Responding Therapeutically to Negative Reactions

Negative feelings or responses sometimes occur in psychotherapy on the part of both the client as well as the therapist.

Such reactions represent a challenge to the therapist: When a client responds negatively, the therapist must be prepared with alternative interventions or ways to recover a situation; a therapist's negative response to a client, even internally, can harm the therapy, so therapists must be aware of and manage their emotional reactions.

The vignettes in this video are intended to stimulate thinking and discussion about preferred responses to uncomfortable situations or difficult content in therapy.

Designed for clinical training, this video may be used either in workshops or individually to help students or professionals to improve their therapeutic work.

This video features clients portrayed by actors on the basis of composite cases.

APA Videos

• Behavioral Emergencies
  Phillip M. Kleespies
• Engaging Men in Psychotherapy
  Matt Englar-Carlson
• Intimate Partner Violence
  Casey T. Taft
• Mentalization-Based Therapy
  Norka T. Malberg
• Responding Therapeutically to Patient Anger
• Responding Therapeutically to Patient Expression of Sexual Attraction
• Therapeutic Assessment With Adults
  Stephen E. Finn
• Therapist/Client Boundary Challenges

APA Books

• Transforming Negative Reactions to Clients: From Frustration to Compassion
  Edited by Abraham W. Wolf, Marvin D. Goldfried, and J. Christopher Muran
• Trauma-Informed Treatment and Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence
  Casey T. Taft
• Treating PTSD With Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies: Interventions That Work
  Candice M. Monson
• What Therapists Don't Talk About and Why: Understanding Taboos That Hurt Us and Our Clients
  Kenneth S. Pope, Janet L. Sonne, and Beverly Greene