Understanding and Treating Codependency
When Clients Over-function for Others
- Average Rating:
- 525
- Speaker:
- Nancy Johnston, MS, LPC, LSATP
- Duration:
- Approx 3 hrs
- Format:
- Audio and Video
- Copyright:
-
23 Mar, 2025
- Product Code:
- NOS096527
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar
- Access:
- Never expires.
Description
We frequently see clients who lose themselves in others. Often, their sense of self seems to depend on people, situations, and outcomes they’re unable to realistically control. They’re overly focused on helping, solving, rescuing, saving, and mitigating others’ pain. When this pattern of other-centeredness interferes with a client’s goals, or fuels anxiety and depressive symptoms, what’s a clinician to do? In this workshop, you’ll be introduced to the clinical importance of sensitively helping clients become aware of their tendency toward other-centeredness at the expense of the self. By connecting with the self and responding to it, clients can get better at toggling between self and others to create more balance in their lives and ultimately foster a healthier relationship with themselves. You’ll learn to:
- Help clients recognise codependent patterns in non-pathologising ways
- Support clients in developing an internal focus
- Foster experiences of self in therapy
- Empower clients to spot codependent patterns fueling anxiety and depression
CPD
Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships
All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners. For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.
This online program is worth 3 hours CPD.
Handouts
| File type | File name | Number of pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual - Understanding and Treating Codependency (5.9 MB) | 56 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Bonus handout - Understanding and Treating Codependency (4.7 MB) | 18 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Bonus handout - Understanding and Treating Codependency - French (4.7 MB) | 18 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Understanding and Treating Codependency - French (5.9 MB) | 56 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Bonus handout - Understanding and Treating Codependency - Italian (4.7 MB) | 18 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Understanding and Treating Codependency - Italian (5.9 MB) | 56 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Bonus handout - Understanding and Treating Codependency - German (4.7 MB) | 18 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Understanding and Treating Codependency - German (5.9 MB) | 56 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Bonus handout - Understanding and Treating Codependency - Spanish (4.7 MB) | 18 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Understanding and Treating Codependency - Spanish (5.9 MB) | 56 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Speaker
Nancy Johnston, MS, LPC, LSATP Related seminars and products
Private Practice
Nancy L. Johnston, MS, LPC, LSATP, MAC, NCC, is in private practice in Virginia. With 49 years of clinical experience, Nancy is master addiction counselor and an American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMCHA) diplomate in substance abuse and co-occurring disorders. A sought-after speaker and trainer, Nancy has been a faculty member the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, The Ferentz Institute, numerous other professional conferences including Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disorders, the American Mental Health Counselors Association’s Annual Conference, the Virginia Counselors Association’s Annual Conference, and Specialty Docket Training for the Virginia Supreme Court.
Her work was recently featured in a New York Times article on enmeshment in relationships. In addition to teaching clinical professionals, Nancy offers online self-recovery workshops and delights in designing and facilitating Codependence Camp biannually at a retreat center in Virginia. Nancy has authored four books on codependency, including You. Here. Today.: 200 Readings for Growth from Codependency to Self-Recovery (2026); The Clinician’s Codependency Treatment Workbook (2024); Disentangle: When You've Lost Your Self in Someone Else 2nd Edition (2020); and My Life as a Border Collie: Freedom from Codependency (2012). When she is not teaching or writing, Nancy enjoys extended time with family and friends, gardening, collaging, writing haiku, dancing, walking in the woods, and sitting by the river near her country home. To learn more about Nancy and her work, please visit www.nancyljohnston.com.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Nancy Johnston receives compensation as a designer and facilitator of workshops and retreats. She receives royalties as a published author. Nancy Johnston receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Nancy Johnston is a member of the American Mental Health Counselors' Association, the Virginia Counselors' Association, the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors, and the Virginia Association of Addiction Professionals.
Additional Info
Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com
Questions?
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Objectives
- Explain 3 ways to clinically understand codependency that can be applied to treating codependency.
- Integrate 3 assessment tools for codependency into an intake interview.
- Describe the clinician’s role in establishing a therapeutic relationship with a person with codependency.
- Apply protocols to help clients foster their internal connections.
Outline
Understanding codependency
- Core features of codependency
- “Relationship Circles”
- Specific behaviours associated with codependency
- “Behaviours Associated with Codependency Continuum
- Clinical goals
Assessing a client for codependency
- “Assessing for a Dominant External Focus”
- “Assessing for Behaviours Associated with Codependency”
- “Assessing for Overfunctioning for Others/Underfunctioning for Self”
- Connecting codependent dynamics with client’s presenting issues
Establishing a therapeutic relationship with a client with codependency
- Therapist characteristics
- Client empowerment
- Countertransference
- Clinician Codependency
Treating Codependency
- Educating the client about external vs. internal focus
- Helping clients foster their relationship-with-self
- Four interlocking elements of self-recovery
- Practices to help clients increase their internal connections
Risks and Limitations
Target Audience
- Addiction Counsellors
- Counsellors
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Nurses
- Physicians
- Psychologists
- Social Workers
Reviews
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Overall: 4.8
Total Reviews: 525
Satisfaction Guarantee
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