Codependence

Credit

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts/Brochure

Speaker

Nancy L. Johnston, LPC, LSATP, MAC, NCC Related seminars and products

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Nancy L. Johnston, MS, LPC, LSATP, MAC, NCC is a licensed professional counselor and licensed substance abuse treatment practitioner in private practice in Virginia, US. With 49 years of clinical experience, Nancy is master addiction counselor and an American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMCHA) diplomate in substance abuse and co-occurring Disorders.

 

She has authored four books on codependency: Disentangle: When You've Lost Your Self in Someone Else 2^nd Edition (2020), My Life as a Border Collie: Freedom from Codependency (2012), The Clinician’s Codependency Treatment Workbook: 66 Self-Recovery Strategies for Clients Who Lose Themselves in Others (2024), and You. Here. Today. 200 Readings for Growth from Codependency to Self-Recovery (2026).

 

Nancy has digital seminars produced with PESI for clinicians on treating codependency, including “Codependence: Treatment Strategies for Clients Who Lose Themselves in Others” (2020), “The Codependency Treatment Guide: CBT, Somatic Strategies and More to Disentangle Clients from Dysfunctional Relationships and Recover Self” (2022), and “Advanced Codependency Treatment: A Complete Guide to CBT, Somatic, and Family of Origin Strategies to Disentangle Clients from Toxic Relationships and Recover Self” (2025).

 

Nancy offers online self-recovery workshops and delights in designing and facilitating Codependence Camp twice/year at a retreat site in Virginia, US. Codependence Camp has been in operation since 2004.

 

Over the past 26 years Nancy has presented at numerous conferences including the Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disorders, the Carolinas Conference for Addiction and Recovery, Addiction: Focus on Women, the Virginia Summer Institute for Addiction Studies, the American Mental Health Counselors Association’s Annual Conference, the Virginia Counselors Association’s Annual Conference, and Specialty Docket Training for the Virginia Supreme Court. She has been a faculty member for the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium and the Ferentz Institute, and her work was included in a New York Times article on enmeshment in relationships.

 

Nancy writes from her country home on a river in Virginia, US. When she is not teaching or writing, she is enjoying extended time with family and friends, gardening, collaging, writing haiku, dancing, walking in the woods, and sitting by the river.

 

More information about Nancy and her work is available at her website: https://www.nancyljohnston.com/

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Objectives

1. Apply the codependency paradigm as an underlying factor for common presenting problems, symptoms and diagnoses.   
2. Determine the origins of codependent behaviors to support case conceptualization and decrease pathology or stigma.   
3. Utilize clinical strategies to increase client’s self-understanding, self-awareness, and skills to attend to their internal well-being.   

Outline

Conceptualizing Codependent Dynamics in a Practical Way 

• Over-functioning for others while under-functioning for the Self 
• The physical and emotional costs of a “dominant external focus” 
• Codependence as a precursor to anxiety, depression, and relationship difficulties 
• Limitations of the research and potential risks 

Assessment:  Broadening Your Lens to Include the Codependence Paradigm 

• How to identify and address codependence without stigmatizing 
• Self-understanding (the why), self-awareness (the what), and skill sets (the how) 
• Addressing the grief that underlies acceptance of reality 
• What’s missing from the Stages of Change 

Treatment Tools:  Help Clients Detach from Codependence and Anchor Within the Self  

• Setting goals that make sense 
• Shifting focus from external to internal 
• 3-part boundary setting skills 
• Visuals to illustrate the relationship between the self and others 
• Building “quiet reactivity” 
• Breaking through the illusion of control 
• Daily practices for self-awareness and self-care 
• And more! 

Case Studies: 

• 50 y/o mother, overly enmeshed with adult child who repeatedly relapses from alcohol recovery 
• 36 y/o, depressed and insecure, unsure of role at work, feels excluded and inconsequential  
• 17 y/o, discouraged and hesitant to share true thoughts and feelings with partner

Target Audience

• Psychologists 
• Social Workers 
• Counselors 
• Addiction Counselors 
• Marriage and Family Therapists 
• Case Managers