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Clinical Strategies to Help Clients Adjust After Traumatic Breakups

Clinical Strategies to Help Clients Adjust After Traumatic Breakups. Presenter: Kenyatta “Kim” Wilson, LPC Wilson Professional Counseling & Consulting, LLC www.wilsonprofessionalcounseling.com www.kimwilsonspeaks.com. LEARNING OBJECTIVES. • List assessment tools to examine attachment styles

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Clinical Strategies to Help Clients Adjust After Traumatic Breakups

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  1. Clinical Strategies to Help Clients Adjust After Traumatic Breakups Presenter: Kenyatta “Kim” Wilson, LPC Wilson Professional Counseling & Consulting, LLC www.wilsonprofessionalcounseling.com www.kimwilsonspeaks.com

  2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES • List assessment tools to examine attachment styles • Summarize attachment theory as it applies to adult relationships • Describe attachment patterns and how they influence relationship dynamics • Identify interventions to help clients reduce trauma post relationship dissolution • Conduct engaging therapeutic sessions to help clients connectchoice and strategies

  3. Presenting Concerns in Counseling Centers A sample of 1,308 clinicians from 84 counseling centers rated the presenting concerns of 53,194 clients using the Clinician Index of Client Concerns (CLICC) after an initial consultation.

  4. Top 5 Concerns in College Counseling Centers • 1. Anxiety • 2. Depression • 3. Stress • 4. Family • 5. Academic Performance

  5. What happens when a breakup accompanies any of the top 5 concerns? • Breakups can lead to psychological disorders • Romantic relationships are a part of social development • Adjustment to a breakup is eased with awareness of errors/factors

  6. Turkish Study • A study assessed the ability of young adults to adjust to the breakup of a romantic relationship. • The sample comprised 140 women and 143 men. • The results specifically showed that initiators and mutual decision makers adjusted to breakups better than noninitiators. • Negative outcomes were greater for noninitiators

  7. Factors that affect breakup adjustment: • Facebook Surveillance of ex-partners (The Luie Story) • Social support • Initiator vs. Noninitiator of breakup • Initiators may experience feelings of relief, freedom and happiness. • Noninitiators may ruminate over the breakup and seek closure.

  8. Factors that affect breakup adjustment: Attachment Styles/Patterns • Secure – autonomous • Avoidant – dismissing • Ambivalent – preoccupied • Disorganized – unresolved

  9. Attachment Research • John Bowlby believed that attachment characterized human experience from "the cradle to the grave.“ • By the mid-1980's, researchers began to take seriously the possibility that attachment processes may play out in adulthood.

  10. Attachment Research Researchers Hazan and Shaver, noted that the relationship between infants and caregivers and the relationship between adult romantic partners share the following attachment features:

  11. both feel safe when the other is nearby and responsive • both engage in close, intimate, bodily contact • both feel insecure when the other is inaccessible • both share discoveries with one another • both play with one another's facial features and exhibit a mutual fascination and preoccupation with one another • both engage in "baby talk"

  12. Post Relationship Adjustment • Anxiety • Depression • Shame • Guilt • Rejection • Abandonment • Getting “stuck”

  13. Lisa Nowak – Former Astronaut

  14. Assessing Personalities • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) • The Enneagram • The True Colors Personality Tests • www.16personalities.com

  15. Assessing Attachment Style • The Adult Attachment Interview • The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System • Experiences in Close Relationships Revised (ECR-R) • The Attachment Style assessment (www.kylebenson.net)

  16. INTERVENTIONS • CLINICAL INTERVIEW • Psychoeducation • Discuss the attachment theory and styles • Explain Shame vs. guilt • Distress vs. emotional growth • Research

  17. INTERVENTIONS • Bibliotherapy • Cinematherapy • Music Therapy • Empathy • Self-Disclosure

  18. INTERVENTIONS • Patterns of coping with stress (checking for generational patterns) • Construct a Genogram

  19. DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) • interpersonal effectiveness • mindfulness • emotional regulation • distress tolerance

  20. INTERVENTIONS • ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) • Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives.

  21. Beatrice is twenty year old female junior in college. She recently had a break-up with her boyfriend. The break-up has left her feeling depressed and insecure. She reported having body image issues and guilt surrounding food. She has not been to class in a week and wants to find a way to get back with her boyfriend.

  22. SESSION WORK • INTERVIEW • ASSESS • TREAT

  23. LEARNING OBJECTIVES • List assessment tools to examine attachment styles • Summarize attachment theory as it applies to adult relationships • Describe attachment patterns and how they influence relationship dynamics • Identify interventions to help clients reduce trauma post relationship dissolution • Conduct engaging therapeutic sessions to help clients connectchoice and strategies

  24. REFERENCES Barutcu, F. & Demir, A (2015). Breakup Adjustment in Young Adulthood.Journal of Counseling & Development, 93, 38-44. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.2015.00179.xBowlby, J. (1969/1982). Attachment and Loss (2nd ed., Vol. 1). NewYork, NY: Basic Books. Fang, S., Chung, M.C., & Watson, C. (2018). The impact ofposttraumatic stress symptoms, posttraumatic stress cognitions andinterpersonal dependency on psychological co-morbidities followingrelationship dissolution among college students. Journal of MentalHealth, 27(5), 424-431. Hazan, C. & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524. McCarthy, C.J., Lambert, R.G., & Brack, G. (1997). Structural model ofcoping, appraisals and emotions after relationship breakup. Journal ofCounseling & Development, 76, 53-63.Sherrell, R.S. & Lambert, W.G. (2016). A Qualitative Investigation ofCollege Students’ Facebook Usage and Romantic Relationships:Implications of College Counselors. Journal of College Counseling, 19,138-153. doi: 10.1002/jocc.12037

  25. THANK YOU FOR BEING AN AMAZING AUDIENCE! • Join my email list by visiting: www.kimwilsonspeaks.com

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