Date: September 24, 2025
Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET
Facilitator: Natalie Zlodre Choy, MSW, RSW.
CE hours: 6
This training is suitable for:
Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers
Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, family doctors
Direct Service Workers: drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers
Level of training: Introductory
Client age category: For professionals who work with clients over the age of 18
Please note: Some of the material in this training is also covered in Certificate in trauma counselling for mental health professionals: Level 1.
Description: Trauma that is unhealed, unresolved and unintegrated into a healthy balance within the self has the potential to be repeated, reenacted, acted out, projected or externalized in relationships.
Working with human suffering on a daily basis and being sensitive to the despair, frustration and fear embodied in clients is an integral aspect of the work by mental health professionals. In order to be effective, professionals need to be aware of the clients and their own unconscious self-protective reactions (transference/projection). A professional who is unaware or unresponsive to countertransference experiences can be thrown into a cycle of reactivity – both within the specific client dynamic and within one’s own psyche.
In this webinar, we will understand the core features of the metapsychological phenomena: transference, projection, projective identification, and countertransference. We will use real case examples from direct service settings to illustrate the complex dialectic of balancing empathic attunement with experiences of empathic strain.
Learning objectives:
- Understand key self-protective strategies that clients use (transference, projection).
- Understand key self-protective strategies that professionals use (countertransference).
- Apply skills in “catching,” repairing and integrating the metapsychological phenomena.
Register now to strengthen your ability to hold space without absorbing the weight.
Registration fees: General $300 | Student $270
Learn more and reserve your spot at: https://cvent.me/3Mb0NP
