The Difficult Client

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Jo Nol, PhD, MS, LCSWRegister Now
Mondays, November 3 and 10, 2026
9 am – 12 pm
Virtual
6 CECs

Participants must attend both sessions to qualify for CECs.

There are various ways that clients appear difficult to treat. All psychotherapists will experience some of these types of clients throughout their careers. Difficult clients may be self-effacing, or belligerent, unable to protect themselves from exploitation, or struggle to create any kind of satisfying relationship. They may no-show or sit silently for long segments of the session. Even after a therapist has tried heroically to invite them to engage, or provide coaching, support, and encouragement to take better care of themselves, these clients cannot muster the most basic self-advocacy and seem to sabotage their own success at every turn. Therapists may eventually assume a lack of motivation or label the client as resistant and perhaps recommend that the client come back when “they are ready to work.”

Drawing on Control-mastery Theory and using clinical vignettes to illustrate various approaches, this two-session webinar will provide a framework for understanding the difficult client and developing an effective treatment strategy. We will also examine the inevitable and disturbing countertransference reactions therapists develop in working with this maddening presentation and offer ways to manage and use them in therapy to help the client. The two-session format will provide ample time for participants to reflect and discuss their own clinical material.

  • At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will:
  • begin to understand how to see the difficult client from a different perspective
  • learn the basic concepts of Control-mastery Theory
  • practice application of the theory
  • explore the use of countertransference reactions in the service of therapy