Workshop Description
Caregiver self-blame is a painful and powerful emotional process that often goes unrecognized or unaddressed in clinical work - yet it can seriously affect one's quality of life, fuel therapy-interfering behaviours, and negatively impact the quality of relationships. This full-day clinical training is designed for helping professionals working with parents and caregivers who carry self-blame - whether in the context of general parenting, parenting a loved one with a medical issue, or parenting a loved one with a mental health issue. The workshop will also address self-blame following the loss of a loved one due to suicide, or other tragic circumstances.
The first portion of the day focuses on caregiver self-blame and its significant impact not only on parenting behaviours, but on the caregiver’s own well-being, emotional health, and quality of life. Research and clinical vignettes will illustrate the ways that caregiver self-blame can fuel shame, internal suffering, defensiveness, enabling or accommodating behaviours, and even expressions of other-blame. Clinicians will learn how self-blame functions as an emotion regulation strategy and how to intervene with targeted tools. These include both cognitive and emotion-focused interventions - as well as a structured chair-work technique - designed to restore self-compassion, reduce internal distress, and support the caregiver in their supportive role.
As the day progresses, attention will shift to addressing self-blame in the context of tragic loss, with the example of suicide. When someone loses a loved one to tragic circumstances, self-blame can complicate grief and contribute to persistent emotional suffering. Survivors may engage in self-punishing behaviours or experience a painful disconnection from their lost loved one. When self-blame is deep, as is often the case with tragic loss, well-intentioned efforts to use reassurance to lift self-blame are likely to be ineffective and can contribute to feelings of shame and isolation related to the experience. Clinicians will learn to identify the emotional and cognitive drivers of this form of self-blame and learn techniques to help clients process guilt, reduce shame, and find a path toward healing and reconnection.
Throughout the day, participants will receive:
-Clinical theory to guide practice
-Guidelines for cognitive and emotion-focused interventions
-An intervention script for chair-work
-Application guidelines
-A video demonstration and testimonial
-Opportunities for optional experiential practice
Participants will leave with tools to:
-Reduce shame, self-blame, and emotional distress in clients
-Improve client well-being, engagement, and empowerment
-Support healing in clients navigating complex parenting dynamics or unresolved grief
-Apply self-blame interventions in individual, dyadic, or group formats
Learning Objectives:
-Identify emotional and cognitive markers of self-blame in both caregiving and grief contexts
-Explain self-blame as an emotion regulation strategy and its clinical implications
-Apply cognitive, emotion-focused, and experiential chair-work interventions across diverse settings
-Support clients in transforming self-blame to reclaim their caregiving role and their personal well-being
-Help grieving clients reconnect with a lost loved one in a healthier and more compassionate way
This training is suitable for counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, and other mental health and helping professionals. No prior training is required. Participation can be active or passive, in line with participant comfort. Given the sensitive nature of the content, the workshop will not be recorded.
About the Presenter
Dr. Adele Lafrance is a clinical psychologist, research scientist, author and co-developer of emotion-focused treatment modalities, including Emotion-Focused Family Therapy. She has published extensively in the field of emotion and health, including the EFFT Clinician’s Manual published by the American Psychological Association. She has also written a popular parenting book titled: What to Say to Kids When Nothing Seems to Work.
A frequent keynote speaker at professional conferences, Adele is known for her engaging, energetic and authentic presentation style. She provides consultation and training for clinicians, school boards and mental health agencies worldwide.
Adele is perhaps best known for promoting family-focused care for children, adolescents and adults struggling with mental health issues.
For more information or to register: www.missionempowerment.ca
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