awareness, acceptance, and control over self-states
• Practical techniques from mindfulness, DBT, ACT, CFT, schema therapy, and creative therapies

Training Approach

This course combines instruction, demonstrations, role-plays, video materials, and interactive exercises, delivered in a small-group online environment to maximize engagement. Participants also gain access to a support and supervision network to continue learning beyond the course.

Modules

Module 1: Working with Anxiety, Depression, OCD, and More

Understand self-states and dissociation in common mental health presentations. Learn to apply CBT and Third Wave approaches to help clients shift between self-states and manage intrusive thoughts, emotions, and behaviours.

Module 2: Working with PTSD, cPTSD, and EUPD/BPD

Explore trauma-based presentations and learn how dissociation affects memory, perception, and self-experience. Develop strategies to support clients in integrating fragmented self-states and improving emotional regulation.

Module 3: Working with Depersonalisation, Fugue, Somatoform Disorders, and PNES

Gain practical tools to help clients experiencing dissociative disorders. Learn techniques for assessing and reducing dissociation and improving communication between self-states, including creative and experiential interventions.

Module 4: Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Focus on DID, exploring extreme dissociation between self-states and the challenges it poses. Learn structured CBT, DBT, ACT, and CFT approaches to increase awareness, acceptance, and control, helping clients integrate self-states into a cohesive and functional sense of self.

Who Will Benefit

This course is designed for clinicians, therapists, and mental health professionals working with anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, trauma-based disorders, and dissociative disorders. It is especially useful for those seeking fresh, evidence-based CBT and Third Wave approaches to complex presentations.

About Your Trainer

Dr Fiona Kennedy is a renowned trainer and therapist with extensive experience in NHS service management and private practice. She integrates CBT, ACT, DBT, and CFT in her teaching, making complex concepts accessible and practical. Fiona is a BABCP Accredited Trainer and Supervisor, an Associate Fellow of the BPS, and a visiting academic at Southampton University. She has authored multiple books and co-edited works on dissociation and CBT.

Ready to grow your skills?

Access this On-Demand training today and learn at your own pace. Gain practical tools, evidence-based strategies, and expert insights you can apply immediately in your work. Register Now.

On-Demand Training with Dr Fiona Kennedy

Overview

If you are a mental health clinician, you are working with dissociation, whether you realise it or not. This workshop gives you the tools to recognise, assess, and treat dissociation effectively.

Dissociation is not just “spacing out”, it is a set of processes that can affect self, memory, consciousness, perception, and bodily experience. Often rooted in trauma, dissociation can profoundly shape clinical presentations including PTSD, cPTSD, personality disorder, psychosis, depersonalisation, eating disorders, somatic symptoms, non-epileptic seizures, and severe anxiety or depression.

Dr Fiona Kennedy, co-developer of the CBT model of dissociation, presents practical ways to assess, formulate, and intervene using CBT, DBT, ACT, and CFT.

Who Is This Course For?

• Therapists and mental health professionals working with trauma, neglect, or complex mental health needs
• Clinicians supporting clients with BPD/EUPD, DID, psychosis, PTSD/cPTSD, unexplained medical symptoms, or dissociative amnesia
• Professionals seeking a deeper understanding of dissociation and practical clinical tools

Course Content

• Defining dissociation and its neurobiology
• The CBT model of dissociation: perceptual, mode, and between-mode levels
• Assessing dissociation with psychometric tools, including the Wessex Dissociation Scale (WDS)
• Formulating dissociation in clinical practice: PTSD, psychosis, BPD, DID, anxiety disorders, self-harm, somatic disorders, and more
• Explaining dissociation to clients in accessible ways
• Intervening effectively with grounding, CBT, DBT, ACT, and CFT strategies
• Case formulation and treatment planning using clinical vignettes

Learning Methods

Interactive teaching with demonstrations, role-plays, breakout groups, video material, and case-based learning. Recordings are available after the event so you can revisit key concepts.

Trainer

Dr Fiona Kennedy is an experienced and engaging trainer known for making complex clinical ideas practical and accessible. She has decades of NHS and independent practice experience, co-developed the CBT theory of dissociation, and authored numerous books, including Integrating CBT and Third Wave Therapies and Get Your Life Back. She also co-edited Cognitive Behavioural Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Dissociation.

Ready to grow your skills?

Access this On-Demand training today and learn at your own pace. Gain practical tools, evidence-based strategies, and expert insights you can apply immediately in your work. Register Now.