The Family Scapegoat Treatment Guide: Tools to Release Self-Blame, Reclaim Self-Worth and Heal Attachment Wounds

CPD

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.

Handouts

Faculty

Jay Reid, LPCC Related seminars and products

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Jay Reid, LPCC, is a practicing licensed psychotherapist in San Francisco, CA who specializes in the treatment of scapegoat survivors of narcissistic abuse. He conducts trainings and leads consultation groups with therapists who also work with survivors. He has published articles in peer-reviewed academic journals on using Control-Mastery Theory to effectively treat survivors of childhood maltreatment.

Jay works to bring the principles of healing from narcissistic abuse directly to scapegoat survivors. To this end, he runs a popular YouTube channel where he posts weekly videos on recovering from narcissistic abuse. He is the author of Growing up as the Scapegoat to Narcissistic Parents: A Guide to Healing. Jay also offers online courses for scapegoat survivors to understand and overcome the effects of growing up this way. He received his BA in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and his MS in clinical psychology from the Pennsylvania State University.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Jay Reid maintains a private practice. He receives royalties as a published author. Jay Reid receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Jay Reid is a member of the American Psychological Association, the California Association for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors, and California Association of Marriage & Family Therapists.

Additional Info

Objectives

1. Determine how a narcissistic parent influences the child to assume the blame for all the family’s problems.
2. Name three ways empirical research has shown children of narcissistic parents suffer psychologically.
3. Identify why the scapegoat child sacrifices healthy developmental goals to stay in relationship to their narcissistic parent.
4. Define pathogenic beliefs and why they generate psychological suffering for the scapegoat survivor.
5. Examine Control-Mastery Theory’s Five-Step Case Conceptualisation to scapegoat survivors in treatment.
6. Name two ways scapegoat survivor’s may coach their therapist based on Control-Mastery Theory.

Outline

Relational Dynamics of the Narcissistic Family

• The psychology of a narcissistic parent
• The scapegoat child’s function in the narcissistic family
• How the scapegoat child is made to feel the worthless

Devaluation, Deprivation and Control: The Creation of the Family Scapegoat and Pathogenic Beliefs

• Devaluation: The child is treated as if they are lower status
• Deprivation: Emotional support is withheld from the child
• Control: The child is domineered by the narcissistic parent
• How healthy developmental goals threaten relationship to parent
• 8 common pathogenic beliefs held by the scapegoat child

Use a Control-Mastery Theory (CMT) Approach to Treatment

• Goal of therapy: safely pursue sacrificed developmental goals
• How and why pathogenic beliefs persist into adulthood
• Respond in ways that do not align with the client’s pathogenic beliefs
• Overview of empirical support for CMT
• Indications and contraindications

Apply a 5-Step Case Conceptualisation Method

• Step 1: Tailor treatment around each specific client’s goals
• Step 2: Identify pathogenic beliefs that block progress towards goals
• Step 3: Understand the past traumas that made those beliefs necessary
• Step 4: How the client may unconsciously test whether those beliefs are still true
• Step 5: Respond in ways that helps clients answer “No” to their tests
• Case studies: Learn to apply CMT’s 5-step case conceptualisation

The Family Scapegoat Survivor Treatment Toolbox: Strategies for Replacing Self-Blame with Self-Compassion and Self-Worth

• Specific strategies for validating the survivor’s experience
• Anxiety management tools to address survivor’s anxiety around success
• Self-compassion practices to shift clients from self-blame
• Present-focused interventions to redirect the focus from their parents to themselves
• Cognitive restructuring exercises to challenge and test pathogenic beliefs
• Use reflective questioning to explore underlying issues
• Boundary setting skills
• Go no contact and other considerations
• Research, risks and limitations
• Boundary setting skills to protect themselves from abuse

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Addiction Counsellors
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physicians
• Others in Caring Professions