Clinical Psychologist, 3 years’ experience, UK

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the experience of a clinical psychologist when working with a 22-year-old woman who has epileptic seizures and psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (NES) following a severe traumatic brain injury as a child. Part of the challenge the Psychologist faced was to find out how the patient’s NES had been previously formulated, understood, and treated, and how these interventions had helped. The patient had previously attended sixteen individual Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) sessions, but there had been inconsistency between strategies used in sessions and strategies used in the patient’s school and family home. To some extent, it seemed that the patient’s family had been protecting her from the world, in case a NES were to occur. This, however, was contributing to the patient’s anxiety and sense that she would never be able to live the independent and “normal” life she wanted. In addition, the patient’s brain injury had a significant impact on her inhibitory control and emotional regulation, which contributed to the NES themselves. The Psychologist found Reuber and Brown’s Integrative Cognitive Model of NES extremely helpful when trying to make sense of the NES and design an intervention.