Managing High-Conflict Personalities Certification for Mental Health Professionals
Specialized clinical training and certification for mental health professionals, taught by Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq., and now offering 8 continuing education (CE) credits for psychologists through CE-Go's co-sponsorship process. Learn to recognize the predictable patterns of high-conflict personalities, understand the neuroscience underlying high-conflict behavior, and apply practical, ethical strategies for working with high-conflict clients in therapeutic, forensic, and court-involved settings. Designed for therapists, counselors, psychologists, and clinical social workers at introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Your instructor
Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq.
Co-founder, High Conflict Institute
500,000+
professionals trained worldwide
Standard clinical training doesn't prepare you for high-conflict clients.
High-conflict clients exhaust the therapeutic frame: blame, splitting, all-or-nothing thinking, extreme reactions, and a tendency to recruit negative advocates into their world. Standard clinical methods can stall or unintentionally inflame these dynamics, and they take a real toll on the clinician. This certification trains you in the five surprising-but-predictable HCP patterns, gives you a structured, ethical playbook for managing them in your practice — and helps you protect both the therapeutic relationship and your own well-being.
Outcomes you'll bring back from Mental Health Certification.
- Identify the warning signs, behavior patterns, and clinical risk factors of high-conflict personalities, including their overlap with personality disorders.
- Explain the neuroscience of high-conflict behavior: amygdala activation, threat perception, reactive versus logical processing, and emotional contagion.
- Recognize how the Five Core Fears and negative advocates shape client behavior, relationships, and the therapeutic interaction.
- Apply the CARS Method®, EAR Statements™, and the BIFF Response® method to calm escalation and keep sessions productive.
- Set therapeutic boundaries, establish limits, and impose consequences while maintaining professional and ethical standards.
- Teach clients emotional regulation, communication, problem-solving, and behavior-management skills for high-conflict relationships.
- Differentiate domestic violence, child abuse, parental alienation, estrangement, and other parent-child contact problems, including the effects of intimate partner violence on children.
- Understand the roles, responsibilities, and boundaries of clinicians in court-involved and forensic matters, including documentation and interactions with legal professionals.
- Analyze the ethical obligations, standards of care, and malpractice risks of treating high-conflict clients and participating in legal proceedings.
- Build risk-management habits that protect clinical objectivity, documentation, and professional accountability.
Who Mental Health Certification is built for.
Therapists
High-conflict therapy training for LMFTs, LCSWs, and LPCs working with high-conflict clients, families, and couples in clinical practice.
Psychologists
Clinical, counseling, and forensic psychologists encountering HCP patterns in assessment and treatment.
Social Workers
Clinical and macro social workers in family, healthcare, and child-welfare contexts.
Counselors
Mental health counselors and addiction counselors working with chronic difficulty.
Coaches in Helping Roles
Coaches and helping professionals adding HCP framework to their practice.
Other Mental Health Pros
Anyone working with high-conflict individuals and families in a clinical or helping role.
How Mental Health Certification is delivered.
A fully self-paced online certification hosted on CE-Go: 8 modules of video presentations from Bill Eddy, each followed by a short quiz. Follow along with the course PDF, complete each section to unlock the next, and finish the course evaluation to download your CE certificate immediately.
- 8-module video course — Video presentations directly from Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq., with a short quiz at the end of each module.
- 8 CE credits — CE credits for psychologists through APA co-sponsorship. CE Learning Systems (CE-Go) is also an approved provider for the New York State Education Department boards for social work, mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychology, psychoanalysis, and creative arts therapy.
- Course PDF and resources — The full course PDF to follow along with, plus downloadable Bill Eddy articles in each module, including The CARS Method®, Calming Upset People with EAR, and How Sociopaths Con Therapists.
- Countertransference and clinician self-care — Recognize and regulate your own reactions to high-conflict clients, avoid common therapist pitfalls, and protect your well-being.
- Working with co-parents — Parenting concerns tied to each personality pattern, intimate partner violence and its impact on children, parental alienation, estrangement, and the New Ways for Families® approach.
- BIFF Response® for written communication — A trauma-informed de-escalation tool for responding to hostile writing, and how to teach it to your clients.
- Documentation and deposition readiness — Court-involved and forensic roles, professional liability, malpractice risk, standards of care, and how to protect yourself professionally.
- Certification upon completion — Finish the course evaluation and your CE certificate is ready to download immediately.
Methods taught in Mental Health Certification.
5 HCP Patterns
How borderline, narcissistic, antisocial, histrionic, and paranoid patterns present clinically, and therapeutic strategies for each.
The CARS Method®
Connect, Analyze, Respond, Set limits: Bill Eddy's four-skill method for managing high-conflict situations in clinical practice.
EAR Statements™
Connect with a reactive client using Empathy, Attention, and Respect to lower escalation in session.
BIFF Response®
Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm. A trauma-informed tool for written communication that you can also teach to clients.
Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq.
Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq., is a licensed clinical social worker, lawyer, mediator, author, and co-founder and Director of Innovation at the High Conflict Institute. With more than 12 years of clinical experience, Bill is a pioneer in the study of High-Conflict Personalities (HCPs) and has developed structured methods to help professionals recognize and respond effectively to persistent patterns of high-conflict behavior.
His work focuses on the intersection of personality patterns, emotional dysregulation, interpersonal conflict, and professional decision-making. He has trained mental health, legal, and organizational professionals across 35+ states and 13 countries in practical approaches for reducing escalation, maintaining therapeutic and professional boundaries, improving communication, and managing challenging interactions involving high-conflict behavior.
Bill's professional experience includes 15 years as a Senior Family Mediator at the National Conflict Resolution Center, certification as a Family Law Specialist by the State Bar of California, and service on the faculty of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law. He also served as a Conjoint Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle Law School in Australia.
Bill is the author of more than 25 books, including 5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life, It's All Your Fault!, BIFF Response, and Splitting. His Psychology Today blog has received more than 6 million views, and he co-hosts the podcast It's All Your Fault! with Megan Hunter.
Mental Health Certification — frequently asked questions.
Who is this certification for?
Will I get CE credits?
Yes. This certification is approved for 8 CE credits. It is offered through HCI's joint providership with CE Learning Systems (CE-Go), which is jointly accredited by the ACCME, ACPE, and ANCC and co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology. It is also recognized by the New York State Education Department boards for social work, mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychology, psychoanalysis, and creative arts therapy.
Many state licensing boards accept APA-sponsored continuing education for psychologists, LCSWs, LPCs, and LMFTs. Check your own board's rules before enrolling if you are unsure. Your CE certificate is available to download as soon as you complete the course evaluation.
International participants: Participants outside the United States will receive a certificate that may be submitted to their applicable professional association, licensing board, or regulatory body for consideration of continuing education or continuing professional development (CPD) credit. Acceptance varies by jurisdiction and is not guaranteed. Participants are responsible for confirming their jurisdiction's requirements and determining whether this training qualifies for credit.
Where do I enroll?
How is this training different from HCI's New Ways trainings for mental health professionals?
Managing High-Conflict Personalities Certification focuses on understanding the predictable patterns of five high-conflict personality types and developing practical clinical skills for working effectively with clients who exhibit these traits and behaviors. It helps mental health professionals recognize high-conflict dynamics, manage challenging therapeutic interactions, maintain boundaries, and reduce conflict escalation across a variety of clinical settings.
HCI's New Ways trainings, including New Ways for Families®, focus on teaching specific, structured skills and methods that professionals can use to help clients in separation and divorce manage emotions, improve communication, make decisions, and resolve disputes. These programs provide a framework for guiding clients through a defined skills-building process.
In short: Managing High-Conflict Personalities Certification focuses on understanding and effectively working with high-conflict personalities, while New Ways trainings focus on teaching clients practical skills for managing conflict and improving their behavior. The trainings complement each other but serve different purposes.
What is the format?
How long do I have to complete it?
What is included?
Will I receive a digital badge to display on my website or LinkedIn profile?
Do you offer discounts?
Yes. We offer these discounts on the certification:
- Non-profit and government agency clinicians: 20%
- Military (active duty, veterans, and VA clinicians): 25%
- New graduates (first-year clinicians within 3 years of their degree): 25%
- HCI alumni (anyone who has taken an HCI training): 15%
Contact us before you enroll and we will send you a discount code to apply at checkout on CE-Go. Discounts cannot be combined.
Can our agency or practice enroll a group?
Ready to enroll?
Enroll an individual seat now, or talk to us about a private cohort designed around your organization's actual cases.
