Difficult-to-Treat Clients

About the Instructor

LAWRENCE E. HEDGES, Ph.D., Psy.D., ABPP is a psychologist-psychoanalyst in private practice in Orange, California, specializing in the training of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. He is director of the Listening Perspectives Study Center and the founding director of the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute in Tustin, California where he is a supervising and training psychoanalyst. He has been awarded honorary membership in the American Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Hedges is author of numerous papers and books including Cross- cultural Encounters: Bridging Worlds of Difference (2013), Listening Perspectives in Psychotherapy (1983 & 2003), Interpreting the Countertransference (1992), Strategic Emotional Involvement (1996), and Facing the Challenge of Liability in Psychotherapy: Practicing Defensively (2000 & 2007). To learn more about Dr. Hedges and his work, go to www.listeningperspectives.com

Working With Difficult-to-Treat Clients

About this Course

Many people have experienced developmental traumas early in life that they have no way to speak about but they can show us the difficulty by engaging us in mutual enactments in the transference-countertransference realm. A Relational/Developmental perspective will be taken on how to work with areas of deep trauma. Case illustrations will be given and participants will be invited to discuss difficult treatment dilemmas they are experiencing. Managing all forms of suicidality and how to consider boundaries will be discussed. Dr. Hedges’ free download text, Relational Listening will be used.

Course Objectives

• Distinguish between “organizing” and “symbiotic” relational styles
• State the importance of mutual enactments
• Give reasons why consultation and documentation are important