When it’s NOT the most wonderful time of the year: Supporting Clients with Antagonistic Families and Relationships Before, During, and After the Holiday Season
Speaker: Ramani Durvasula, Ph.D.
Are the holidays a therapists’ version of “tax season?”
Being antagonism-informed means recognizing that what may be “joyous” or celebratory times of year for many, can be quite fraught for our clients who are navigating intimate relationships, families, or even friendship groups characterized by antagonistic/narcissistic behaviors. Our clients are often navigating dynamics ranging from disappointment and dashed expectations to a heightening of emotional abuse. This can also be a time of year when clients who have experienced childhood adversity, trauma, or antagonistic family systems feel more reactive, dysregulated, or overregulated. Our clients may experience a unique hybrid of shame, anxiety, grief, and exhaustion in the period leading up the holiday season, during the holidays, and this can linger into the new year. These dynamics and themes may also generalize to other “celebratory” times (e.g. weddings, other family-specific or personal experiences). This session is focused on realistically preparing clients experiencing these relational dynamics and behaviors for the greater emotional activation often raised by the Halloween to New Year’s corridor, providing them tools and techniques to manage the emotions and feelings raised by the holiday season, and employing some of the key techniques of an antagonism informed model including realistic expectations, radical awareness and acceptance, discernment, and self-compassion to avoid derailing ongoing therapeutic work.