How to Use The Systemic Therapy MicroSkills: The Joining Skills, with Dr. AnnaLynn Schooley

April 2, 2019 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

Systemic Therapy MicroSkills, Part 1 | Family Therapy Basics

This post is the first of several articles in which I discuss the systemic therapy microskills, with Dr. AnnaLynn Schooley.

Dr. Schooley and her co-author, fellow professor and family therapist, Jim Hibel, are writing a book on the small systemic skills that therapists can intentionally practice in order to increase their effectiveness.

Start on Time, End on Time: HOW TO MANAGE Your Private Practice THERAPY Sessions

March 19, 2019 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

Whether you’re 6 or 60, there’s one thing everyone hates when going to the doctor; and no, it’s not getting pricked with needles. It’s waiting to get pricked with needles. Your appointment is at 2, but as 2, 2:05, 2:10 rolls by, you ruminate “I had an appointment. If the doctor wasn’t going to be available, why schedule at this time? Apparently, my time isn’t valuable.”

As our lives are perhaps more rushed than ever, waiting for any appointment or meeting is a hassle. However, a tardy counseling session is qualitatively worse than other late meetings. Getting started late is a broken promise in a relationship that needs trust in spades.

Six Steps For "Socioculturally Attuned" Family Therapy: A Summary

March 5, 2019 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

Socio-cultural factors influence almost all significant relational interactions between clients and themselves, clients and their significant others, as well as clients and therapists. Language, economic status (and sense of mobility), ethnicity, gender, privilege, among other identities through which clients (and therapists) navigate their realities intersect in therapeutic interactions.

Failure to name and discuss these factors leaves clients to continue entrenched stories of self and relationships, and limits clients’ options for negotiating their needs and pursuing their sought-after changes.

What You Must Consider Before You Offer Online Therapy

February 5, 2019 Ili Rivera Walter, PhD, LMFT

Before You Offer Online Therapy | Family Therapy Basics

“As technology becomes smaller, more accessible, and more affordable, we as mental health practitioners have to decide at what point (and to what extent) we will adopt the trend of implementing technology as a mechanism for service delivery” (Hertlein & Cohn, 2018).

Recently, the AAMFT devoted an entire issue of their magazine to the use of technology in mental health service delivery.

Like it or not, technology is changing our profession.

These days, in addition to working for themselves, therapists have the option to work for telemental health companies, and many are offering technology-centered services, such as email therapy, in their private practices. While our associations and state boards have been slow to adopt standards and laws regarding the provision of tech-centered therapy, many of us tech-savvy (or tech-interested) therapists have been figuring it out on our own.