Women's Friendship Health

Credit

Speaker

Katelyn Baxter-Musser, LCSW, C-DBT Related seminars and products

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Katelyn Baxter-Musser, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in Maine where her areas of expertise include domestic violence, abuse, trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety, grief, personality disorders and relationship issues.

Her clinical experience includes working for ten years in various roles as a case manager, child and family therapist, and trauma therapist for several agencies and Native American reservations. Ms. Baxter-Musser served as the Trauma Healing Services Clinical Coordinator for La Frontera Arizona, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing behavioral health counseling, crisis intervention and support to families and individuals facing domestic violence, abuse, hate crimes and other issues.

Ms. Baxter-Musser is certified in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and EMDR. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, the National Center for Crisis Management and EMDRIA. She sits on the EMDRIA Standards and Training Committee and part of the Southern Maine EMDR Coalition.

PESI and Katelyn Baxter-Musser are not affiliated or associated with Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, or her organizations.

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Katelyn Baxter-Musser is the owner, operator, trainer of Inner Awakening Counseling & Consulting. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Katelyn Baxter-Musser is a member of EMDRIA, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, the National Center for Crisis Management, and the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.
PESI and Katelyn Baxter-Musser are not affiliated or associated with Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, or her organizations.

Additional Info

Program Information

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Objectives

1. Recognize common patterns of strain, rupture, and over-responsibility in women’s friendships, including how attachment history and trauma shape these dynamics. 
2. Distinguish between friendships that need strengthening, those that may benefit from repair, and those in which distance or change may be clinically appropriate. 
3. Use trauma-informed interventions to support clients in clarifying friendship needs and navigating repair without shaming or rushing boundary decisions. 
4. Apply assessment questions and clinician language that help clients evaluate reciprocity, emotional labor, and the personal cost of maintaining friendships. 

Outline

• Friendship as a protective factor
• Mental and physical health benefits
• Emotional labor and relational expectations among women

• Emotional overextension
• Fear of rupture or loss
• Chronic self-doubt and obligation
• Unequal emotional labor

• Attachment learning
• Trauma and relational loss
• Cumulative grief
• Relational survival strategies

• Risks and Limitations
• Rushing to “set boundaries”
• Pathologizing relational investment
• Ignoring cultural/developmental context
• Shame-based interventions

• Key assessment questions
• Clinical tools and questionnaires
• Identifying reciprocity, emotional labor, and cost

• Strengthening
• Strain
• Rupture
• Necessary change or ending

• Grief and identity considerations
• Mutual accountability in repair
• Stabilizing self-worth during conflict

• Translating resentment into unmet needs
• Expectation reset
• Effort-return audit

• Expressing needs for connection
• Addressing fear of being “too much”
• Gradual depth-building in relationships

• Chronic invalidation or boundary violations
• One-sided emotional labor
• Supporting grief and identity shifts after friendship loss

• Common therapeutic traps
• Language that supports client agency
• Cultural, trauma, and neurodivergent considerations

• Friendship dynamics shift over time
• Repair is not always the healthiest option
• Distance can be protective
• Helping clients develop relational self-trust

Target Audience

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