PART THREE – Level I: Class 8 – Trauma and the Therapeutic Alliance: Understanding the Impact of Counter-Transference

December 9 Login to Zoom.com 8:30am; Training 8:45am - 4:15pm , 6 CEUs Presenter: Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C DAPA Zoom.us, MD + Google Map

This class is only open to participants of the Level I program.

For information about the Level I Trauma Certificate Program, click here.

In this 6-hour workshop we will process the inherent challenges of working with traumatized clients in a variety of practice settings. Participants will explore the impact that a perpetually “externalized focus” has and the price we pay when we don’t maintain a dual awareness in our work. There is often a disconnect between the energy and effort professionals exert to helping others versus the time they spend re-charging and taking care of themselves. Several writing experientials will allow us to see that discrepancy and invite curiosity about the negative impact it has on clinician efficacy. We will also address the history and evolution of co-dependency and how the need for external validation can make therapists vulnerable to vicarious traumatization. We will identify the risk factors that can lead to secondary traumatization and burn-out including: issues of control; repression; obsessive thinking; weak boundaries; distraction and denial. Participants will process how vicarious trauma manifests in the workplace. We will also identify the warning signs that let clinicians know their objectivity and effectiveness have been compromised.

Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss the potential role that spirituality and religious observance can play, both as a resource in their own lives and in their clients’ healing journeys. Using video examples, we will identify four potential counter-transferential reactive modes that can impact the work and process case examples that illustrate the adverse effect of counter-transference.