Clinical Topics & Methods Category

Navigating Countertransference With Ritually Abused Clients

1.5 CE Hour
1 member has taken this course
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About the Course

Survivors of ritual abuse and mind control are stepping forward in unprecedented numbers on social media and revealing themselves in therapy settings. These clients are almost universally engineered with techniques that involve creation of polyfragmented Dissociative Identity Disorder. Treating such clients requires a high degree of skill, especially in forming and maintaining a caring treatment relationship. In many cases these clients have been conditioned to accept that they are unlovable and untreatable. Their experiences are extreme and highly traumatic. In some cases their handlers (abusers) have even mimicked psychologists and/or psychiatrists creating aversive conditioning to therapy itself. Therapists of these clients are challenged with intense visceral reactions to both disclosures of unimaginable abuse and the extreme dysregulation these clients can display in and out of sessions. Their stories and behavior will push all the countertransference buttons from extreme maternal sympathy to horror and revulsion. This is advanced practice! Ideally therapists help these dissociative clients develop a strong attachment to their treater that can weather the ups and downs of extreme trauma work. Yet each therapist has thresholds of affect tolerance and belief that affect their clinical ability to stay connected to clients and help process catastrophic experiences. This workshop focuses on: growing relational ability in the therapist, techniques to hear and respond effectively to extreme trauma disclosures, and increasing mindfulness of countertransference reactions from moment to moment without shutting down or acting out. Effective therapeutic apology and other reparative strategies are presented for working through the inevitable ruptures of attachment in trauma therapy when countertransference gets away from us.

This course is based on the recorded webinar, Navigating Countertransference With Ritually Abused Clients created by Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW in 2019.

Publication Details

Publication Date: 12:00pm - 1:30 PM EDT 10/3/2019

Course Material Author

Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW

Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW is a psychotherapist and author who specializes in the treatment of severe trauma and PTSD. She has worked in the field of mental health for more than four decades and has written two award-winning books: Wisdom, Attachment and Love in Trauma Therapy: Beyond Evidence-Based Practice (Routledge, 2018) and The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD From the Inside Out (Quest, 2012). Susan lives and practices in Portland, Oregon.

Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW authored the material only, and was not involved in creating this CE course. They are identified here for your own evaluation of the relevancy of the material this course is based on.

Course Creator

Sandi Cardaman

Sandi Cardaman has been a Licensed Mental Health Counselor for more than 15 years. She has worked with eating disorders, domestic violence and clients who are working with the dependency system.

Target Audience

Counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychologists and social workers. This course is appropriate for intermediate levels of knowledge.

Learning Objectives

After taking this activity, you should be able to:

  1. 1 Name three common ways that therapists compromise patient attachment in trauma treatment
  2. 2 Identify and utilize evidence-based session rating metrics in their clinical practices
  3. 3 Deliver an effective apology that rehabilitates and strengthens attachment in the therapy setting
  4. 4 Respond compassionately to traumatic or unbelievable disclosures in a way that does not rupture the attachment to the treater and facilitates a greater holding environment for the treatment
  5. 5 Identify areas of countertransference that include thresholds of belief, spirituality and horror in themselves and neutralize reactivity that could cause a rupture in attachment in treatment.

Disclosure to Learners

CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME's Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity – including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests).

The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity's planners, faculty, and the reviewer:

Planners and Reviewers

The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

Material Authors

There are no known relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Course Creator

Sandi Cardaman – None to report.

Commercial support

There is no commercial support for this distance-learning course.

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Course Material

This material is available to purchase for $45.00.

This course material is published by ISSTD. For your convenience, has partnered with ISSTD to make it available for purchase right here.

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