Counseling Techniques>Mental Health Disorders

Schema Therapy for Narcissism

Overview:

Peeking into the complexities of the narcissistic client can arouse our curiosity. Treating them individually or in the context of a couple’s work can arouse our sense of inadequacy and sheer frustration. Maintaining a firm and flexible posture, and understanding our own personal triggers along with the narcissist’s makeup – helps us to bypass obstacles when dealing with them, promoting a sturdy stance for (empathically) holding the narcissist accountable. In so doing, we can sustain the necessary leverage for healing, and for meaningful, sustainable, change.

But how can we summon up the courage, maintain an empathically attuned state of mind, and effectively engage these clients when they’re more likely to defend, deny, demean, devalue, attack, distract, and charm us rather than cooperate with us and comply with treatment? Exploring the critical content related to early life experience and unmet needs is essential to the formulation of a robust conceptualization and the implementation of treatment but can be a triggering endeavor for many therapists when facing belligerence, self-righteous entitlement, denial, neurotic victimization, and arrogance, of a narcissistic client.

Treating the narcissistic client – overt and covert – involves meeting early unmet needs such as unconditional love and acceptance, empathy, and tolerance for frustration and limits. This comes with the challenge of confronting bullying, critical, passive-aggressive, detached, martyrish, and approval-seeking modes. These clients sometimes default to hypersexual activity such as pornography, cyber-sexual relationships, prostitutes, affairs, or other erotic preoccupations. Intimacy is fractured, and the refurbishing of trust is challenging due to the “betrayal trauma” of offended partners and the entitled stance of the narcissist.

Healing is possible when leverage is high enough, and partners are willing to engage in the treatment process individually and together. At the heart of schema therapy, we have an approach capable of weakening narcissistic coping modes, and internal demanding critic modes. Adaptive responses replace unhelpful ones as schemas heal. Using effective strategies grounded in emotional engagement and the therapy relationship, therapists are poised to correct the biased early emotional experiences typically linked with high demands for extraordinary performance, confusing messages of over-indulgence alongside inferiority and insecure attachments, devalued emotional experiences, and poor limit setting.

Objectives:

  • Gain an overview of the Schema Therapy model and how to comprehensively conceptualize Narcissism and NPD in formulating treatment strategies.
  • Acquire the use of a highly effective strategy known as empathic confrontation to gain and maintain leverage and avoid power struggles, address entitlement and lack of reciprocity, access reasonable responsibility, and set limits with the narcissist.
  • Observe and learn how to apply specific strategies, such as replacing self- defeating patterns and coping modes with healthy and adaptive modes via the moment-to-moment encounters in the therapy relationship.
  • Develop a sturdy self in the chair by identifying and stabilizing the therapist’s personal challenges—our own schemas—a major obstacle to treatment effectiveness.
  • Create customized dialogues that maintain leverage and enhance opportunities to access client vulnerability and emotion.
  • Receive an overview of how to facilitate treatment with offended partners; the recovery and fortifying of a voice of advocacy; setting limits, cultivating leverage for accountability; identifying the impact of unacceptable behaviors, and enforcing reasonable consequences that act as motivational drivers for the narcissist to seek treatment.

Course materials are only available to enrolled students.

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    Wendy Behary, LCSW

    Wendy Behary is the founder and director of The Cognitive Therapy Center of New Jersey and The Schema Therapy Institutes of NJ-NYC-DC. She has been treating clients, training professionals and supervising psychotherapists for more than 25 years. Wendy was on the faculty of the Cognitive Therapy Center and Schema Therapy Institute of New York (until the Institutes merged in 2012), where she trained and worked with Dr. Jeffrey Young since 1989. She is a founding fellow and consulting supervisor for The Academy of Cognitive Therapy (Aaron T. Beck’s Institute). Wendy served as the President of the Executive Board of the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) from 2010-2014 and served as the Training and Certification Coordinator for the ISST Executive Board from 2008-2010. She is currently the chair of the Schema Therapy Development Programs Sub-Committee for the ISST. Wendy Behary has co-authored several chapters and articles on Schema Therapy and Cognitive Therapy. She is the author of an international bestselling book, "Disarming the Narcissist...” translated into 16 languages. The Third Edition was recently released and was selected by Oprah Daily as one of the top books on the subject of Narcissism. Wendy has a specialty in treating narcissists and the people who live with and deal with them. As an author and subject matter expert on narcissism, she is a contributing chapter author of several chapters on schema therapy for narcissism for professional readers. She lectures both nationally and internationally to professional and general audiences on schema therapy, narcissism, interpersonal relationships, anger, and dealing with difficult people. She receives consistently high praise for her clear and articulate teaching style and her ability to bring the therapy to life through dramatic demonstrations of client interactions in the treatment room. Her work industry business speaking engagements focus on interpersonal conflict resolution. Her private practice is primarily devoted to treating narcissists, partners/people dealing with them, and couples experiencing relationship problems.

National Approvals

eCare BHI, as the accredited and approved sponsor, maintains responsibility for all the programs and must abide by each board’s continuing education guidelines.

Professional Counselors — The National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)

E Care Behavioral Health Institute has been approved by NBCC as an approved Continuing Education Provider. ACEP No. 6703. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC are clearly identified. E care Behavioral Health Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Addiction Professionals — NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC)

E Care Behavioral Health Institute is officially on file with NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC) as an Approved Education Provider. They are formally known as NAADAC Provider #139138. Please note that E care Behavioral Health Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.

Social Workers — Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)

E Care Behavioral Health Institute, #1706, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. E Care Behavioral Health Institute maintains responsibility for this course.   ACE provider approval period: 06-03-2020 – 06-03-2026. 

CE Broker

CE Broker is a continuing education tracking system in which licensees track their compliance and report their completed CE hours credit (CE Broker Tracking #50-33336)

State Approvals

States that Accept ASWB-ACE Approved Providers

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticut
DelawareDistrict Of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinois
IndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMaryland
MassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraska
NevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhio
OklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennessee
TexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsin
Wyoming      

States that Accept NBCC Approved Providers

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticut
DelawareDistrict Of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIndiana
IowaMaineMarylandMissouriNew HampshireNew JerseyNew Mexico
OhioOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennessee
TexasVermontVirginiaWashingtonWisconsin  

Notes:

  • Nevada CPC’s and MFT’s accept ASWB-approved training
  • North Dakota Board Of Counselor Examiners LAPC and LAPCS accept ASWB approved training
  • Rhode Island Board of Mental Health Counselors and Marriage & Family Therapists MHC’s accept ASWB approved training
  • Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council LPC and LPCS accept ASWB approved training
  • Utah Division of Professional Licensing – CMHC’s  accept ASWB approved training
  • Washington State Department of Mental Health MHC’s  accept ASWB approved training
  • Wisconsin Council on Mental Health LPCS accepts ASWB-approved training

States that Accept NAADAC Approved Providers

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasDelawareHawaiiIndiana
KentuckyMaineMassachusettsMinnesotaMontanaNevadaNew Jersey
New JerseyNew MexicoNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOregonRhode IslandTennessee
VermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWisconsinWyoming

States that Accept APA Approved Providers

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaDelawareDistrict Of Columbia
FloridaGeorgiaIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansas
KentuckyLouisianaMarylandMassachusettsMinnesotaMississippiMissouri
MontanaNebraskaNew JerseyNew MexicoNorth DakotaOhioOklahoma
PennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaTennesseeUtahVermontVirginia
WashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming   

Note: Please note that Individual Board Rules are subject to potential changes. The approval and acceptance details we furnish are accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of documentation.

Should you have any inquiries or uncertainties not addressed by the provided information, it’s advisable to consult your State Regulatory Board. Ultimately, the decision of whether your license renewal credit hours are accepted or denied rests with you.

Georgia Addiction Counselor: E Care BHI is recognized by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Certification Board of Georgia as an approved education provider for Addiction Counselors (ADACBGA) #19-12-17-1212.

Florida Addiction Counselor: E Care BHI is recognized by the Florida Certification Board as an approved education provider for Addiction Counselor (FCB) #5387-A.

Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy & Mental Health Counseling: The Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy & Mental Health Counseling accepts courses from ASWB & NBCC approved providers. E Care Behavioral Health Institute is an ASWB and NBCC approved provider.

Oklahoma Addiction Counselor: E Care BHI is recognized by the Oklahoma State Board of Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselors as an approved education provider for Addiction Counselors (OBLADC) #20220136.

Oklahoma Board of Behavioral Health Licensure: E Care BHI is an approved CE provider for LPC & LMFT

Ohio Addiction Counselor: E Care BHI is recognized by the Ohio Chemical Dependency Professionals Board as an approved education provider for Addiction Counselor (OCDP)#50-29024

The Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board accepts courses from ASWB & NBCC approved providers. E Care Behavioral Health Institute is an ASWB and NBCC approved provider.

VA Mental Health Employee: E Care BHI VA COMMERCIAL VENDOR # 81-3353387-01

California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP): E Care BHI is recognized by the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP) Provider Number OS-22-344-0526

Connecticut Certification Board CCB Approved): E Care BHI is recognized & approved by the Connecticut Certification Board.

Texas Certification Board (TCB): E Care Behavioral Health Institute is recognized by the Texas Certification Board as an approved education provider. Number 2041-19

South Carolina E Care Behavioral Health Institute is recognized by the Professional Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, and Psycho-Educational Specialists licensing board as an approved education provider Provider #4628

New York (MHC) E Care Behavioral Health is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0277

New York (SW) E Care Behavioral Health Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0745

LA-ADRA – E Care Behavioral Health Institute is recognized by Louisiana The Addictive Disorder Regulatory Authority as an approved educational provider AEP #E122

Who This Training is For:

This program is intended for mental health professionals such as Social Workers, Mental Health Counselors, Addiction Counselors, Psychologists, & MFTs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, we are approved Continuing Education providers by ASWB, NBCC, NAADAC, APA & many other state boards.

Programs that do not qualify for ASWB, NBCC, NAADAC, & APA are clearly identified. eCare Behavioral Health Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

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