Exploring Dissociation and Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Roundtable Discussion

Sheldon (Shelly) Itzkowitz, PhD, has been the moving force behind conceiving, planning, and organizing this event. We can thank him for bringing us together today. Dr. Itzkowitz, a psychologist and psychoanalyst, is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Clinical Consultant in the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; Guest Faculty, EDCAS Program of the William Alanson White Institute; as well as on the teaching and supervisory faculty of NIP. He’s been treating adults with dissociative disorders for two decades and has presented his work with patients who suffer with DID at numerous conferences. He is in private practice in Manhattan.
Address correspondence to Sheldon Itzkowitz, PhD, 295 Central Park West #6, New York, NY 10024. E-mail:

Richard Chefetz, MD, is a psychiatrist in private practice in Washington, DC. He’s a faculty member at the Washington School of Psychiatry, the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. He is the past president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, 2002–2003; a founder and Chair of their dissociative disorders psychotherapy training program; as well as a distinguished visiting lecturer at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. He is also a certified consultant at the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and is trained in Level 1 and 2 EMDR. In addition to numerous journal articles, he has a book in press under a contract with Norton, Intensive Psychotherapy for Persistent Dissociative Processes: The Fear of Feeling Real, due out in March 2015.

Margaret Hainer, LCSW, is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist specializing in trauma and dissociation. She is currently a supervisor in the trauma program at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and has taught and written about DID and other clinical understandings of dissociation for many years. She is trained in Level 1 and 2 EMDR and has completed a 1-year training program in sensorimotor psychotherapy. Ms. Hainer is a facilitator with the North American Branch of the Institute for the Healing of Memories located in Cape Town, South Africa, and in private practice in New York City.

Karen Hopenwasser, MD, is an integrative psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Cornell College of Medicine. She has been evaluating and treating adults with dissociative disorders for more than two decades, with a special focus on understanding the neurobiology of body memory in clinical work. She is currently exploring the relationship between rhythm entrainment and attunement in therapeutic healing.

Elizabeth Howell, PhD, a psychoanalyst and traumatologist, is the author of two definitive books on dissociation: The Dissociative Mind (2005) and, particularly germane toward our discussion today, Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder, a Relational Approach (2011). She’s an associate editor of the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation and the co-director of the Dissociative Disorders Psychotherapy Training Program of the International Society of the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. Dr. Howell is an associate professor of Psychology at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, faculty member of the Trauma Center of the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, and at NIP’s trauma program. She writes and lectures widely on trauma and dissociation and is in private practice in New York City.