Patterns in Abusive Relationships: Codependence and Dependent Personality Disorder
Ask a client to describe a healthy relationship and most of them stall, then reach for a word like trust. Ask what trust means and you find two people using it for opposite things. For one it means having your own friends and your own life. For the other it means knowing where you were on Friday night and who you were talking to. Any intervention built on the undefined word goes sideways.
Leo DeBroeck’s position is that what makes a relationship abusive is not that one person is cruel. It is that problems never get solved. Tension builds, nothing gets talked through, something blows up, an apology arrives, the honeymoon follows, and nothing has been repaired. Then it runs again. Clients tend to recognise the cycle the moment they see it on paper, which is exactly why he is careful about when he puts it in front of them.
The session covers dependent personality disorder in some detail, including why the familiar picture of a passive, agreeable client is only half of it. The same fear of abandonment that produces compliance can flip into rigid control when the client senses their partner is about to leave. From there DeBroeck works through relationship roles and how an ordinary preference slides into power and control, the Gottman research on conflict and stress hormones, the cycle of abuse, the wheel of power and control alongside its equality counterpart, and a worked case study covering safety, financial control and children.
You’ll walk away with
- A way to get clients to define what they actually mean by trust, healthy and commitment, before you build an intervention on words that mean different things to each of them
- A fuller picture of dependent personality disorder, including how the same fear of abandonment presents as compliance in one client and control in another
- An explanation for why a client with dependent traits often feels more anxious away from an abusive partner than with them
- Language for talking to a client about the genetic component of dependent traits, which for many of them lifts a great deal of self-blame
- The link between conflict, stress hormones and problem-solving capacity, and what it means for when a couple should and should not attempt a hard conversation
- A method for mapping relationship roles with a couple, and showing them how a simple division of labour turns into control of the money, the friendships and the decisions
- Confident use of the wheel of power and control, plus its equality version for clients who cannot yet look at the first one
- Judgement about when to show a client the cycle of abuse, since recognising themselves in it can leave them more stuck rather than less
- Ways to use love attitude screeners and the Four Horsemen as conversation openers rather than tests
- A worked case study covering safety planning, financial control, visa status and what to do when a client wants to return to the relationship
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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