MAINTAINING PROFESSIONALISM IN THE FACE OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE FROM CLIENTS

The harmful effects of emotional abuse have been studied in children, romantic relationships, and families, but little work has explored the phenomenon of therapists experiencing emotional abuse from their clie nts. The current paper examines the characteristics of emotional abuse as experienced by therapists, and presents methods by which clinician s can best maintain their professional decorum, responsibilities, obje ctivity, conceptual skills, and overall effectiveness in spite of aver sive interactions with clients. Therapists can facilitate their own st aying on task, and can reduce their subjective levels of stress by uti lizing such self-help techniques as cognitive rehearsal, rational resp onding, assertiveness, and the use of social supports. These strategie s help therapists to deal with patterns of hostile outbursts and bound ary infringements from clients, without feeling helpless and burned ou t, and without terminating their clients prematurely out of desperatio n. Therapists also can remain suitably professional in managing emotio nally abusive clients by making judicious use of documentation and sup ervisory consultations. Issues regarding appropriate termination of em otionally abusive clients are discussed in light of the ethical obliga tion not to abandon clients. The principle of ''therapist self-preserv ation,'' which takes into account the therapist's need to consider his or her own well-being, along with the client's, is addressed as well.