Combination Treatment With Individually Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) Processing and Group Intervention for People With Complex Dissociative Disorder

Summary

The goal of this pilot clinical trial is to learn whether an integrated 16-week treatment program can be helpful, acceptable, and feasible for adults with complex dissociative disorder (CDD). The program combines individual Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) therapy with a supportive therapeutic group.

The study is conducted at an outpatient clinic for traume-related disorders in Oslo, Norway, and enrols individuals based on rights to receive specialist treatment in the Norwegian public health system.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Is it possible to recruit, retain, and treat patients with CDD in this program (feasibility, attendance, drop-out, and treatment tolerability)? How do participants experience receiving DBR together with a supportive group (helpfulness, burden, and suggestions for improvement)? Are there preliminary changes in symptoms, functioning, and quality of life from before to after treatment and at 6-month follow-up? Are two new DBR-specific questionnaires (Where Self Awareness Scale and Shock Induced Vigilance Scale) useful for this patient group? There is no comparison group in this pilot study. All participants receive the same integrated DBR + group intervention.

Participants will:

* Take part in two preparatory individual sessions to receive information about DBR, try the method, and clarify treatment goals.
* Attend a 16-week program with one 45-minute individual DBR session per week and two 30-minute online group sessions per week.
* Join in-person group meetings before the program and a focus group meeting at the end to talk about what was helpful and what could be improved.
* Complete standard questionnaires about trauma-related symptoms before and after treatment, as well as two brief DBR-specific questionnaires at several time points.
* Take part in group interviews right after treatment and 6 months later, and have an individual closing session to summarize their experiences and discuss next steps.

Conditions

• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
• Other Specified Dissociative Disorders (OSDD)

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Individual Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)

Participants receive 1-3 preparatory individual sessions for assessment, psychoeducation about Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), and demonstration of the method, followed by 16 weekly individual DBR sessions (45 minutes each) delivered by DBR-trained therapists. DBR is a trauma-focused psychotherapy that targets the orienting and shock responses linked to threatening or attachment-related experiences, using present-moment orienting as an anchor to process subcortical shock responses without necessarily activating full trauma memories.

BEHAVIORAL

Supportive Group Intervention with "Where Self" Training

Participants attend two initial in-person group sessions providing psychoeducation about DBR, introduction and practice of the "Where Self" orienting exercise, and establishment of a safe group climate. During the 16-week program, participants attend two brief digital group meetings per week: one to identify a focus or trigger for the upcoming individual DBR session and practice "Where Self", and one to further adapt "Where Self" and reflect on experiences and new perspectives from DBR processing. After the 16-week program and at 6-month follow-up, participants also attend focus group interviews to discuss their experiences of the combined DBR and group intervention.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Modum Bad

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• KariAnne Vrabel, Professor · Modum Bad; Reseach Institute

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-05-04

Primary Completion

2027-05-31

Completion

2027-06-30

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations