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Digital Seminar

When Therapy Gets Stuck: Over 30 Strategies for Helping Clients Move Forward from Trauma, Grief, Addiction, and More


Speaker:
Chris Gazdik, BSW, MSW, LCSW
Duration:
6 Hours 07 Minutes
Language:
Presented in EN, subtitles in EN and FR, handouts in EN and FR
Copyright:
Jun 06, 2025
Product Code:
POS059972
Media Type:
Digital Seminar

Choose a price item

Description

You sense your work with a client has hit a wall…

Where sessions used to end with a feeling of accomplishment, they now end with one or both of you feeling frustrated and discouraged.

Join Chris Gazdik, LCSW, highly experienced counsellor, presenter, and author for this experiential (and entertaining!) one-of-a-kind workshop where you will learn to effectively break through barriers to therapeutic progress.

This strategy-packed workshop was created specifically to address the internal conflict between wanting to hang on to the past and needing to move forward, the role of addictions, and the challenges involved in breaking the cycle of unresolved feelings that result in “stuckness.”

You will walk away with:

  • Must-use techniques drawn from CBT, ACT, motivational interviewing, and mindfulness-based psychotherapy models to overcome stuck points in therapy
  • Values-driven goal-setting strategies for trauma and grief processing, substance use disorders, and persistent emotional responses such as fear, shame, and regret
  • Strategies to leverage the therapeutic relationship to break through therapeutic barriers

REGISTER TODAY to gain the tools you need to help your clients overcome barriers to progress and move toward healing.

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 6.25 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 6.0 credit hours.


Canada Credit - Canadian Psychologists

PESI, Inc. is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. PESI, Inc. maintains responsibility for the program. This program is approved for 6.0 self-study continuing education hours. Full credit statement at: www.pesi.com/cpa-statement


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 6.0 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 6.25 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 - Addiction Counselors - NAADAC

This self-study course has been approved by PESI, Inc., as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #77553. PESI, Inc. is responsible for all aspects of their programming.

This self-study course offers 6.0 continuing education contact hours in the Counseling Services skill group. Full attendance is required; no partial credit will be awarded for partial attendance.


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 6.0 contact hours. Expires: 11/03/2027.



Handouts

Speaker

Chris Gazdik, BSW, MSW, LCSW's Profile

Chris Gazdik, BSW, MSW, LCSW Related seminars and products


Christopher Gazdik, BSW, MSW, LCSW, is the author of Through a Therapist’s Eyes: Reunderstanding Emotions and Becoming Your Best Self, and Through a Therapist’s Eyes Volume 2: Reunderstanding Your Marriage and Becoming Your Best as a Spouse, podcaster, and popular speaker who is known for his energetic and passionate presentation style.

Chris has over 25 years of experience as a mental health and substance abuse therapist and has founded two therapy companies. He also serves as a preceptor for nursing and physician assistant programs, has published over 220 episodes of the Through a Therapist’s Eyes podcast, and is a sought-after presenter on a variety of topics.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Christopher Gazdik is the founder of Metrolina Psychotherapy Associates and is a preceptor with Garner Webb University. He is a podcaster with Through a Therapist's Eyes. Christopher Gazdik receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Christopher Gazdik has no relevant non-financial relationships.


Additional Info

Program Information

Questions?

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


Objectives

  1. Identify the neurobiological mechanisms behind therapeutic “stuckness.”
  2. Choose trust and rapport-building activities to address therapist misattunement.
  3. Utilise motivational interviewing strategies to uncover hidden motivations.
  4. Utilise cognitive strategies to manage the fear of change.
  5. Develop acceptance in the context of grief through activities exploring the meaning of loss.
  6. Use values identification to replace negative coping skills.

Outline

STUCKNESS IN THERAPY

  • Sticking points in the brain
  • The power of an accurate diagnosis
  • Red flags and tools to help clients identify stuckness
  • Tools to differentiate the cause of stuckness

HOW TO GET UNSTUCK
Correct Therapist Misattunement Build (or repair) therapeutic alliance

  • Activity: Trust and rapport-building options
  • Skill: Cultural humility
  • Skill: Address the “threat” of therapy
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Work with Secondary Gains
Outweigh the benefits of staying the same

  • Activity: Explore and acknowledge hidden motivations
  • Exercise: Envision alternate futures
  • Skill: Top motivational interviewing strategies to empower clients
  • Case conceptualisation: Ask the right questions

Rescue the Hijacked Amygdala
Get out of survival mode

  • Handout: Hijack the freeze response
  • Psychoeducation: The dorsal-vagal response to trauma and grief
  • Body work: 5 on-the-spot somatic strategies for relaxation and grounding
  • Exercise: Fear validation

Address Cognitive Immobility
Break free from the trap of the past

  • Activity: Values-driven goal setting
  • Process: The REACH Model of forgiveness
  • Exercise: Must-use mindfulness strategies for the here-and-now
  • Handout: Three defusion techniques to reduce misguided guilt, fear, and insecurities
  • Activity: Thought changing

Face the Hopelessness of Grief
Move towards acceptance

  • Activity: The meaning of loss
  • Handout: The Tasks of Grieving
  • Psychoeducation: Awareness, acceptance, action

Replace Negative Coping Skills
Trade instant gratification for longlasting positive outcomes

  • Psychoeducation: Acceptance vs avoidance
  • Activity: Values identification to address addictions
  • Activity: The Three C’s of CBT
  • Skill: Safely open the emotional floodgate
  • Handout: Set healthy boundaries
  • Interactive case study

Target Audience

  • Counsellors
  • Social Workers
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counsellors
  • Behavioural Health Nurses
  • Psychologists
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

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