Dissociation Training and Symptom Identification Accuracy Among Australian Psychologists

Abstract

Objective: Dissociation is a common but underrecognized sequelae of trauma exposure. We investigated Australian psychologists’ training in dissociation, assessment practices, and accuracy in identifying dissociation symptoms. Method: Participants in this cross-sectional study of Australian psychologists (N = 280) were recruited through publicly available email addresses, graduate psychology programs, and social media. Participants estimated the percentages of their clients who had experienced trauma and had dissociative symptoms, their confidence in assessing and treating trauma and dissociation, their training in trauma and dissociation, and their dissociation screening practices. Participants were also asked to identify dissociation symptoms (per the Dissociative Experiences Scale–II and Somatic Dissociation Questionnaire–5) from a list of trauma-related symptoms. Results: Although 99% of participants reported treating trauma-exposed clients, only 59.6% and 41.1% reported formal training in trauma or dissociation during their psychology qualification, respectively. One in five participants correctly identified all psychoform and somatoform symptoms as dissociation. Accurately identifying psychoform dissociation symptoms was associated with confidence in treating dissociation (p =.048) and having informal peer consultation on dissociation (p =.032). Accurately identifying somatoform dissociation was associated with confidence assessing (p =.006) and treating (p =.009) dissociation and having completed professional development on dissociation (p =.047). Conclusions: Most psychologists demonstrated inaccuracies in their knowledge of dissociation, which raises concern that dissociation may not be recognized in clinical practice and thus go untreated. Training on dissociation should be incorporated into psychology curricula, particularly at the graduate level, and accessible, cost-effective professional development programs for practicing clinicians are needed.