Working with Dilemmas

Working with Dilemmas

It is common for clients to feel stuck in a dilemma. Situations arise when they don’t like their choices. Or struggle with what seems like two bad choices. Maybe they learn to overlook their dilemmas. Or hope that another option will emerge or that the consequences of a choice will be different than it appears.

Clients often proceed as if they don’t have to deal with what’s in front of them. “I don’t want to feel this.” “It will be OK.” “I don’t want this to be true.” “I should not have to deal with this.”

They might change the focus, or “kick the can down the road.” But dilemmas are an ongoing part of life, and avoiding them creates ongoing difficulties.

Dilemmas appear in almost every therapy session. Therapists and clients alike may not notice them. However, dilemmas that emerge may have tremendous therapeutic value that provide a deeper focus for the work.

In this webinar, Craig Penner, LMFT will discuss the dynamics of dilemmas in therapy to make them become more explicit and workable.

Learn to:

• Identify and frame dilemmas that get exposed during therapy sessions.

• Use “the heat” inherent in these dilemmas from a non-interpretive, neutral stance.

• Utilize the somatic responses that may manifest from these dilemmas to facilitate a “working through” that includes nervous system activation.

• Identify dilemmas when clients only present “half” of the problem.

• Describe how tracking resiliency, moment-by-moment, is relevant when dealing with dilemmas.

• Identify how our natural drives compete to set up these dilemmas that are hard to deal with.

2 CE Credit hours are provided for Psychologists, LMFT’s, LCSW’s, LPC’s, LMHC’s. Click here for more CE details.

The content of this training is appropriate for beginning and advanced level therapists. Certificates of completion are given after viewing all the videos, passing the quiz and finishing the evaluation form.

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Bibliography

Kain, K. and Terrell, S., (2018), Nurturing Resilience

Levine, P., (2015) Training Manual in Somatic Experiencing

Ogden, Minton, & Pain, (2006) Trauma and the Body

Porges, S., (2011) The Polyvagal Theory

Schnarch, D. (1997) Passionate Marriage

Shapiro, F., (1995) Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

Siegel, D, (2010)The Mindful Therapist

Zinker, J., (1977) Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy