Effective Techniques for Responding to Highly Resistant Clients
Course Content
Every clinician has clients they privately file as resistant. The session ends and you feel tired, flat and ineffective, and the easiest explanation is that the client was not ready. Clifton Mitchell’s answer is less comfortable and considerably more useful: resistance is created in the interaction between the two of you, the client recognises what you are doing and responds accordingly, and the part you control is your half.
He is Professor Emeritus at East Tennessee State University and has spent the larger part of his career on this one question. The course is built on the premise that what gets called resistance is a phenomenon of the dialogue, so it is about the dialogue: the questions you ask, the way you ask them, and what happens in the moments where things stick. The techniques work with any theoretical orientation, and he is direct that people trained in motivational interviewing will find they address a gap in it.
Six hours. He starts by taking apart the traditional definitions and replacing them with ones that leave a clinician something to do, including a section on what resistance is good for. Then the common errors that create it, which is the part most clinicians recognise in themselves. Then the techniques, with video demonstrations throughout. Two junctures get extended treatment because he considers them the pivotal ones: what happens after you ask a question, including the case against over-questioning and what to use instead, and the “I don’t know” response, which he argues is usually not resistance at all. A bonus session covers priming, the use of language to prepare a client for a different perspective before you offer it.
You’ll walk away with
- A workable way of thinking about resistance that leaves you something to change, rather than a client to blame
- The specific things clinicians do that create resistance, most of them unintentionally
- Why the client’s pushback is often a reasonable response to your interaction style, and how to read it that way
- The case against over-questioning, and statements and curious commands as the alternative
- How to handle “Yes, but…” without getting drawn into the argument behind it
- The “I don’t know” response: what it usually means, and how to work with it
- Language techniques that work with mandated, court-referred and involuntary clients
- Working with a client who is not yet contemplating change, without pushing them further away
- Techniques that sit alongside any theoretical orientation, including where they extend motivational interviewing
- Priming: what it is and how to build it into the way you talk to a client
- Video demonstrations throughout, so you see the techniques run rather than described
Watch the course trailer
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Included: a handout, video demonstrations, and a bonus session on priming.
Who it’s for: anyone working with mandated, court-referred or involuntary clients, and anyone whose caseload includes people who did not choose to be there. The techniques are not tied to a theoretical orientation.
Course Duration: 6 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever 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.
Meet Your Instructor
The most frustrating moments in therapy - when clients resist, argue, or shut down completely - often reveal the greatest opportunities for breakthrough. Clifton Mitchell has spent over 30 years studying therapeutic resistance, transforming how practitioners understand and work with their most challenging clients through groundbreaking techniques that turn opposition into collaboration.
As Professor Emeritus at East Tennessee State University and international clinical trainer, Dr. Mitchell has delivered over 300 keynote presentations worldwide, teaching clinicians that resistance isn't the enemy of therapy - it's evidence that real change is attempting to happen. His book Effective Techniques for Dealing with Highly Resistant Clients revolutionised the field by showing practitioners how resistance emerges from therapist-client interactions rather than client pathology. His latest work on therapeutic priming demonstrates how subconscious programming can accelerate habit change and therapeutic outcomes.
Dr. Mitchell's expertise spans therapeutic resistance management, priming techniques for behavior change, legal and ethical issues in mental health, and the strategic use of language in therapy. His research-backed approach helps clinicians recognise when their own intervention style creates resistance, how to match influence methods to client readiness, and ways to use preconscious priming to enhance therapeutic gains. His entertaining, humor-filled training style makes complex concepts immediately applicable in clinical practice.
What sets his training apart is practical transformation. Mitchell doesn't just teach theory - he shows clinicians specific language patterns, timing strategies, and intervention sequences that dissolve resistance and create client engagement. His game-show format training on ethics and his priming techniques give practitioners tools they can implement immediately with measurable results.
For your practice, expect to gain specific techniques for preventing resistance before it starts, practical methods for working with oppositional clients, and priming strategies that accelerate therapeutic change. His approach particularly benefits clinicians who feel stuck with difficult clients or want to enhance their therapeutic effectiveness through scientific applications of influence and suggestion.
Quick Win: Mitchell's "influence hierarchy" teaches clinicians to match their intervention style to clients' current willingness to change - preventing resistance by starting with the least forceful approach and escalating only when clients are ready.
Qualifications
- Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, Indiana State University, 1992
- M.A., Clinical Psychology, Western Kentucky University, 1976
- B.A., Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1974
- Licensed Psychologist (retired)
- 30+ years of clinical training experience
Authored Books
- Priming: Programming the Mind for Habit Change and Success (2018, Mind Management Publishing)
- Effective Techniques for Dealing with Highly Resistant Clients (2007, 2nd edition, Clifton Mitchell Publishing)
Teaching & Roles
- International Clinical Trainer & Keynote Speaker, 1988–present
- Professor Emeritus, Department of Counseling, East Tennessee State University, 2015–present
- Professor & Clinical Mental Health Concentration Coordinator, East Tennessee State University, 1992–2015
Featured Publications
- Psychotherapy Networker, Psychotherapy in Australia, Journal of Personality Assessment
- Men's Health Today, Barron's Financial Weekly
- Research on therapeutic resistance, subliminal messaging, stress and coping, personality types
Speaking & Training
- Psychotherapy Networker Symposium (annual 2010–2020)
- Ericksonian Foundation Conferences (multiple years)
- International presentations: Australia (2014, 2016), Singapore (2013–2015), Canada (2014–2015)
- American Counseling Association, American Mental Health Counselors Association conferences
Ready to transform your most challenging therapeutic relationships? Discover how Dr. Mitchell's resistance management techniques can turn your most difficult clients into your greatest success stories.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 2
- Topics 6
- Duration 6 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English