[Adta] DMT with Outpatient Borderline and PTSD Clients

[Lisa Fladager]

Dear Colleagues,
 
    Hello all, and blessed new year. This is my first time posting to
this listserve, although I've been a member for about 8 months. By way
of an introduction, I've been a DMT for a while (Hahnemann 1984, in the
days when my last name was Visher; LIMS 1985; Hendricks' Body Centered
Transformation 1995; Authentic Movement Institute throughout the late
90's; certified teacher of the Dances of Universal Peace 2002 ). I'm
currently in a two year training in Jungian Studies for Professionals
through the North Pacific Institute for Analytic Psychology. Over the
years I've been low profile as far as the ADTA is concerned (as an
introverted-intuitive type :)). Part of this low profile was due to my
living and working as a therapist out of country for the US government
in Japan from 1985 to 1996. I got licensed as an LMHC in the state of
Washington and certified as an NCC when I returned to the states in 1996
(with the aid of Dianne Dulicai and Sherry Goodill, two of my professors
from Hahnemann who supplied chutzpah, course syllabi and documentation
proving that I really did get a masters' degree that had a full on
mental health component - thank you ladies!). 
 
    I now live in WA state on Whidbey Island, where I teach authentic
movement and Dances of Universal Peace.  I am also a therapist in
private practice and at the local community mental health clinic.serving
chronically mentally ill, low income adults. A high percentage of my
caseload at this clinic consists of women who have diagnoses of bipolar
affective disorder, compounded with PTSD and/or borderline personality
disorder. Many of these symptoms are further complicated by issues of
chronic pain, and of course, sexual abuse is a factor in almost all
cases. I'm also team leader of the clinic's DBT (dialectical behavior
therapy) program -we have been using DBT quite successfully as a primary
therapy for about 4 years now with folks who have the DSM IV symptoms of
borderline personality disorder. Although I am not doing DMT with these
clients per se, I find that my DMT training and training in authentic
movement informs me greatly as I teach the mindfulness component of this
treatment and as I work with clients to support their emotional
experiencing in a way that is safe, contained and grounded. But I am
longing for something MORE! I want to bring DMT to the clinic! I want to
beat the paperwork drudgery and burnout that is inherent in the publicly
funded mental health system with some verve! I want to re-inspire
myself, my colleagues and my clients with the power of DMT! And I want
to do it in a way that is organized and comprehensive - doing justice to
our profession and knowledge base. So I am writing to ask for support
from anyone out there who has something to offer...
 
    My request to the ADTA listserve members is three-fold:
 
1) I would like to communicate with anyone who has clinical experience
doing DMT treatment with women who have severe and chronic
PTSD/borderline symptoms and personality structure, whether in groups or
individually.
 
2) I am seriously considering starting a DMT program at our clinic
which, as I said, serves folks with chronic, severe, multi- axis mental
illness in an outpatient setting - although we are not a partial
hospital or a day treatment program. I would like to be in communication
with anyone who has experience starting such a program from the ground
up at a mainstream, medical model, mental health clinic (where a primary
treatment modality is medication management). In your experience, what
are the components and parameters of such a program? How did you get the
staff on board? How were clients/patients selected? What kind of
movement assessment tools were used? What kind of documentation was
done? How was outcome measured? Is there anyone out there who has the
expertise in this particular area and would be interested in offering
supervision?
 
3) References to published studies specifically supporting the efficacy
of DMT with this population (evidence-based treatment is the current
buzz word) and any other literature addressing DMT with this population
would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thank you all so much, 
    and sending blessings as the new year brings us into the full swing,
 
warm regards,
 
Lisa
 
______________________________________
Lisa Fladager, MCAT, LMHC, DTR, NCC, CMA
PO Box 861
Langley, WA 98260
(360) 221-2677
 <mailto:mysticdancer at whidbey.com> mysticdancer at whidbey.com 
 
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