NICABM – How to Work with Perfectionism

NICABM – How to Work with Perfectionism

Perfectionism can lock a client in a constant state of anxiety, grinding down their nervous system.

It can lead to depression, chronic stress, and become a painful coping strategy for shame.

So how do we help clients achieve their goals without the harsh self-critical drive that’s impacting their health and damaging their relationships?

We gathered the latest strategies from the top 26 experts in the world for this brand new course . . .

How to Work with a Client’s Perfectionism

The Neurobiology of Perfectionism

Dan Siegel, MD Kelly McGonigal, PhD

• A mapping framework to help clients identify perfectionism patterns in the brain
• What goes on in a perfectionist’s brain and how it can create a self-made prison
• Why a perfectionist’s brain is highly optimized for detecting error

Perfectionism’s Cost: Helping Clients See the Hidden Damage Under Perfection’s Rewards

Deany Laliotis, LICSW Melanie Greenberg, PhD
Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT Zindel Segal, PhD
Judson Brewer, MD, PhD Kelly McGonigal, PhD

• The most powerful driver of perfectionism (and why clients so desperately cling to it)
• Why your client will often reject the idea that perfectionism is hurting them
• Two toxic factors that can set a perfectionist up for depression
• Why perfectionism so often presents with disrupted sleep

Why Perfectionism Turns to Addiction and How to Help Clients Break Free

Judson Brewer, MD, PhD Ron Siegel, PsyD
Michael Yapko, PhD Joan Borysenko, PhD

• The addiction pattern that keeps many clients locked in a drive for perfection
• The perfectionist paradox: one way perfectionism actually promotes failure
• A core missing skill that can keep a client addicted to perfection

How to Work With Shame and Perfectionism

Pat Ogden, PhD Ron Siegel, PsyD Deany Laliotis, LICSW
Richard Schwartz, PhD Melanie Greenberg, PhD Rick Hanson, PhD

• How perfectionism helps fuel a person’s feeling of “never good enough”
• One powerful strategy to foster the inner compassion that can reduce shame
• A body-centered approach for working with the painful feelings beneath perfectionism
• How to defuse an inner critic that’s driving your client’s perfectionism

How to Work with Clients Paralyzed by Their Perfectionism

Shelly Harrell, PhD Steven Hayes, PhD Ron Siegel, PsyD

• Why your client’s procrastination might be a hidden form of perfectionism
• How perfectionism can shift clients from motivation to paralysis
• The critical cost to a client who suffers perfection-driven paralysis

How to Target Perfectionism That’s Stuck in the Nervous System

Stephen Porges, PhD Bonnie Goldstein, LCSW, EDM, PhD
Deb Dana, LCSW

• How to help clients listen to the story their nervous system is telling them
• The crucial link between perfectionism and early life attachment
• The core vulnerability that can lead to an obsession with perfection
• How the nervous system can trap a person in a perfection-isolation loop

How to Work with Perfectionism That’s Linked to Trauma

Resmaa Menakem MSW, LICSW, SEP Onno van der Hart, PhD
Ron Siegel, PsyD

• How trauma strengthens the one core element that gives perfectionism its power
• Why trauma-driven perfectionism can often be mis-assessed as a personality trait

Key Strategies for Working with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Perfectionism

Pat Ogden, PhD Bill O’Hanlon, LMFT

• How to help clients manage the OCD that’s keeping their perfectionism alive
• A bottom-up approach to treating hyperarousal triggered by perfectionism
• One technique to help a perfectionist safely experience mistakes

How to Help Clients Shift a Rigid Perfectionist Mindset

Zindel Segal, PhD Lynn Lyons, LICSW Michael Yapko, PhD

• One crucial reason a client will hold onto perfectionism (even when it’s costing them)
• How to help clients soften their rigid perfectionistic boundaries
• How an overachiever will often assess imperfection (and why this keeps them stuck)