Narcissistic and Psychopathic Abuse: The Clinician's Guide to the New Field of Traumatic Pathological Love Relationships
Therapist Two-Day Training Workshop
Available as a Digital Workshop Beginning July 27, 2021
On This Page
Instructors
Sandra L. Brown, M.A., is the founder of this Association as well as The Institute for Relational Harm Reduction & Public Pathology Education. A former psychotherapist in the field of psychopathology and survivor trauma, Sandra is an accomplished and respected community educator on the intersections of mental illness, personality disorders, violence, and recidivism. She is a clinical lecturer and trainer, TV and radio guest, and an author. Her books include the highly popular How to Spot a Dangerous Man Before You Get Involved, the award-winning Women Who Love Psychopaths: Inside the Relationships of Inevitable Harm With Psychopaths, Sociopaths & Narcissists, as well as the clinically relevant Counseling Victims of Violence: A Handbook for Helping Professionals.
More about Sandra’s professional accomplishments is available at her website.
Claudia Paradise, LCSW-R, has been in practice since 1995. She serves on the executive committee of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy’s Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia. Claudia is personally and professionally passionate about the education, treatment, and prevention of self harm and narcissistic abuse through her writing and public speaking. Additionally, she provides supervision and teaches at an institute level. She is an eclectic practitioner who employs analytic theory, DBT, CBT, somatic, and EMDR therapies to treat adults, couples, and children in her New York office. She is committed to the understanding of narcissism and sociopathy and their wide-reaching effects on the individual, the family, and the environment.
More information about Ms. Paradise’s experience and affiliations is available on LoveFraud.com and on LinkedIn.
William P. Brennan, M.Ed., LMHC, CAP, holds a master’s degree in Counseling Education from Florida Atlantic University and is a psychotherapist who is a Certified Addictions Professional, Trauma Professional, and is EMDR certified with experience in inpatient, outpatient, and private practice levels of treatment. He has worked with survivors of Pathological Relationships for the last ten years and has co-facilitated narcissistic abuse recovery in individual, group, and retreat formats.
Contact Bill through his Facebook page or via email at wbrennan8@clf.rr.com.
Introduction
It is not a far stretch to imagine that what a psychopath, anti-social or narcissist can do, and does do to others is more extreme than other forms of abuse. It is highly likely you already have (and have had) survivors of narcissistic and psychopathic abuse and trauma in your practice without recognizing the signs of it. It seems incomprehensible we could miss the signs of abuse from the most dangerous disorders in the DSM5. But we do.
A study about ‘Finding Competent Care’ in this population indicated the vast majority of survivors never found a therapist who recognized their ‘atypical trauma’ with its different presentation, or ever differentiated this type of abuse from traditional domestic violence. Consequently, they were never treated for their specific needs in therapy, or their #1 ‘hallmark’ symptom of traumatic pathological relationships. Furthermore, some were identified as ‘codependent’ and never treated for their personality trait elevations that had nothing to do with aversive histories.
‘Narcissistic abuse’ is a hot topic in the category of ‘new genres’ of counseling. Therapists are flocking to this specialty field and finding out in mid-treatment that there are unique knowledge bases needed to effectively treat these survivors. The ‘Finding Competent Care’ study found most therapists did not have sufficient training for this population and missed key components of treatment.
This genre of counseling is not new but the awareness of it is. Field pioneer, Sandra L. Brown, M.A. brings her 30 years of treatment experience, research, data collections, trauma studies, hallmark symptom identification, and a developed model of care therapy approach for this specific population to this rapidly developing field. Seasoned field experts Claudia Paradise, LCSW and Bill Brennan, LMHC bring their psychodynamic, trauma insights, and approaches to this depth psychology training and needed knowledge bases on the overlaps of Cluster B/psychopathy, trauma, and personality science in order to avoid treatment failure.
Learn how to —
- Identify pathological love relationships
- Differentiate PLRs from other stereotypical domestic violence, addictive, co-dependent, or dysfunctional relationships
- Recognize the unique relational dynamics generated from the pathology and the traumatic impact to intimate partners
- Understand why certain survivor personalities seem to be targeted
- Key considerations for treating the traumatic aftermath
Course Outline
Pathological Love Relationships (PLR) Defined
- What therapists are missing and misdiagnosing
- What survivors named that led to treatment failure
- PLR Description
- Theoretical influences
- Differentiating these relationships from other relational types
- Research
Personality Disorders and Pathological Love Relationships
- Identifying Pathological Love Relationships through personality and personality pathology
- Personality disorders and the importance of the issue of ‘pervasiveness’
- Symptomatic conditions -vs- characteristic conditions
- How to read life patterns of the normal and the disordered
- Cluster B Disorders and the ‘danger zone personalities’ and spectrum
Identification of Pathological Love Relationships
- The DSM-5 Alternative Model and relational pathology
- The Categorical Model vs The Dimensional Alternative Model
- The four core impairments in personality disorders
- Definitions, descriptions and behaviors
- Symptom traits vs maladaptive traits
Clinical Impressions vs Distance Diagnosing
- What if I can’t diagnose the other party?
- Partner-related assessments and usefulness
- Developing clinical impressions, reasonable assumptions, and working hypothesis in detection
Psychoeducation for Survivors About Personality Disorders
- Personality theories that create bias
- The neuroscience and neurobiology of personality disorders
- DSM symptoms reflected in the neuro impairments
- How clients benefit from neurobiology education
Relational Dynamics and Stages of a PLR
- Pre-Stage— trolling, luring and predatory targeting tactics
- Early Stage— manufactured intensity, love bombing, mirroring, reflective relational tactics
- Mid-Stage —coercive control, gaslighting and subterfuge
- End relationship dynamics
- Case studies for each stage
Survivor Personalities and Targeted Traits: Critical Considerations for Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment
- Who these survivors are NOT
- Survivor personality super trait elevations and their importance in targeting and recovery
- Agreeableness and cooperation: the relationship investment trait
- Conscientiousness and self-directedness: the integrity-oriented life traits
- Misidentification/misdiagnosis of personality ‘Super Traits’
- Codependency, dependent PD, borderline PD, empaths
Trauma Symptoms and Trauma-Informed Treatment Considerations for Survivors of Narcissistic Abuse
- How these survivors’ symptoms can be different
- Atypical trauma and misdiagnosis
- Cognitive dissonance and its presentation in survivors
- Difference in chronic and persistent CD—not your college understanding
- Cognitive dissonance and its connection to PTSD intensification
- Case discussion on symptomology including Executive Functioning and CD
- Trauma treatment and why EMDR is helpful
- Treatment limitations and contraindications
Case Study:
Use the Four Identifiers to Recognize a Pathological Love Relationship
- Pathology
- Relational dynamics
- Super trait personality
- Atypical trauma present
Objectives
- Differentiate narcissistic abuse from other domestic violence, addictive, co-dependent, or dysfunctional relationships to inform clinical treatment.
- Analyze the unique relational dynamics generated from the pathology and the impact to intimate partners
- Investigate common mistakes made by practitioners in the identification and treatment of survivors of narcissistic and psychopathic abuse.
- Investigate the five stages of a Pathological Love Relationship (narcissistic abuse).
- Analyze Cluster B personality disorders for a better understanding of how Cluster B partners can exploit the vulnerabilities of those in close relationships.
- Apply the DSM5 Alternative Model personality disorder ‘four impairments’ to predict relational deficits in narcissistic abuse.
- Investigate co-morbid and intensification factors related to behavior of the narcissistic abuser.
- Assess the role of chronic and pervasive Cognitive Dissonance in survivor symptomology.
- Analyze how gaslighting, coercive control, and subterfuge in the context of romantic relationships, can lead to negative impacts on cognition.
- Employ in-session approaches to help clients recognize narcissistic behavior in their partners and become aware of the consequences.
- Employ psychoeducation techniques to teach survivors about personality disorders and the manipulative tactics, coercive devices and subtle signs that they may be victims of narcissistic abuse.
- Utilize clinical techniques to unravel problematic beliefs that can prevent victims of narcissistic abuse from making therapeutic progress.
Who Should Take This Course?
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Addiction Counselors
- Psychiatric Nurses
Registration
The cost for this course is $379.00 (USD).
Please note: Because the majority of the course materials are available immediately as downloads, we are not able to offer course refunds.
Post-Workshop Consults/Supervision
Make the most of your training and ensure optimal benefits to your clients with post-workshop consults/supervision with Sandra Brown.
