Difficult People: Dealing with the Most Challenging and Irksome Individuals in Our Lives and Clinical Practices
Presented by: Kristie Baber, MSW, LICSW, CCTP
When: Thursday, July 16th, 2026 | 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.
Continuing Education Credit Hours (NBCC and NASW-WA Approved): 6 CEs | $190.00
This continuing education workshop will encourage and equip clinicians who are struggling with seemingly impossible people in their practices and personal lives. You know the types – folks who distract us from doing our best work and erode our sense of contentment.
The class will equip attendees with hacks to confront the demanding, thorny, bothersome, and stressful situations that challenging relationships bring into our offices and lives. From the annoying to the exhausting – we will address generalized personality types and how to deal with them while simultaneously remaining grounded and holding our center.
Please note that this class is NOT intended to address the DSM-5 diagnostic categories of personality disorders – rather, we will be addressing more common issues that don’t necessarily rise to clinically diagnostic levels but can be equally disconcerting and uncomfortable in both personal and professional relationships.
This lighthearted class is designed for practicing therapists with clients of all ages. The workshop will be conducted via Zoom, and teaching modalities will include a mix of clinical discussion, lectures with clinical examples, video illustrations, and individual/group case exercises.
Workshop Objectives:
- Distinctively examine high-maintenance relationships characterized by anger, criticism, martyrdom, negativity, neediness, competition, insensitivity, and control.
- Address strategies for universal psychotherapy office-specific challenges.
- Contextualize Freud’s defense mechanisms.
- Identify essential emotional regulation skills in adulthood.
- Develop self-assessment capacity regarding the impact of stress on our lives and work.
- Explore multiple strategies to hold our center and maintain equilibrium in our practices.
- Access provided references and resources for further study.