Clinical Skills for Handling Your Challenging Clients

Course overview

Clinicians cannot escape eventually working in challenging client situations or with challenging clients. Personality disorders, substance use, suicidality, and boundary issues can be common sources of stress and uncertainty for some clinicians. This workshop will introduce key factors that can make cases and clients challenging and introduce learners to strategies to manage themselves in the face of client resistance and other difficulties. Explore the use of Motivational Interviewing skills to "roll with resistance", the power of validation and empathy, and how clinicians demonstrating mastery of their own internal experience with challenging clients is pivotal to building confidence and success. The reality of imposter syndrome will be shared to encourage learners to adopt more balanced viewpoints of their skills, contributions, and work. Diversity Issues: There will be significant diversity in the different types of challenging client situations that will be discussed in this workshop. Clients who have personality disorders, present as resistant to interventions, and those who struggle with appropriate professional boundaries will be featured so that learners can gain perspectives and recommendations on how to adjust their responses to these diverse situations. In addition, diversity will be addressed by discussing key recommendations for working with silent, manipulative, demanding, and unreliable clients.