Course information and context

Bipolar disorder is more common than one might think, affecting 1-2% of the adult population at any given time.

Bipolar disorder is generally understood to be predominantly a medical disease, a medical condition, a brain disease/disorder, a genetic/brain chemical imbalance medical illness.

As a consequence, the interventions people diagnosed with bipolar disorder typically receive is predominantly medical, consisting of long-term – and when deemed necessary, also short-term – medication.

While medication certainly has a significant and important role in bipolar disorder, the major emphasis on bipolar as a medical disease typically limits the potential role of counselling/psychotherapy.

The emphasis on the medical also has other consequences – the training of psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists, social workers and other mental health professionals in relation to bipolar disorder is limited by the very fact that bipolar disorder is deemed to predominantly be a medical disease, a medical brain disorder.

As a medical doctor, I know and I understand the medical approach to bipolar disorder.

As an accredited psychotherapist, spending about six hours a week for the past 28 years working with people diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I have progressively arrived at a deep understanding of bipolar disorder from a trauma- and psychologically-informed perspective.

A primary purpose of this course is to provide you, a mental health professional, with detailed knowledge and information regarding a trauma-informed understanding of bipolar disorder.

This knowledge will greatly augment your ability and confidence to work with people who have received this diagnosis, thus providing this cohort of people with much-needed accurate and productive psychotherapeutic support and work.

While a primary objective of this course is to set out a detailed trauma-informed psychology of bipolar disorder, I also set out both the prevailing view/understanding of bipolar disorder, and a detailed critique of this prevailing view/understanding. Including these latter two help to provide a comprehensive understanding of bipolar disorder, and shapes both a context, importance and appropriateness of a trauma-informed psychology of bipolar disorder.

The course consists primarily of recorded audio-visual presentations. The slides used in each presentation are also included. At the end of each module, a brief quiz is included.

There are ?17 hours of audio-visual course material, with an equivalent number of CPD points.

As you go through the course, feel free to make comments, express opinions, or contact me, either through the course itself or by emailing me at [email protected] 

When you have completed the course, email me at [email protected] and I will forward you the appropriate CPD cert without delay.