Integrative Treatment Planning for Complex Trauma: What to Expect in the Mayan Riviera
Complex trauma rarely fits neatly into one diagnosis, one symptom category, or one treatment model. Clients may experience reexperiencing, avoidance, dissociation, emotional dysregulation, persistent shame, relational difficulties, and a deeply altered sense of self.
For clinicians, effective treatment planning requires a broad and flexible view.
That is the focus of the Complex PTSD Masterclass in the Mayan Riviera, taking place January 27–30, 2027, at the Iberostar Paraíso Complex. This intermediate-to-advanced workshop is designed for licensed psychologists, counselors, therapists, clinical social workers, and other mental health professionals who want to strengthen their approach to complex trauma.
You will explore how CBT, DBT, Schema Therapy, EMDR, and attachment-oriented methods can work together within an individualized clinical framework.
You will also enjoy an inspiring destination setting, a relaxed professional community, and a morning-only schedule from 09:00 to 12:30 each day.
A complex presentation calls for an integrative plan
Complex PTSD is associated with the core symptoms of PTSD, along with disturbances in self-organization. These may include difficulties regulating emotions, a persistent negative self-concept, and challenges forming or sustaining relationships.
Clients may also present with:
Dissociation or fragmented experiences of self
Chronic shame, guilt, or self-criticism
Difficulty identifying and communicating emotional needs
Interpersonal mistrust or fear of abandonment
Persistent threat responses and hypervigilance
Avoidance, emotional numbing, or withdrawal
Comorbid anxiety, depression, substance use, or personality-related symptoms
These presentations can be difficult to conceptualize when viewed through only one theoretical lens. A client may need stabilization skills, cognitive restructuring, trauma processing, schema work, and relational repair at different points in treatment.
The goal is not to combine methods randomly. It is to understand what the client needs, when they need it, and how each intervention can support the larger treatment plan.
That is the central theme of this complex PTSD workshop.
Learn a flexible framework for clinical decision-making
The Complex PTSD Masterclass is built around practical case conceptualization and treatment planning. Rather than following a rigid, scripted protocol, you will consider how to select and sequence interventions based on the client’s symptoms, history, capacities, relationships, and current circumstances.
The workshop will address:
The history of trauma-related disorders
DSM and ICD diagnostic considerations
Differences between PTSD, complex PTSD, and borderline personality disorder
Neurobiological, psychological, and developmental pathways
Disturbances in self-organization
Symptom-informed and theory-informed treatment planning
Clinical complexity and therapeutic considerations
The curriculum is designed to help you understand trauma symptoms as adaptations to overwhelming experiences. This perspective can create a more compassionate and clinically useful starting point.
It can also help you move from asking, “What is wrong with this client?” to asking, “What purpose might this response have served, and what conditions are needed for change?”
See how CBT supports meaning-making and change
Cognitive behavioral therapy offers important tools for helping clients examine the beliefs and interpretations that develop around traumatic experiences.
Within an integrative plan, CBT may support:
Psychoeducation about trauma responses
Identification of automatic thoughts and core beliefs
Cognitive restructuring
Behavioral activation and gradual engagement
Development of more balanced interpretations
Increased insight into avoidance and coping patterns
For clients with complex trauma, cognitive work often needs to be paced carefully. Deeply held beliefs about safety, trust, responsibility, or self-worth may not shift through logic alone.
The workshop will explore how CBT-based interventions can be combined with other approaches to address both the client’s thoughts and the emotional, relational, and physiological patterns that maintain distress.
Use DBT skills to build capacity and stability
Before trauma processing can be effective, many clients need support with emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Dialectical behavior therapy offers practical skills that can help clients:
Recognize and name emotional states
Manage intense affect
Tolerate distress without escalating harmful coping
Reduce impulsive or self-destructive responses
Strengthen communication and boundaries
Remain present during difficult clinical work
DBT strategies can be especially valuable when a client becomes overwhelmed, dissociates, or struggles to remain within a workable window of tolerance.
In the masterclass, you will consider how DBT-informed skills can be integrated into broader treatment plans. These tools may be used during early stabilization, alongside trauma processing, or later as clients face relationship challenges and new life demands.
Stabilization is not simply a preliminary step. It can remain an important part of treatment throughout the therapeutic process.
Explore schemas, modes, and the impact of early experiences
Schema Therapy provides a useful way to understand longstanding patterns that develop through repeated adverse experiences.
Clients with complex trauma may carry schemas involving:
Defectiveness or shame
Abandonment and instability
Mistrust and abuse
Emotional deprivation
Subjugation
Failure or dependence
Social isolation
These schemas can influence how clients interpret relationships, respond to perceived threats, and understand their own needs.
Schema Therapy also offers a language for working with modes, the emotional states, coping patterns, and internal positions that may become activated in different situations. This can help clinicians understand why a client may appear highly capable in one setting and overwhelmed in another.
During the masterclass, Schema Therapy concepts will be considered alongside developmental history, attachment patterns, dissociation, and current relational functioning. The emphasis is on using these ideas to develop a clearer, more individualized formulation.
Place EMDR within a carefully paced treatment plan
EMDR can be an important component of trauma treatment. However, complex trauma may require more preparation, pacing, and clinical flexibility than a straightforward single-incident presentation.
The workshop will explore considerations such as:
Assessing readiness for trauma processing
Strengthening grounding and resourcing skills
Working with dissociation and fragmented experiences
Maintaining dual attention
Titrating emotional activation
Recognizing when to pause or return to stabilization
Coordinating processing with cognitive, relational, and skills-based interventions
EMDR will not be presented as a stand-alone answer to every complex case. Instead, you will consider how it may fit within a broader plan that addresses safety, self-organization, emotional regulation, identity, and relationships.
This is particularly relevant for therapists who use EMDR or are interested in understanding how EMDR can complement other clinical approaches. You do not need to be certified in every modality discussed. The focus is on clinical integration and treatment planning.
Keep attachment at the center of the work
Complex trauma often occurs within relationships. As a result, treatment must also address trust, safety, dependency, autonomy, rupture, and repair.
Attachment-oriented methods can support:
Development of a reliable therapeutic relationship
Recognition of relational expectations and fears
Corrective emotional experiences
Exploration of dependency and autonomy
Repair after misunderstandings or ruptures
Greater capacity for intimacy and connection
Development of a more secure internal sense of self
Attachment is not limited to one phase of treatment. It can inform the initial assessment, the therapeutic alliance, trauma processing, identity work, and termination planning.
You will explore how attachment-oriented thinking can be integrated with CBT, DBT, Schema Therapy, and EMDR. The result is a more complete view of the client as a person shaped by relationships, context, development, and coping.
A focused curriculum across four mornings
The workshop runs from January 27 to 30, 2027, with daily training from 09:00 to 12:30.
The morning schedule gives you protected time for learning while leaving your afternoons available for rest, reflection, networking, or exploring the Riviera Maya.
Day 1: Foundations and diagnostic considerations
You will review the history of trauma-related disorders, DSM and ICD distinctions, and the differences between PTSD, complex PTSD, and borderline personality disorder. The day also introduces the neurobiology of core trauma symptoms and symptom-informed treatment planning.
Day 2: Theory and case conceptualization
The second morning focuses on theoretical models of complex PTSD, Schema Theory, Adaptive Information Processing Theory, developmental trauma, cumulative trauma, and theory-informed case conceptualization.
Day 3: Core trauma symptoms
You will examine ideographic case conceptualization and the ways trauma symptoms can function as coping strategies. Topics include psychoeducation, motivation, reexperiencing, avoidance, persistent threat, and dissociation.
Day 4: Self-organization and integrative planning
The final morning addresses affective dysregulation, self-concept, interpersonal relationships, clinical complexity, and the development of comprehensive integrative treatment plans.
You will leave with a framework that can be adapted to your existing clinical style and professional setting.
Learn in the Iberostar Paraíso Complex
The workshop takes place at the Iberostar Paraíso Complex, a beachfront resort setting in the Riviera Maya. The complex includes five hotels, numerous restaurants, more than 20 pools, a waterpark, and a golf course.
You will be able to select from several on-site accommodation options, including Iberostar Waves Paraíso Del Mar, Iberostar Waves Paraíso Beach, Iberostar Selection Paraíso Lindo, Iberostar Selection Paraíso Maya Suites, or JOIA Paraíso by Iberostar.
Accommodation must be booked through the hotel links provided by CE Trips using the discount code CETRIPS2027. The workshop page includes the current booking procedures and participation requirements.
Combine continuing education with meaningful time away
This is more than a classroom experience. It is a chance to step away from your usual routine, learn alongside other professionals, and return to your practice with renewed clarity.
The morning-only schedule gives you freedom to:
Relax beside the beach or pool
Enjoy the resort’s restaurants and amenities
Explore the Riviera Maya
Connect with colleagues in an informal setting
Extend your stay by up to three days before or after the workshop
The workshop provides 12 continuing education credits following successful completion. Credits are sponsored by CE-Classes.com. Approval and applicability can vary by jurisdiction, so please check with your licensing or regulatory board before registering.
Join us for advanced trauma treatment training
If you provide clinical services to clients with complex trauma histories, this masterclass can help you strengthen your assessment, formulation, and treatment-planning skills.
You will study complex PTSD in depth. You will explore integrative interventions. You will connect with peers. You will do it all in a beautiful and restorative destination.
Explore the Complex PTSD Masterclass in the Mayan Riviera and begin planning your January 2027 professional development experience.
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