Online Workshop - Working Efficiently with Complicated PTSD
Date & Time
The workshop will spread across two morning sessions:
Monday 9th November 2026 - 9.00 am to 12.30 pm &
Tuesday 10th November 2026 - 9.00 am to 12.30 pm
Registration is for both days.
Introduction
Complicated PTSD presentations can leave clinicians feeling unsure where to begin, what to prioritise, and how to keep treatment focused. Multiple trauma memories, comorbidity, dissociation, risk, strong emotions, longstanding beliefs, mistrust, and social adversity can all pull therapy in different directions.
This workshop focuses on how to work efficiently with complicated PTSD by using formulation to sort complexity, select trauma targets, and stay trauma-focused. The emphasis is not on rushing treatment, but on making clearer clinical decisions: what needs to be addressed directly, what needs adapting around, what can be held as context, and what may pull treatment off track.
Content
The workshop is organised around four practical questions:
How do we sort complexity?
Participants will learn how to distinguish between complexity in the PTSD itself, comorbidity, contextual factors, obstacles to treatment, and material that may create therapeutic drift.
How do we choose trauma targets?
We will consider how to select and sequence trauma memory work when there are multiple, fragmented, blurred, repeated, or fused trauma memories.
When do broader meanings make target choice hard?
The workshop will explore how themes such as shame, guilt, betrayal, moral injury, humiliation, degradation, mental defeat, mistrust, and loss of identity can complicate trauma target selection and treatment planning.
What pulls treatment off track?
Participants will consider common sources of drift, including avoidance, risk concerns, comorbidity, dissociation, therapeutic relationship difficulties, ongoing crises, and service pressures, and how to maintain a trauma focus despite these challenges.
Learning objectives
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
Use formulation to sort complexity in PTSD presentations.
Distinguish treatment targets from context, obstacles, and therapeutic “noise”.
Select trauma memory targets when clients present with multiple or unclear trauma memories.
Recognise when broader trauma-related meanings are shaping target choice.
Identify common factors that pull trauma-focused treatment off track.
Use structured clinical reasoning to keep treatment efficient, focused, and flexible.
Training modalities
The workshop will include teaching, clinical examples, structured pair discussions, plenary reflection, polling, and video or role-play material.
The workshop will be a total of 7 hours, spread across two morning sessions of 3.5 hours with breaks.
Key references
Murray, H., & El-Leithy, S. (2022). Working with Complexity in PTSD: A Cognitive Therapy Approach. Routledge.
Murray, H., Grey, N., Warnock-Parkes, E., Kerr, A., Wild, J., Clark, D.M., & Ehlers, A. (2022). Ten misconceptions about trauma-focused CBT for PTSD. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 15, e33.
Who should attend
This workshop is aimed at clinicians delivering trauma-focused psychological therapies who want to work more confidently and efficiently with complicated PTSD presentations. Whether you’re new to trauma work or looking to streamline and strengthen your approach, this webinar will provide a roadmap for treatment, practical tools, and clinical decision-making skills you can apply immediately.
About the presenter
Dr. Sharif El-Leithy
Dr Sharif El-Leithy is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead of the Traumatic Stress Service in London. He specialises in psychological reactions to life-threatening and prolonged trauma and has over 25 years’ experience using cognitive-behavioural therapy to treat PTSD arising from complex traumatic experiences. He served on the NICE 2018 PTSD guideline update committee and is co-author of Working with Complexity in PTSD: A Cognitive Therapy Approach with Hannah Murray.
Other Info
ANZACBT membership for the current year period is included in Non-Member registrations, if you would like to join.
To join ANZACBT membership separately, please email us at web@cbt.org.nz for an invoice.
Please email web@cbt.org.nz if you have any questions regarding the workshop, invoices, membership & membership status.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
