When Anger Turns Against the Relationship:
From Attack to Emotional Closeness in Experiential Dynamic Therapy (EDT)

25.05 | 16:00-21:00 | ZOOM
Led by Yoram Reuveni M.S.W
With the guidance of Dr. Ferruccio Osimo

When anger turns toward the therapist, the treatment changes. The therapeutic relationship itself becomes the arena of conflict. Patients may shift from cooperation into resistance, criticism, or direct attack—placing the therapist under pressure and threatening the connection.

Yet these moments are not disruptions of therapy. They are often its most important turning points.

Following our previous seminar, “From Submissiveness to Authenticity”, which focused on dependent and compliant patients, many participants expressed a wish to explore the “other side” of the relational spectrum: patients who challenge, confront, or attack the therapist.

The Clinical Focus

Anger is a vital force. It carries the patient’s need to protect the self, establish boundaries, and reach the other. However, when it cannot be experienced or regulated, it may shift into aggression – from subtle resistance to direct attacks on the therapist. In such moments:

The therapeutic relationship becomes the battlefield.

The therapist is pulled into reactions (avoidance, appeasement, counterattack).

The process risks collapse – or transformation.

This seminar will focus on how to work clinically within these moments, rather than bypass or manage them.