Please join us for conversation with Kasia Kozlowska, who recently co-authored Functional somatic symptoms in children and adolescents:A stress-system approach to assessment and treatment. Their book describes the causes of functional somatic symptoms, using models such as the Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM), Interpersonal Neurobiology, and the Polyvagal Theory to describe attachment, stress, and immune/inflammatory, and other systems impacting the body. They also provide a comprehensive outline for a treatment approach.
SPECIAL DAY AND TIME: 7:00 pm on Monday, January 18, 2021, LONDON time.

The session will not be a book review, rather it will explore questions emanating from the book. (CSI recommends you at least scan the book before the session.) Some of the questions we may cover, and which we developed in a prior DMM Coffee House session reviewing her book, include:
- “Functional” has a different meaning in your book vs the DMM. In FSS terms, it means an illness which is active but not caused by an objectively identifiable disease process. The DMM uses ‘”function” to describe the purpose or goal of a self-protective attachment strategy. Yet, are FSS’s serving a self-protective function? Are they part of the strategy or do they represent a breakdown of the strategy (like an [ina], or ess in A+ strategies, or Utr/l)?
- Can or do they start as a breakdown of a persons self-protective attachment strategy and then develop into a new or supplemental strategy?
- Are there differences you have noticed in the kind of symptoms or the way in which symptoms manifest in children using A+ or C+ strategies?
- How crucial is a systemic understanding – are there symptoms that make sense when the whole family is considered that might be missed if you consider only the child’s attachment strategy in general or separate relationship with each parent?
- Are there some key intervention tips or things to think about which might be specifically of interest to people using a DMM, IPNB, or Mind-Body-Relationship approach to?
- How do you incorporate somatic memory systems into the DMM memory systems graphic or perspective? What are the components of the somatic memory systems? How does somatic memory interplay with cognitive and affective-oriented memory systems?
- Does the somatic aspect of human systems impact the DMM Circumplex and information processing?
If you have other questions you would like to ask Kasia, please consider sending them to us before hand.
Session details
Date: MONDAY, 18 January 2021 (live), and on Thursday, 20 January 2021 (video replay at our usual time)
Length: 60+ minutes
Price: Free
Host/Facilitator: Kasia Kozlowsak
Platform: Zoom meeting
Sponsor: Conflict Science Institute
Multiple sessions: Each session will be unique, please join both!
Session times: Times listed below, PLEASE NOTE, some computer calendars do not automatically handle the time zone conversion correctly.
Session A (live) (EU/US/India): Monday, 18 January 2021, 11:00 a.m. Seattle (UTC -7) (2:00 pm in Miami; 7:00 p.m. in London; and in Australia/Asia, on Tuesday at 6:00 am in Sydney.)
Session B (video replay) (US/EU/AUS/Asia): Thursday, 21 January 2021, at 1:00 p.m. in Seattle (4:00 p.m. in Miami; 9:00 p.m. in London; and (in Australia/Thailand/China on Friday) at 8:00 a.m. in Sydney. (AUS/ASIA participants should confirm the start time.)
Dr. Kasia Kozlowska
Dr. Kasia Kozlowska is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Australia, a Clinical Associate Professor in the Disciplines of Psychiatry and of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Sydney Medical School, and a clinical researcher at The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead, Australia. Her interests include the treatment of children with somatic symptoms and their families, the integration of attachment assessments and systems thinking into clinical practice, and the neurobiology of the fear cascade.
She runs a multidisciplinary consultation-liaison team committed to the close integration of research findings and clinical practice. In collaboration with the Physiotherapy Department, Adolescent Medicine Department, and Hospital School, she also directs an inpatient Mind-Body Rehabilitation Programme for children and adolescents with functional somatic symptoms.
Since 1996 Dr. Kozlowska has been studying the DMM and applying it to functional medicine. She has authored numerous journal articles and several books.