Responding to Patient Avoidance & Defenses

Description

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Meet patient defenses with calm, skilled communication.

This presentation will help serious illness care professionals understand avoidance and defense mechanisms, respond constructively, and use practical scripts to reduce anxiety while preserving trust.

KEY WEBINAR TAKEAWAYS

• Adaptive denial (which serves to preserve coping capacity) versus maladaptive defense mechanisms (that impede essential end-of-life care planning or symptom management)
• Specific, non-confrontational communication techniques (e.g., gentle reframing, normalizing, validating the underlying fear) to safely explore critical topics without escalating patient or family defenses
• How to recognize personal emotional responses such as professional frustration, urgency, or the impulse to "fix" when encountering rigid patient avoidance, and strategies for maintaining professional neutrality and empathy