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Gaslighting, trauma bonding, narcissism—clients are misusing the terms, and it’s disrupting the work.
Clients are showing up to sessions armed with therapy terms and diagnoses to describe everyone in their lives, largely because of social media, and unfortunately, these diagnostic impressions are often wrong.
Instead of fostering insight, these words are often used to distance from emotional experiences and avoid vulnerability, making it harder to help clients grow. They feel confident in their conclusions, citing social media posts and articles written by non-clinicians, and suddenly you don’t feel like the expert in the room.
As a therapist, you’re stuck in a tough position: You know the terms are being misused, but challenging your client’s use of the term feels risky. You want to correct, educate, and explore, but how do you do that without seeming condescending, invalidating, or rupturing the relationship?
In this timely and practical training, clinical psychologist and therapy speak expert Dr. Isabelle Morley guides you through how to respond when therapy language is used in ways that are inaccurate, overly pathologizing, or emotionally avoidant.
You’ll learn how to:
You’ll leave with a step-by-step process for navigating therapy speak in the room with clarity and compassion so you can support growth, protect the integrity of the work, and reconnect your clients to the deeper emotional truth they’re trying to reach.
You’ll also receive a PDF bundle ensuring that you’re prepared to tackle misused therapy speak, including:
Dr. Morley will give you the tools, language, and confidence to move your clients beyond the buzzwords—so real healing can finally begin.
Isabelle Morley, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and an EFT-certified couples’ therapist (emotionally focused therapy), and author of They’re Not Gaslighting You: Ditch the Therapy Speak and Stop Looking for Red Flags in Every Relationship. She is an expert in the misuse and weaponization of therapy speak, having written the first book on the subject. She is co-author of the therapist manual Navigating Intimacy: An Introductory Guide to Couples and Sex Therapy, and Dr. Morley is also a contributing author to Psychology Today in her blog Love Them or Leave Them. She is frequently sought out by journalists for expert commentary on topics such as relationships, couples therapy, and reality television, and has been featured in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Business Insider, Vox and VeryWell Mind, among others. In philanthropic work, Dr. Morley is a founding board member of The Unscripted Cast Advocacy Network (UCAN) Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports reality TV cast members in accessing mental health and legal support and advocates for industry change.
Dr. Morley received a Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University. As part of her major in Peace and Justice Studies, she focused on interpersonal conflict resolution and wrote her capstone project on the evolutionary justification and modern-day use of forgiveness and revenge in relationships following significant transgressions. After graduating from Tufts, she earned her PsyD (Doctor of Psychology) degree from William James College in 2015. Her doctoral research explored young adults’ perspectives of hookup culture and its impact on their ability to form meaningful romantic relationships.
She started specializing in couples therapy early in her career, working with couples and pursuing additional education and training in many forms of couples therapy, including the Gottman Method, EFT, and Relational Life Therapy. She lives and works in the Boston area.
Access never expires for this product.
For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.
Identifying Therapy Speak
Why People Use Therapy Speak
3-Step Process for Addressing Misused Terms
Navigating Client Responses
Therapist Responsibility
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