Helping with Codependency: Practical Interventions
The client books in and the request is to help them change so the relationship works. Help me be less demanding. Help me stop needing so much reassurance. It sounds like insight and motivation, and it is often the clearest sign of what you are actually dealing with, because changing yourself is what people do instead of solving the problem.
Leo DeBroeck’s line on this is blunt. Codependency is helping in the wrong ways, and helping in the wrong way is hurting. That is not an argument for withdrawing, and it is not tough love. It is the difference between helping with the cause and helping with the consequences. You help someone find the plumber’s number rather than mopping the floor again next week.
The session starts by defining codependency and dependent personality disorder properly, so you and the client are not using the same word for two different things, then works through the roles clients rotate between: helpless, martyr and bully, sometimes all three inside a fortnight. It covers three screening instruments, the pro-dependence reframe that lets you name the pattern without the client hearing an accusation, and the incremental changes that build self-worth over months rather than weeks. Filmed case material follows a family through an intervention with their adult son.
You’ll walk away with
- A working definition of codependency you can put in front of a client, including why it does not apply to children or to someone who genuinely cannot care for themselves
- The distinction between codependency and dependent personality disorder in a sentence a client will remember: one is “I will fix them”, the other is “I will fix me”
- Three screening instruments for dependent traits and codependency, useful as conversation openers as much as measures
- A way to tell whether your work is shifting anything, with a client whose instinct is to tell you what you want to hear
- The three roles clients rotate through, and why the same person can be helpless on Monday and controlling by Friday without seeing any contradiction
- The pro-dependence reframe, which lets you describe the pattern without the client hearing a word most of them take as an accusation
- A test a family can apply themselves for whether they are helping with the cause or helping with the consequences
- Language for a family that has been told to use tough love, and why accountability is the more workable frame
- The Stepping Stones exercise, for the client whose entire life story is told through what other people did to them
- Socratic questions that hold up under pressure in session, including what love actually is and whether one person can reasonably be another person’s everything
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.
Course Duration: 3 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.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Children and adolescents experiencing suicidal ideation, complex trauma, and severe behavioral challenges - and the practitioners who work with them - can need more than generic therapeutic approaches to navigate these high-risk situations successfully. Leo DeBroeck has dedicated his career to developing practical, evidence-based interventions for the most vulnerable young people, becoming an internationally recognised expert who has worked across every level of care from intensive inpatient settings to school-based services.
As President and Founder of Counselor's Choice Award LLC and Licensed Mental Health Counselor with Child Mental Health Specialist credentials, DeBroeck brings unique expertise that bridges clinical practice with professional education and product development. His MS in Clinical Psychology with thesis research on suicide factors, combined with his CBT Plus certification from the University of Washington and Harborview Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress Center, demonstrates his commitment to understanding the complex factors that put young people at risk. His published children's therapy books and scientific research on suicidality in young adults reflect his ability to create practical resources that help both clinicians and families navigate difficult conversations about mental health.
DeBroeck's expertise spans child and adolescent mental health, suicide prevention and assessment, trauma therapy, ADHD treatment, codependency, abusive relationships, grief counseling, and addiction counseling. His approach recognises that effective work with high-risk youth requires understanding family systems, school environments, and community resources while maintaining safety as the primary concern. He specialises in cases requiring intensive intervention, situations where standard outpatient therapy hasn't been sufficient, and training practitioners to work confidently with suicidal and severely traumatised children and adolescents.
What sets his training apart is real-world crisis experience combined with practical resource development. DeBroeck doesn't just teach theory - he shows practitioners exactly what to do and say in high-risk situations, drawing from years of intensive inpatient work and wraparound services. His development of therapeutic tools and children's therapy books demonstrates his understanding that effective intervention often requires creative, engaging approaches that meet young clients where they are.
For your practice, expect to gain specific suicide assessment techniques, tools for engaging resistant adolescents, and frameworks for coordinating care across multiple levels of intervention. His approach particularly benefits clinicians working with high-risk youth, those needing confidence in crisis situations, or practitioners wanting to develop expertise in intensive mental health services.
Quick Win: DeBroeck's "safety scaling" technique helps practitioners quickly assess suicide risk while building therapeutic rapport with adolescents - which helps create a foundation for honest communication about difficult topics while maintaining appropriate clinical vigilance.
Qualifications
- MS, Clinical Psychology (thesis: factors in suicide)
- Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), Washington State
- Child Mental Health Specialist (CMHS), Washington State
- Mental Health Professional (MHP)
- CBT Plus Certified, University of Washington and Harborview Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress Center
Leadership & Business
- President & Founder, Counselor's Choice Award LLC, Washington State, current
- Continuing Education Course Provider, USA, Australia, Canada, UK, current
- Product reviewer for counseling and therapeutic tools
- International trainer and course developer
Professional Experience
- Mental Health Therapist, Community health center, Washington State (full-time with Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists team)
- Therapist, Intensive inpatient program, Spokane, Washington (children and adolescents focus, several years)
- Experience across multiple levels of care: long-term inpatient care, WISe wraparound intensive services, school-based therapy services, outpatient clinical settings
Clinical Specialties
- Child and adolescent mental health across all levels of care
- Suicide prevention, assessment, and intervention
- Complex trauma therapy for children and adolescents
- ADHD treatment and symptom management
- Codependency and relationship abuse recovery
- Grief counseling and loss processing
- Addiction counseling for adolescents and families
- Neglect and abuse recovery interventions
- Self-confidence building and resilience development
Ready to work confidently with high-risk children and adolescents while developing the crisis intervention skills essential for intensive mental health practice? Discover how Leo DeBroeck's evidence-based, practical methods can help you provide effective care across all levels of treatment intensity while maintaining safety and building genuine therapeutic relationships.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 3
- Topics 0
- Duration 3 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English