Narcissism is the word of our time, yet there remains a lack of understanding, especially the way it impacts people in relationships with people who have antagonistic personality styles such as narcissism. The dearth of training on high-conflict personality styles, coupled with a reticence to “label” people who are close to the client but “not in the room”, has meant that many clients suffering from “narcissistic abuse” in familial, intimate, or workplace relationships don’t get the help they need. This workshop will offer the most up-to-date research on antagonistic personality styles, and provide a practical roadmap for working with clients with patterns of narcissistic abuse. You’ll discover how to identify the characteristics of narcissistic abuse that are often misdiagnosed; a holistic treatment approach that can be applied trans-theoretically; an actionable framework for educating clients about narcissism. This program will cover: an overview of narcissism and other antagonistic personality styles including diagnostic issues, subtypes, assessment, treatment, impact on clinicians, co-morbidities; introduction of the term “narcissistic abuse” or “antagonistic relational stress”; the patterns associated with this clinical presentation, psychosocial impacts, differentiating and also accounting for the overlap between antagonistic relational stress and other comorbidities such as post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders; overview of the dynamics of high conflict, antagonistic relationships; an integrated, transtheoretical model for working with clients experiencing antagonistic relational stress; clinician self-care and challenges when working with the persons experiencing these relationships.
Learning Objectives:
1. Apply a holistic view of the dynamics of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder, and “narcissism-adjacent” personality styles.
2. Describe the phenomenon of narcissistic abuse/antagonistic relational stress.
3. Explain the dynamics of narcissistic and other antagonistic relationships
4. Utilize an actionable framework for working with clients experiencing narcissistic abuse.
5. Identify the specific challenges in working with individuals with antagonistic personality styles and/or those who are experiencing antagonistic relational stress.
The evaluation/CE request form for this program can be found
HERE.