Disarming High Conflict Personalities in the Workplace: Dealing with the 8 Most Difficult People You Encounter Before They Rob You of Your Peace, Productivity, and Profit!
Leadership in corporate life has many perks, including influence, impact, and income. However perhaps the biggest unseen drawback is dealing with difficult employees, team members, and customers.
You know them. The ones who regularly question decision-makers. The ones who constantly drag their feet. Bullies, gossipers, complainers, drama queens, and those who ask a thousand questions and still can’t seem to meet a deadline – just to name a few!
Difficult people in the workplace negatively impact morale, affect employee satisfaction scores, and contribute to generally toxic workplace environments. When left unchecked, the entire organisation sees motivation wane, retention suffer, and poor performance outcomes ultimately come to bear upon the bottom line. Recent studies have shown an enormous amount of dollars lost by refusal to deal with people issues.
Culture is contagious and reputations can be developed quickly in most industries. The best candidates are looking for healthy work environments with positive cultures and are avoiding those who have developed reputations of ill-repute.
But your group, team, or organisation doesn’t have to stray down this path of negativity and tension so many companies do. Leaders can learn to communicate in a manner that prevents many of these conflicts from occurring in the first place, and learn to respond proactively and effectively when they do.
Attend this lively and engaging half-day workshop with international speaker/trainer/coach Dr. Jeff Riggenbach and learn to deal with the high-conflict and otherwise difficult people in your organisation in a way that will stop them in their tracks. Leave with practical strategies to lead by example by proactively communicating effectively with all personality styles in a way that will:
- Produce trust and respect
- Improve your team cohesion
- Boost group morale
- Enhance motivation of productive employees
- Positively impact retention
Leave this training feeling energised and equipped to enhance your organisation’s culture by up-leveling your communication in a way that will positively impact recruiting, hiring, and retention. Avoid burnout, and ultimately keep people problems from robbing you of your peace, productivity and profit.
Learning Objectives:
- Decrease burnout by improving the physical and mental health of your employees so they can be happier and more productive at work
- List the 4 DISC personality styles and understand the role of understanding yours and others in more effective workplace communication
- Describe the 8 types of high-conflict personalities and learn how they present problems in workplace settings
- Assess 3 areas burnout affects employee retention
- Utilise the 5 “magic questions” to disarm office conflict with anyone
- Recite the 3 levels of your organisation that enhanced communication skills will improve your key performance indicators
- Explain the use of leverage to to deal with bullying and decreasing hostile work environment complaints
- Use validation based communication to increase compliance with requests or directives…the first time!
- Learn how to talk to difficult people without triggering them to maximise effectiveness
- Make your company culture attractive to in-demand candidates
- Close the gap between company expectations and employee performance
- Minimise Hostile Work Environment and other HR Related Complaints
- Utilise belief-based connecting to decrease non-compliance with managers directives
- Distinguish between avoidable vs unavoidable turnover and critique 3 areas influencing employee turnover
- Lean the three biggest lost revenue factors related to retention and what to do about them
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Pay once for lifetime access.
Course Duration: 3 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Lifetime Access: Your access to the course does not expire, so you can revisit key concepts anytime you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
High-conflict personalities, treatment-resistant clients, and complex cases involving borderline personality disorder can leave clinicians feeling frustrated and ineffective - but these challenging presentations don't have to derail therapeutic progress. Jeff Riggenbach has spent over 20 years developing practical, evidence-based tools that help transform how practitioners work with their most difficult cases, earning him international recognition as "the practical tools guy" and becoming one of the world's most sought-after trainers in cognitive behavioral interventions.
As a three-time bestselling, award-winning author and Diplomat of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, Dr. Riggenbach brings unparalleled expertise in translating complex therapeutic concepts into immediately usable clinical tools. His books The CBT Toolbox and The BPD Toolbox (Amazon #1 new release) have become essential resources for practitioners worldwide, while his latest work Disarming High Conflict Personalities addresses one of the most challenging aspects of clinical and organisational work. His training at the Beck Institute of Cognitive Therapy and Research, combined with 20 years directing CBT-based treatment programs in psychiatric hospitals where he served over 3,000 clients, gives him deep understanding of what actually works with resistant populations.
Dr. Riggenbach's expertise spans Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy, personality disorders treatment (especially Borderline Personality Disorder), trauma and addiction, and high-conflict personality management. His approach bridges the gap between academic research and frontline clinical reality, showing practitioners how to adapt evidence-based techniques for clients who don't fit textbook presentations. He specialises in cases where traditional therapy approaches have failed, particularly with clients who are hostile, manipulative, or treatment-resistant.
What sets his training apart is practical applicability under real-world conditions. Riggenbach doesn't just teach theory - he shows clinicians exactly what to say and do when facing their most challenging moments. His international training reach across all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, UK, Malta, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa demonstrates his ability to adapt techniques across diverse populations and practice settings.
For your practice, expect to gain specific intervention scripts for difficult situations, tools for managing your own emotional responses to challenging clients, and frameworks for maintaining therapeutic progress with treatment-resistant cases. His approach particularly benefits clinicians working in high-stress environments, those dealing with personality disorders, or practitioners who feel burned out from difficult cases.
Quick Win: Riggenbach's "emotional regulation interrupt" technique helps clinicians quickly de-escalate volatile therapeutic situations while maintaining professional boundaries - helping to prevent session ruptures and keeping treatment on track.
Qualifications
- Ph.D., Christian Counseling
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Oklahoma, current
- Diplomat of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy
- Certified Cognitive Therapist, Beck Institute of Cognitive Therapy and Research, Philadelphia
- John Maxwell Team Certified Speaker/Trainer/Coach
- Certified Behavioral Consultant
- 20+ years clinical experience
Authored Books
- Disarming High Conflict Personalities: Dealing with the 8 Most Difficult People in Your Life Before You Burnout (latest release)
- The BPD Toolbox: A Practical Evidence-Based Guide to Regulating Intense Emotions (2016, Amazon #1 new release, award-winning)
- The CBT Toolbox: A Workbook for Clients, Clinicians and Coaches (2012, 1st and 2nd editions, bestseller)
- Seven total publications
Professional Experience
- International Speaker/Trainer/Coach, John Maxwell Team, current
- Clinical Director, Private Practice/Consulting, current
- Award-Winning Author & Behavioral Consultant, Tulsa, OK, current
- APA & NBCC/ACEP Approved Provider, Continuing Education Credits, current
- Director, CBT-based treatment programs, Two psychiatric hospitals (20 years, served 3,000+ clients)
- Treatment Program Developer, Mood Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, BPD programs, Two psychiatric hospitals
- Staff Member, Brookhaven Psychiatric Hospital, Tulsa, OK
International Training Reach
- Trained audiences in all 50 United States, Canada, Mexico, UK, Malta, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland
- Conference keynote addresses and specialised workshops worldwide
Ready to work confidently with your most challenging clients? Discover how Dr. Riggenbach's practical, evidence-based tools can help transform your ability to achieve breakthrough results with treatment-resistant cases while maintaining your own professional well-being.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 3
- Topics 0
- Duration 3 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English