Gratitude: forget it!

Course Description

 

Did you imagine a thank you? How can therapists accept that expecting gratitude is so useless?

How do we as clinicians, family members, and colleagues manage the realities that prevent gratitude on the part of others?

After decades in practice a pattern is totally clear: the patient discusses a crisis or problem, works it through for hours or months and then….the topic disappears from discussion. Was there a change? Has the issue gone underground, festering? Or, was it resolved through talking in the therapeutic relationship and never acknowledged?

This workshop will examine the causes of such phenomena. We will explore an approach that considers existence or absence of gratitude as another symbolic communication from the patient to unravel. Case material will demonstrate how being with and without gratitude toward the therapist can benefit patients. We will explore specific skills and strategies to guide the therapist in integrating and welcoming this continuous, potentially frustrating reality into their clinical practices on a daily basis.

Course objectives

Participants will be able to:

 

Describe two causes for lack of gratitude on the part of clients or family members.

Comprehend the dynamics of the presence or absence of gratitude in the therapeutic setting.

Incorporate new skills and strategies addressing the clinical importance of gratitude, and its presence or absence, in resolving patients’ resistances to healthy functioning.

Describe the effects of continuous absence of gratitude on the therapist and ways to manage, welcome, and utilize this clinical dynamic.