Surviving Psychosis: Providing the Best Care for Reality-Impaired Clients, Their Families, and Yourself

Alana Hendrix, MS, LMFT

This sometimes funny, always frank, and vitally important discussion covers all the basic principles on how to deal clinically and compassionately with the client who is out of touch with reality. It includes how to recognize the subtle signs that psychosis may be present in your client, how to help the family cope and provide appropriate support for the client, and how to provide clinically solid treatment for both client and their family while keeping your own sanity intact. It includes a wealth of good clinical information as well as lots of examples from Alana’s own case files.

Objectives:

1. How to recognize subtle signs that psychosis may be present.

2. How to assist clients and their family in accepting that part of their diagnosis involves reality impairment, and how to help them find the right support for it.

3. How to develop basic treatment plans for psychotic clients, and how to motivate them for treatment.

4. Steps to keeping your own sense of sanity alive while dealing with psychotic clients and their families.

Bio:

Alana has a rich history of counseling experience in the Inland Empire area and beyond. Her love for counseling began when she found herself in treatment as a teenager trying to deal with her father’s alcoholism and her brother’s drug & alcohol use. This interest in “managing realities” has continued over the years in the venue of lay-counseling when she worked with families of murder victims. Since becoming a professional therapist she has been assisting people of all ages and life paths to cope with their issues and to thrive in spite of those challenges.  She received both her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from California Baptist University in Riverside, CA. She is near completion of her PhD in Marriage & Family Therapy from Capella University. She works in private practice with New Hope Christian Centers in Covina and Moreno Valley offices. She specializes in family relationship issues, parenting concerns, addiction problems, grief & loss, and good self-care. She especially advocates good self-care for those in the helping professions,such as pastors, nurses, and mental health care providers.

Alana is often described as “honest, inviting, and very funny.”  Her warm and engaging style has contributed to her success as a therapist and as a speaker at community events, spiritual retreats, and other venues where she conveys a variety of techniques available to help one live life to its fullest.