Integrating the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation into Clinical Practice

Abstract
Many therapies focused on trauma resolution require screening and/or assessment for pathological dissociation as a prerequisite or preparatory step to accessing and activating traumatic memory material.

The Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID) has become a valuable assessment tool for trauma-focused clinicians--and EMDR practitioners in particular--both to determine the presence of pathological dissociation and to develop more fine-grained interventions for preparation and successful trauma accessing/reprocessing. The MID is a 218-item, self-administered instrument with 168 dissociation items and 50 validity items developed by Paul F. Dell, PhD. The MID reliably differentiates and offers diagnostic impressions relevant to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Other Specified Dissociative Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder, and Borderline Personality Disorder.

This workshop offers updated and expanded clinical application and differential diagnosis material based upon recent research, literature, and the presenters’ experience in consultation focused on the MID with hundreds of clinicians world-wide. Participants will be introduced to the MID in this ‘walk-through,’ during which they will learn to administer and score the MID; navigate the MID Analysis to enter data, interpret results, and conduct a follow-up interview; and begin to understand how the information offered up by The MID Report may influence treatment. Vignettes will assist clinicians to connect MID impressions with what clinicians may see (or have already seen) in client sessions. Case examples will be discussed, with particular attention paid to how certain clusters of dissociative symptoms could influence a clinician's decisions regarding the use of specific kinds of preparation and trauma accessing methods. Implications for stabilization and potential markers for readiness for trauma accessing, both in an EMDR therapy frame and more generally, will be offered.

MID documents are available without charge to mental health professionals and researchers at www.mid-assessment.com. Participants are highly encouraged to download and review the MID Analysis, MID (questionnaire), and the MID Interpretive Manual in preparation for this workshop.

Timed Outline
10 Minutes - Introduction
10 Minutes - Review: The Basics, MID Mindset and 23 Symptoms
20 Minutes - Administering and Scoring the MID
40 Minutes - Overview of The MID Report
10 Minutes - Q&A
30 Minutes - Break
20 Minutes - Contextualizing the MID Report
40 Minutes - The Extended MID Report…and Understanding All Those Numbers
20 Minutes - Reading and Understanding the MID Report Line and Bar Graphs
10 Minutes - Q&A
90 Minutes - Lunch
15 Minutes - FAQs from Our Consultation Experience
30 Minutes - Case Example
15 Minutes - Preparing for the Follow-Up Interview
20 Minutes - Conducting and Concluding the Follow-up Interview
10 Minutes - Q&A
30 Minutes - Break
15 Minutes - Simpler Differential Diagnosis
30 Minutes - Complex Differential Diagnosis
30 Minutes - Beyond Clinical Diagnosis: Practical Applications of the MID
15 Minutes - Q&A and Wrap-Up