Working with Distressed Clients Workshop
An one-day workshop that teaches skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation and mindfulness to support clinicians who work with distressed or dysregulated clients.
Working with Distressed Clients Workshop
This one-day workshop offers targeted skills for working with clients who frequently present as distressed or dysregulated.
Register Your Interest →
What You Will Get
7Â hours of CPD in a face-to-face format
(Not offered online or via Zoom at this time.)
All workshop materials will be provided in hard copy on the day of the training.
Course Outline
Working with distressed, overwhelmed, and emotionally dysregulated clients is one of the most common — and most challenging — parts of clinical practice. Many clients don’t need long explanations or complex formulations in the moment of distress — they need clear, structured, practical skills that help them regulate quickly and safely.
This one-day workshop, Working With Distressed Clients, is designed to give clinicians a clear framework for understanding distress and a toolkit of targeted skills to use with clients who are overwhelmed, impulsive, emotionally reactive, shut down, or in crisis.
This workshop integrates ideas from DBT, schema therapy, trauma-informed practice, and neuroscience, and translates them into simple language, practical interventions, and repeatable teaching tools you can use immediately in session.
What You Will Learn
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
- Understand and explain the Distress Cycle to clients
- Identify early warning signs of emotional escalation
- Use Mindfulness of the Dot to help clients step out of emotional spirals
- Teach a clear, simple model of emotions that clients actually understand
- Apply distress tolerance skills in the moment of overwhelm
- Teach emotion regulation strategies that reduce future crises
- Structure sessions when clients arrive distressed, dysregulated, or in crisis
- Help clients understand the difference between distress tolerance vs emotion regulation
- Create prevention plans to reduce repeated distress episodes
- Use simple metaphors and scripts to improve client engagement and follow-through
This is a highly practical workshop focused on what to do, what to say, and when to intervene.Â
Practical Tools You Can Use Immediately
You will receive:
- Distress Cycle diagram
- Mindfulness of the Dot exercise
- Emotion model handouts
- Distress tolerance skills list
- Emotion regulation teaching tools
- Session structure guide
- Scripts and teaching language
- Worksheets and client handouts
This is not just theory — this is a toolkit.
Don’t wait - places fill quickly! Book your spot today for only $400
Book The Workshop
Who Should Take This Course:
Working with Distressed Clients Workshop
Registrations Currently Closed
Submit your interest in the workshops below:
Taught by Experienced Clinicians
Jessica O’Garr
Clinical Psychologist and Director of The Psych Collective
Experienced in working with BPD, complex trauma, PTSD, and occupational trauma.
Known for making complex therapies practical and usable.
Dr Al Griskaitis
Psychiatrist and Experienced DBT Trainer
Brings neuroscience insights and clinical experience working with complex clients.
Together, Jess and Dr Al provide a dynamic, engaging workshop that blends evidence-based techniques with practical tools you can use the next day in clinical practice.
Testimonials
Jess and Dr Al are great trainers.
Their experience and real-world practical knowledge came through. They make the content real and applied. I learnt plenty!Â
- Kara
Fantastic program for people who are new to DBT or looking to sharpen their skills.
Jess and Al were able to effectively bridge the gap between learning the theory and how to translate it appropriately into practice.
- Jay
Great workshop with knowledgeable and engaging facilitators.
Able to learn DBT skills and how to adapt them to different presentations, work settings and client groups. Very practical and applicable.
- Harsha
Workshop Details
Honestly, we haven't decided where we are delivering this yet.
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These details below will apply if we host it at our clinic in Wollongong
Location
The Psych Collective Clinic,
3/36-42 Auburn St, Wollongong NSW
MAYBE
Catering
Tea and coffee facilities available. Meals not catered. Our clinic is a 500m walk from the centre of Wollongong, and we’ll show you where the good coffee is.
Access
The training room is on the second storey up a flight of stairs. Unfortunately, disabled access is not available.
Getting here
Wollongong is 60 minutes south of Sydney, and our clinic is 300m from Wollongong Train Station. There is street parking near the clinic.
Accommodation
If you’re travelling from interstate or out of area, we recommend:
- Hotel Toto
- Kuta Apartments
- Sage Hotel
Cancellation Policy
Full refund minus $25 processing fee with at least 14 days’ notice. For cancellations under 14 days, booking fees will be forfeited.