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.
Read moreHow to Increase Your Impact and Income by Narrowing your Message: 8 Examples of Therapists Using Personal Brands
I’ve been studying branding for therapists for some time now, and I can’t deny the appeal of honing in on one area of expertise, or one target audience. These days, there are two branding trends in the mental health field: the niche and the personal brand. The niche is a specific area of practice that typically requires extra training and/or leads to a certification. The personal brand is a specific message emerging from the life experience of the therapist. In this post, I focus on the personal brand, because I’m seeing a lot of therapists adopt compelling personal brands that focus their work and increase their influence.
Read more5 Essential Skills for Beginning Marriage and Family Therapists
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.
Read more5 Step Plan for De-escalating 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:
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