Patients that present with dependency needs can pose a clinical dilemma - how to respond to such needs and motives in a therapeutic useful way that helps patients achieve the overarching goal of therapy -  genral sense of a competent and capable self, while simultaneously not be so rejecting and denying that turns them away before such aims can be reached. Further are dependency needs at times difficult as they one the one hand can signal a healthy need for attachment and one the other hand regressive wishes for unconditional nurturing. These dynamics can at times also create strong feelings and pulls from patients within therapy, often for clients that have suffered developmental and attachment trauma, that can pose significant challenges to the management of the therapeutic relationship.

These aspects are further complicated by the Codes of Ethics that psychologists do not create dependency in their patients and put further pressure on the treating clinician to not misstep. We will be exploring these ethical themes in more depth to understand what exploitative or harmful therapeutic dynamics versus what are curative and needed dynamics, dissecting them from both therapist and patient characteristics and dynamics.

The workshops aim is to explore understanding of patients need for connection and provide therapists with a broader awareness around these issues equipping them with a more robust conceptual understanding around these vital areas of clients functioning.