they are both great books and I have used them. they can be used for any one whether they have a dissociative disorder or not, whether a person has trauma that is complex or not, what is in these workbooks is the same things I learned with DBT, CBT therapy (learning what your problems and symptoms are and learning coping tools that the person using the books are expected to use to keep their problems on track, self regulation, self grounding, self nurturing... you all that stuff that is all about changing your thoughts and behaviors from negative to positive and continuing to do so long term, not just for therapy purposes.

in these books complex doesnt necessarily mean the mental disorder that some locations call complex ptsd and america now calls Acute stress disorder and others dependinng upon each persons own combination of problems. in many places in the books the term complex means having many problems, many symptoms, my point in each chapter/ section it may get a bit confusing if you dont pay attention to the wording and definitions being used for that section/ chapter and the wording of each of the questions.

example if you go into one chapter thinking complex disorder when they want you to think about the complex issues (the many things like work stress, family stress, deadlines, running a home, how you handle how you feel when you are paying your bills, ....) you go through on a daily basis, it makes a big difference. I answered one question based on my complex PTSD not complex as in the many different elements in my daily life which threw the rest of the questions and answers completely off and didnt make any sense and was actually harder than it was supposed to be. my therapist had to tell me to stop over thinking and keep it simple rather than on my complex PTSD. to think in terms may daily life functioning, and what causes me anxiety in my daily life...

you will be working on things like making up your own treatment plans that work for you like whats a good nutritional diet for you, a good sleep routine for you, what you can do when you do have a panic attack while doing your every day activities, not letting past memories and problems interfere with your day. thinking about your life and where you want to be in the future and how to get it, positive self talk (the book calls it inner dialogue, inner communication examples instead of thinking I am so stupid and fighting with your self with negative self talk, it teaches you to do things like when thinking to your self I am so stupid and having your own little internal conversation with yourself on how stupid and why something was, to turn it around to a positive... instead of calling yourself stupid think something like...well that didn't go so well, next time i think I will try something different...)

the books have a definite layout but can be used out of order too. so dont worry if your therapist decides to skip a few chapters. it doesnt mean you are not ready for what they are skipping, just that they feel the order they have in mind fits the problems you are having that day or that week. At least thats what my therapist told me.

I think you will like the books but be ready to challenge yourself and after using the books if your treatment provider is like mine you may be expected to use what you learn in the books even when you are no longer using the books. any time my therapist and I use workbooks the future is always including the information and skills from those books...

you might even want to not actually write in the books but rather make photo copies so that the books can be used more than once for reviewing after you have learned the skills in the books.

oh yea I went into these workbooks expecting to work on things like communicating with my alters, and other DID specifics and boy did I have a big let down when we actually got to work. the dissociative things in the books are things like how you can ground yourself when you feel numb or spaced out (basic dissociative symptoms)

anyway if you are ready for making changes in your life around your thoughts and behaviors, how you handle your stress and so on in your life and make changes so that the past is no longer your focus in life but moving beyond just surviving, the books will help you. they were very helpful to me.