Managing High Acuity Clients in an Outpatient Setting (with Jorge Fernandez, LCSW)

This presentation draws from best practice principles stemming from DBT, CBT, trauma informed and trauma-focused therapies, pharmacological treatment, substance abuse treatment, and eating disorder treatment; which, along with guiding mental health practitioners in examining their own biases, fears, and ability to coregulate with client, can form the basis of increasing the practitioner’s capacity and competence in working with acute mental health presentations in the outpatient setting. Ethical implications of working with this population are explored.

Objectives:

1. Increase therapist comfort and confidence in working with clients who present with acute, higher-risk symptoms in an outpatient setting

2. Identify existing therapist skills which support working with higher acuity/higher risk clients

3. Increase therapist competence in identifying if and when additional outside supports are needed

4. Identify specific factors in case conceptualization, including internal and external strengths, organizational obstacles, and barriers to engagement, in treatment

5. Identify concrete skills to better utilize therapist-as-self and self-regulation skills in order to effectively

manage symptoms in an outpatient setting