5 Essential Skills for Beginning Marriage and Family Therapists

August 16, 2016 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

When you’re starting your work as a therapist, whether during graduate training or as a brand-new master’s-level therapist, it’s natural to feel anxious and unprepared at times (or all the time!). You’ve spent several years learning a ton of information, and now you, naturally, want it to all make sense, so that you can do effective therapy.

Well, there’s good news: You've learned and assimilated a lot more than you think, and it will "show up" when you need it.

There are a few simple verbal skills that can guide your initial work as a beginning therapist; mastering these is a much better use of your time than worrying about using a theory perfectly or finding the right intervention.

5 Step Plan for De-escalating an In-Session couple Argument

August 9, 2016 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

A 5-Step Plan for De-escalaing An In-Session Couple Argument

Most of us, therapists, have been there: A simple disagreement turns into an all-out screaming match in the middle of a therapy session. This is, thankfully, not a common scenario for most therapists, but it’s also not rare--especially for therapists who specialize in couple therapy.

In this post, I cover steps for disrupting an argument occurring in a couple therapy session. Intervention on the part of the therapist is necessary during some conflicts, because the arguments can cause further damage in the couple relationship. And, if therapists allow arguments to continue for too long, they can affect the couple’s sense of safety when in therapy.

The main goals of intervention in this case are to:

5 Quick + Easy Ways to Build Your Therapy Skills

August 2, 2016 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

5 Quick and Easy Ways to Build Your Therapy Skills

Building therapy skills is an ever-present need that requires ongoing effort, for most therapists. The problem is, there is an unlimited amount of things to learn and a very limited amount of time. This means that you must be proactive and specific about building your therapy skills, in order to get the most from your investment..

Below, I review five quick and easy ways to build your therapy skills without having to buy products, attend trainings, or spend a ton of time or money.