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Live Webinar

When Everything Feels Urgent: Boundaries & Discernment in Managing Patient Needs and Therapist Demands

Erin K. Scott-Haines, LPCC, BC-DMT
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Date & Time

Description

In today’s fast-paced clinical environments, therapists are constantly balancing immediate patient needs with the competing demands of documentation, utilization review, and program responsibilities. This webinar explores practical tools for preventing clinical burnout by discerning what requires urgent attention versus what can be addressed as part of the patient’s treatment plan. Participants will learn to reframe boundaries not as rapport rupturing but as the foundation for a deeper therapeutic alliance—one that promotes interdependence rather than codependence. Through case examples and applied techniques, attendees will walk away with actionable skills to reduce overwhelm, sustain clinical effectiveness, and support long-term recovery for their patients.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this workshop is for participants to strengthen their clinical sophistication by learning to set boundaries that preserve therapeutic presence, enhance discernment in managing urgent versus non-urgent patient needs, and foster a deeper therapeutic alliance built on interdependence. This training will equip clinicians with advanced boundary-setting and prioritization skills that not only prevent burnout but also improve long-term patient outcomes through more effective, sustainable clinical practice.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Differentiate between urgent clinical needs and issues that can be addressed within the treatment plan, using discernment strategies to reduce overwhelm and prevent burnout.

  • Explain how reframing boundaries strengthens the therapeutic alliance by fostering interdependence rather than codependence, and illustrate techniques for modeling this dynamic in clinical practice.

  • Apply boundary-setting strategies that transform therapist responses from sympathy/pity to empathy, supporting both patient growth and professional sustainability.

  • Identify common therapist tendencies that contribute to over-functioning and analyze how these patterns can undermine patient autonomy.

  • Describe how attachment dynamics in youth and adult patients may mirror parent–child relationships, and discuss strategies for repatterning these interactions in healthier ways.

  • Demonstrate language that communicates belief in a patient’s ability to cope rather than language that conveys avoidance or rejection.

  • Examine the distinction between sympathy and empathy, and apply interventions that promote empathy as a boundary-supportive stance.

  • Explain how relational, attachment-based, and psychodynamic principles inform the use of therapeutic boundaries, and analyze how reframing boundaries can strengthen the therapeutic alliance.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Erin K. Scott-Haines, LPCC, BC-DMT
Erin K. Scott-Haines, LPCC, BC-DMT, earned a dual master’s degree in clinical counseling and dance/Movement Therapy from Columbia College Chicago in 2008. Since then, she has cultivated over 15 years of experience across inpatient psychiatric units, residential treatment, and PHP/IOP programs, specializing in adolescent mental health, eating disorders, and substance use. Erin began her private practice while simultaneously leading the Wellness Center at Marymount California University, where she also developed and taught undergraduate courses in psychology, including: The Psychology of Health & Wellness, Drug Use & Abuse, Writing for the Social & Behavioral Sciences, General Psychology, The Art of Being Human, and Psychology Practicum. In 2017, Erin was recruited by Discovery Behavioral Health, where she has served in clinical and operational leadership roles ranging from Program Director to DEI advisor, crisis response lead, curriculum strategist, and now, National Director of Clinical Supervision & Leadership. She is deeply invested in enhancing clinical quality through supervisor development, team cohesion, and creative program design. A Jungian-informed psychotherapist, Erin is known for cultivating transformation through authenticity, shadow work, humor, movement, and ritual. Her leadership is rooted in transparency, relationship-building, and systems thinking—anchored in servant-based values.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Discovery Behavioral Health
  • Discovery Mood and Anxiety Program