A Friday for Therapists: Dr. Ramani Durvasula in Grand Rapids

Therapists, as a profession, don't tend to interact enough with each other. A Friday for Therapists is a yearly opportunity to change that. Join other West Michigan therapsits for a fantastic training, lunch, and time to interact.

Dr. Ramani is the New York Times best-selling author of It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People. She is a clinical psychologist, professor emerita of psychology, and the world’s leading expert on narcissistic relationships.

Bringing Clients Back to Themselves: Working with Clients Experiencing Narcissistic Relationships

Course Description:It is essential that clinicians understand not just the phenomenon of “narcissistic abuse” (or antagonistic relational abuse), but the fallout from narcissistic abuse (the distress, discomfort, and dysfunction that result from narcissistic abuse). To understand narcissistic abuse means to (a) understand the nature of narcissism and antagonism as a personality style; (b) the dynamics within these relationships; (c) the abusive and destabilizing patterns that occur in these relationships (“narcissistic abuse”); (d) the fallout of narcissistic abuse and its impact on people in these relationships; and (e) using an antagonism-informed transtheoretical framework with these clients, including psychoeducation, assessment, trauma informed frameworks, fostering radical acceptance, and striving for growth.

Clients experiencing narcissistic abuse and the attendant fallout may be having this experience in family of origin relationships, long-term committed relationships/marital relationships, friendships, and workplace relationships. An antagonism-informed framework is also highly effective in working with clients enduring post-separation abuse and workplace abuse cases.

This framework can give clinicians an intuitive and actionable roadmap and this program will provide:· A brief overview of narcissism and antagonism· The dynamics observed in these relationships.· The patterns that comprise narcissistic abuse/antagonistic relational stress (NA/ARS)· The fallout of NA/ARS· An antagonism-informed transtheoretical framework· An overview of ethical issues in working with clients experiencing narcissistic abuse

Course Objectives:

1. Become familiarized with antagonism as a personality style, narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder, the patterns associated with this personality style, and to apply this understanding to psychoeducation of clients as well as diagnostic formulation.

2. Be able to understand and describe the behaviors, patterns, and dynamics observed in narcissistic relationships, as well as to assess these dynamics in clients experiencing these relationships.

3. Integrate culturally informed working models and cultural humility into working with clients experiencing narcissistic relationships and to account for power imbalances, awareness of intersectional issues, and how differential societal power and cultural expectations impact subjective experience, decision making and interpretation of these dynamics by clients.

4. Become proficient in the behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and intrapsychic fallout from narcissistic abuse/antagonistic relational stress (NA/ARS) that clients experience, as well as understanding co-occurring patterns that can complicate diagnosis and assessment.

5. Be able to apply an antagonism-informed transtheoretical framework for working with clients presenting with the distress, discomfort and dysfunction entailed by experiencing NA/ARS, and foster growth in these clients.

6. Expand ethical awareness to include awareness and knowledge of legal and ethical issues which arise in working with clients experiencing NA/ARS.

This course is approved by NASW-Michigan for 5 continuing education credits.

Info: Catered lunch and Open Mic Networking

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