Does Our Codependency Help or Harm Our Clients?

Codependency is a widespread occurrence that can negatively impact one's individuation, self-esteem, and interpersonal relationships while creating a cascade of symptoms. People experiencing codependency tend to have trouble accepting and being themselves, so they hide who they are to be accepted by someone else.

The same problems stemming from codependency can arise in the therapeutic relationship. Therapists unaware of how their own codependency affects their countertransference may not only experience anxiety and burnout, but may also stagnate therapy and even harm those in treatment. The presentation will address countertransference issues involving fear of abandonment, denial, control, guilt, caretaking, boundaries, and the handling of missed appointments, termination, and fees. Participants will gain specific strategies to avoid these pitfalls and intervene therapeutically, to set and maintain boundaries, and to implement practice policies. This presentation will be based upon the article featured in the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) magazine, The Therapist.

This web conference is intermediate instructional level and designed to help clinicians:

1. Identify and understand the symptoms of codependency in the context of a disorder of the self;
2. Obtain a road map for treating codependency;
3. Identify their different types of countertransferences and how codependency interferes with positive treatment outcomes;
4. Utilize specific strategies to avoid codependent pitfalls, set and maintain boundaries, and implement practice policies.

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

Continuing Education (CE) Information

Two CE credits will be provided by GoodTherapy.org for attending this web conference in its entirety.

GoodTherapy.org is also an Approved Education Provider by NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals (provider #135463). Of the eight counselor skill groups ascribed to by NAADAC, this course is classified within counseling services.

GoodTherapy.org is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy.org, SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0395.

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

Premium and Pro Membership with GoodTherapy includes access to this web conference at no additional cost, as well as other member benefits such as a profile listing in GoodTherapy's Therapist Directory. Not yet a member? Sign up for a Premium or Pro Membership, here.

Just want CE credits? Sign up for a monthly or annual CE Subscription with GoodTherapy to get unlimited access to our CE Program, including this event, other live CE web conferences, and hundreds of hours of homestudy courses.

Mental health professionals who are not members can attend this live web conference for $30.95 or access the homestudy recording for $15.50. Sign up here to purchase this CE course and earn a CE certificate.

If the event is canceled by GoodTherapy, registrants who purchased the event will be notified and the charge for the event will be refunded

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us.

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Highlights

Therapists who are not taking care of their own needs start to feel . . . that their clients are too needy. That might be a red flag to you that you’re neglecting your boundaries, that you’re letting your clients take advantage of you, or you’re not taking care of yourself.

[By] setting boundaries, you’re also showing the client that you can say no and still care about them. You’re modeling setting boundaries that they probably are not doing in their own life. So it empowers them; they haven’t had a role model. They probably had a parent with no boundaries or they were authoritarian parents. So there was no empathy—that you can actually understand them and care about them and still care about yourself, that you have conflicting needs. So this is really modeling behavior for the client. - Darlene Lancer, JD, MA, MFT