Love is Not Enough:
When Traumatized Clients Push the Therapist Away Presented by Robert Muller, PhD, CPsych

Web Conference Description

The therapeutic relationship is at the heart of any successful therapy. We all know that empathy, listening, and being attuned to the client’s emotional needs makes for a close therapeutic relationship and a strong alliance. But what happens when the traumatized client cannot tolerate closeness? Or when the client acts out and pushes the therapist away? How can the clinician respond to such enactments? With individuals who adopt a self-protective, help-rejecting stance, psychotherapy can be difficult. 

Using attachment theory, Dr. Muller describes transference patterns seen with these hard-to-treat clients, including verbal and nonverbal interactions. Using a relational, psychodynamic approach, he considers difficulties such clients have in accepting therapist empathy, and the defensive reactions that follow. He examines ways to work with clients' feelings of vulnerability and their distancing maneuvers. Therapy techniques include:

Resisting the temptation to back away
Noticing subtle expressions of vulnerability
Noticing verbal and nonverbal emotional responses (such as covering-up, taking-back, and reactions-to prior expressions of vulnerability)
Addressing feelings in the moment

This workshop focuses on techniques Dr. Muller developed specifically for this population, included in his award-winning academic book (2010), Trauma and the Avoidant Client: Attachment-Based Strategies for Healing (W.W. Norton). This presentation focuses on clinical technique. Theory is complemented by case examples.

This Web Conference is designed to help clinicians:

1) Recognize client expressions of vulnerability and distancing maneuvers in their work with avoidant trauma patients;
2) Consider the ways empathy can be a “double edged sword” when working with this population;
3) Apply attachment theory and the therapeutic relationship as a productive force in the treatment;
4) Recognize characteristics of avoidant attachment among adults with trauma histories.

 If you have any questions about this Web Conference, or would like more information, please contact us here.