By Rich Simon As therapists, many of us practice in two different worlds. In the first, we see polite, well-behaved, articulate clients with solid values. They engage fully in therapy, talk cogently about their problems, listen attentively to our responses, make reasonably good-faith efforts to follow our suggestions, and sooner or later get better. No wonder we genuinely like these people! 
By Rich Simon A thousand years ago, during the palmy days of generous insurance reimbursement, therapists could maintain the illusion that, since therapy was paid for by an unseen hidden hand, clinical practice was somehow untouched by the tacky subject of money. Even the style of therapy reflected this disjunction: 
CE Credits: 2 • Price: $29And while having the story of one's abuse is better than the alternative, many survivors have become trapped in their identity as victims, and have been poorly served by therapies that required them to dwell on the experience of being abused. This Reading Course explores the essential principles of effective clinical work with survivors, emphasizing the importance of developing a middle path that neither shuts the door to the past nor gets lost in it. You will come away with a range of well-grounded clinical methods for helping clients break through old scripts to uncover their resilience and affirm life. Approaches explored will include those focused on helping clients deal with overwhelming affect, handling self-destructive behavior, learning body-based coping skills, overcoming social isolation, and, determining when-and if-reconciliation between survivors and their abusive families is possible.
Course Readings
Don't Look Back: The Price of Having Too Much Grit by Richard Schwartz
End of Innocence: Reconsidering Our Concepts of Victimhood by Dusty Miller
You Can Go Home Again: Laura Davis Learned that Sometimes Being in Relationship Means More than Being Right by Mary Sykes Wylie
Four Types of Reconciliation by Laura Davis
The Third Reality: How to Move from Conflict to Coexistence by Mary Jo Barrett
Learning Objectives
1. Trace the shifts in trauma treatment from the '80s to the present
2. Discuss the role of the therapist in Family Dialogue Project
3. Distinguish between brittle resilience and compassionate resilience
4. Explain the importance of going slowly in working with sub-selves
© 2013 Psychotherapy Networker