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Digital Seminar

Transforming Resistance: What to Do When Therapy Gets Stuck


Speaker:
Janina Fisher, PhD
Duration:
1 Hour 56 Minutes
Language:
Presented in EN, subtitles in EN and FR, handouts in EN and FR
Copyright:
Dec 11, 2025
Product Code:
POS096121
Media Type:
Digital Seminar

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Description

Most therapists think of “resistance” as the main obstacle to therapeutic progress. But whether it manifests as a passive-aggressive response to interventions, desperation for help alternating with a refusal to collaborate, self-destructive behavior, or struggle for therapeutic control, the underlying conflicts about self-protection vs. trust in the therapeutic process remain the same. Even when clients sincerely want something different for themselves, they often can’t control the instinctive defensive responses evoked by the therapeutic relationship—but it doesn’t have to thwart therapy. In this recording, discover how to: 

  • Befriend the resistance by treating it as a resource and allying with it 
  • Reframe stuckness as a survival strategy and increase clients’ curiosity about the process 
  • Help clients use action, movement, and gesture to experience stuckness or resistance in new, more empowering ways 
     

Credit

Program Information

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.



Canada Credit - *

NOTE: Tuition includes one free CE Certificate (participant will be able to print the certificate of completion after passing the online post-test (80% passing score) and completing the evaluation). Instructional methods will include PowerPoint, didactic lecture, and others.

Continuing Education Information:  Listed below are the continuing education credit(s) currently available for this non-interactive self-study package. Program content is reviewed periodically per accrediting board rules for currency and appropriateness for credit. Credit approvals are subject to change. Please note, your licensing board dictates whether self-study is an acceptable form of continuing education, as well as which credit types are acceptable for continuing education hours. Please refer to your licensing board's rules and regulations. If your profession is not listed, please contact your licensing board to determine your continuing education requirements and check for reciprocal approval. 
For other credit inquiries not specified below, please contact info@pesi.com or 800-844-8260 before purchase.

Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond the authorized practice of your profession.  As a licensed professional, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of practice in accordance with and in compliance with your profession's standards.  

For Planning Committee disclosures, please see the statement above.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

 


Canada Credit - ---

Earn up to 1.75 CE hours. Please see below, for more details, as credit amounts vary by jurisdiction and profession. 


Canada Credit - Canadian Counsellors and Psychotherapists

PESI, Inc. is approved by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association to offer continuing education for counsellors and psychotherapists. PESI, Inc. maintains responsibility for the program. This self-study activity is approved for 1.5 credit hours.


Canada Credit - Social Workers - National ASWB ACE

PESI, Inc., #1062, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: January 27, 2026 - January 27, 2029. Social workers completing this course receive 2.0 Clinical continuing education credits.

Course Level: Intermediate Format: Recorded asynchronous distance. Full attendance is required; no partial credits will be offered for partial attendance.

 

Canadian Social Workers: Canadian provinces may accept activities offered by providers approved by the ASWB ACE program for ongoing professional development.


Canada Credit - Other Professions

This self-study activity qualifies for 1.75 continuing education clock hours as required by many national and local licensing boards and professional organizations. Save your activity advertisement and certificate of completion, and contact your own board or organization for specific requirements.


US National Boards - Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, and Clinical Nurse Specialists – ANCC

PESI, Inc. is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Nurses completing these self-study materials will earn 1.75 contact hours. Expires: 12/10/2028.



Handouts

Speaker

Janina Fisher, PhD Related seminars and products


Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples, and families since 1980.

She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.

She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press).

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is an international expert and consultant on Trauma and Dissociation. She is a consultant for Khiron House Clinics and the Massachusetts Department of MH Restraint and Seclusion Initiative. Dr. Fisher receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Fisher has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is on the advisory board for the Trauma Research Foundation. She is a patron of the Bowlby Center.


Additional Info

Program Information

Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.

 

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepepesi.com


Questions?

Visit our FAQ page at https://www.pesicanada.ca/faq or contact us at https://www.pesicanada.ca/contact-us.


Objectives

  1. Determine how to avoid “resisting the client’s resistance” to improve clinical outcomes. 
  2. Evaluate how to befriend client resistance by treating it as a resource and allying it with it. 
  3. Assess how to reframe resistance and stuckness as a survival strategy. 
  4. Appraise action, movement, and gesture to help clients experience stuckness or resistance in new, more empowering ways.  

Outline

Describe how to avoid “resisting the client’s resistance” to improve clinical outcomes. 
  • Resistance and the psychotherapist 
  • “Dancing with resistance” 
Explain how to befriend client resistance by treating it as a resource and allying it with it. 
  • Looking at the protective function of resistance 
  • Treating resistance as a “survival resource” 
Assess how to reframe resistance and stuckness as a survival strategy. 
  • Understanding resistance in the context of trauma and attachment failure 
  • Communicating ‘positive regard’ for resistance 
Explore action, movement, and gesture to help clients experience stuckness or resistance in new, more empowering ways.  
  • From resistance into empowerment 
  • Making use of the energy of resistance 

Target Audience

  • Counsellors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counsellors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Nurses and other Mental Health Professionals.

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