DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE

UPDATE - Joyful Souls Women's Aftercare met on Friday, August 19th with therapist Jill Turcott-Nielsen . This is Ms. Nielsen's third visit to our group. The topic was "Dealing With Difficult People."

First, we were asked to make a (private) list of individuals who we considered difficult to deal with along with the individual traits that were problematic for us. No one had trouble coming up with a list!  As we shared our thoughts, common behaviors emerged. Our difficult people included those who are:  *gossips, * controlling, *argumentative, *abusive, * liars - - - the list goes on. We soon realized that most of the difficult people in our lives are familiar to all of us. 

Jill explained that many of these individuals have underlying issues that really don't have anything to do with us, Instead, their behavior is motivated by a wide range of problems such as childhood trauma, poor self-esteem, addiction issues and varying degrees of anger and rage. She asked us to step back from a situation in which we were confronted by a difficult person and consider the underlying causes before deciding how to respond.
Twelve group members shared their "difficult people" scenarios and Jill offered suggestions for dealing with each situation.

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Jill Turcott-Nielsen is a Catholic Therapist who has a private practice in Wauwatosa, WI. Her specialties are couples therapy, trauma, relationships, depression and anxiety. She can be reached at: 414-258-2600.
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