Mental health clinicians routinely encounter individuals with challenging personalities and behaviors. With these clients, we can become stuck in patterns of interaction that are not therapeutic, leave us feeling frustrated, and block us from engaging in healing relationships with our clients. This workshop will offer a deeper understanding of personality functioning and provide insights into improved working relationships with challenging individuals. In this workshop we will move toward a deeper understanding of the concept of personality and learn how to form therapeutic alliances in challenging professional relationships. Initially, the workshop will cover DSM-5’s alternative model for personality disorders with a focus on the elements of identity, self-direction, empathy, and intimacy and how individuals exist along a continuum for each of these elements.
The workshop will examine how these elements manifest for clients along the spectrum, from little to no impairment through severe impairment. With insight into these personality elements, practical case examples will be reviewed along with exploration of how to form alliances with individuals who fall on the far ends of the spectrum. The outcome of the workshop will be a deeper understanding of personality more generally as well as some take-home tools for creating stronger therapeutic alliances with challenging clients.
https://frumtherapist.com/workshops/BecomeUnstuck/viewBecome Unstuck:
Alliance Building with Challenging Clients
Friday, March 28, 2025, 10:00 AM EDT - 1:00 PM EDT
Presenter: Sharen Barboza, Ph.D.
Course Length: 3 Hours
This workshop Offers 3 Live Interactive Continuing Education Credits
Mental health clinicians routinely encounter individuals with challenging personalities and behaviors. With these clients, we can become stuck in patterns of interaction that are not therapeutic, leave us feeling frustrated, and block us from engaging in healing relationships with our clients. This workshop will offer a deeper understanding of personality functioning and provide insights into improved working relationships with challenging individuals. In this workshop we will move toward a deeper understanding of the concept of personality and learn how to form therapeutic alliances in challenging professional relationships. Initially, the workshop will cover DSM-5’s alternative model for personality disorders with a focus on the elements of identity, self-direction, empathy, and intimacy and how individuals exist along a continuum for each of these elements.
The workshop will examine how these elements manifest for clients along the spectrum, from little to no impairment through severe impairment. With insight into these personality elements, practical case examples will be reviewed along with exploration of how to form alliances with individuals who fall on the far ends of the spectrum. The outcome of the workshop will be a deeper understanding of personality more generally as well as some take-home tools for creating stronger therapeutic alliances with challenging clients.
AGENDA:
What is personality? The elements of the alternative theory of personality How individuals with little to no impairment in the elements of self (identity and self-direction) and interpersonal functioning (empathy and intimacy) present in treatment (45 minutes)
Personality disorder and how it is expressed How personality elements are manifest in clients with severe impairment Results of these impairments in the therapeutic relationship (45 minutes)
Professional relationships Empathic Validation Effective strategies for working with these clients 45minutes)
Case examples with interactive discussion (30 minutes)
Review and summarize (15 minutes)