7 Questions for Opening Your Therapy Sessions

November 15, 2016 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

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It's easy to get stuck in a rut with specific elements of therapy structure.

I have a professor that sees every interaction with a client as part of the therapeutic relationship, and therefore, he interacts intentionally with his clients always, choosing his language and messages carefully based on their therapeutic value.

We don't all view our relationships with our clients in the same way, which means this type of scrutiny may not seem necessary to all of us; however, there is merit in evaluating the details of our sessions in order to become aware of habits that may not be yielding the results we desire.

For example, it’s common for opening questions to become casual greetings rather than relationally impactful interactions between therapist and client. Purposeful opening questions are the topic of this post.

5 Tips for Keeping Up with Therapy Paperwork

November 8, 2016 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

Five Tips for Keeping Up With Therapy Paperwork

In my interaction with therapists as a mentor and supervisor, I’ve learned that one of the main struggles therapists face is having too much work and not enough time. Many therapists find themselves overwhelmed by documentation responsibilities, in particular; this includes completing client notes, referrals, billing, treatment plans, etc.

In today’s post, I offer several strategies for keeping up with paperwork, so that you can stay on track and avoid the stress of falling behind.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Client Types, and Their Relevance To Every Session

September 27, 2016 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

Solution Focused Brief Therapy Client Types | Family Therapy Basics

In her 1989 article, Of Visitors, Complainants, and Customers, Insoo Kim Berg details three types of “client-therapist relationships” (p. 21). Her wording is significant, because she is not labeling clients; she is describing them in terms of their relationship to the therapist, the process of therapy, and the problem. These three relationships have undergirded Solution-Focused Brief Therapy theory and interventions over the years, although they are not consistently discussed in newer works. The client relationship types are widely applicable to therapy, regardless of theoretical orientation, making them one of the most useful concepts in marriage and family therapy.

In this post, I present a review of these client types, and I explain their relevance to and usefulness for all therapeutic sessions.

Two Simple Questions That Will Transform Your Therapy Work

August 30, 2016 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

As therapists, we often work with clients that are connected to a variety of systems, and those systems also become our extended working environments (or additional “customers”). The consideration of these extended environments set systemic practice apart from individually-oriented practice. It also contributes to the possibility of therapists losing track of what’s most important for clients, due to external systems representing varied, and sometimes competing, interests. Furthermore, all the information (a.k.a. “content”) that comes with working from an inclusive, systemic lens can obscure a clear clinical focus.