Location: Mueller Center, 801 S.6th St., Hot Springs, SD 57747

Date: August 23, 2018, from 9AM through 5PM with an hour lunch break.

Fee: $150 registration fee

Early bird fee: $125 before June 15, 2018. Preregistration is required.

IMPORTANT: Registration will close August 1, 2018. This training is limited to a number of people due to the interactive nature of the workshop.

The training is experiential, which means I need to know how many people will go and arrange the exercises and small group breakout sessions accordingly, well in advance of the day. So, no passive attendance. After registration closes, again on June 1, 2018, you will receive an email with directions so that you come prepared. Don’t worry- I will only ask you to select a couple of clients from memory and to begin to think about your experience with them. No homework!

Title: Working from a Relational Perspective is the key to growing more confident in your work and actually enjoying even your most challenging clients!

Learn what makes a “Therapeutic Relationship” therapeutic.

Working with transference and countertransference. Using predictable transferential strategies in your work, grounded in attachment research.

Better conceptualize the needs of attachment hungry and attachment defying clients.

Description: The therapeutic relationship is more than “simply” the ethical and theoretical frame that we maintain while we engage in psychotherapy, counseling, or client centered social work. The relationship is the vehicle by which we deliver the interventions we provide. We won’t get very far without attending to relational dynamics. They are not to be taken for granted or just expected to “be there”.

As more of the professional interventions emphasize a mechanical model, a “fix it” mentality, discover how to go back to the roots of the profession, the healing art of therapy, AND justify it to any third party payor or supervisor.

The empirical literature overflows with evidence proving the power of the therapeutic relationship, if not its superiority, to effect lasting change.

Relating is undoubtedly challenging work. All individuals are unique. We must create each one on its own terms. Change is constant, so even relationships we have for a time, require attention and nurturing to keep them healthy. We are, in one sense, professional relators. Focusing excessively on symptoms and practices can separate you from paying attention to the heart of the therapeutic encounter.

For example, let’s stop considering certain cases “difficult clients”. We really are talking about “challenging relationships.” By using this perspective, we empower ourselves to find a way to rise to the challenge, for the benefit of our client, as well as for our continued growth and skill as therapists.

Learning Objectives:

Participants in this workshop will:

Cite the evidence base for a relational approach.

Discuss how to effectively create a therapeutic relationship using an attachment lens. We will see the different needs clients have for a matched relational approach:

1) ambivalent attachment style

2) avoidant attachment style

3) disorganized attachment style

s, as they are identified in the evidence based literature.

Verbalize how the therapeutic relationship impacts outcome.

Use relational strategies to increase client engagement and retention.

Identify and troubleshoot impasses more quickly

Use the relational field as an anchor across methods that are symptom focused, as well any as theoretical orientation

Use the practical lens to organize the variables of relationship that we unpack

Use relational skills to identify and re-engage a disengaging client

Use relational skills to restore a therapeutic alliance that has been strained.