Using Four-Legged Friends as Metaphors in Therapy
Psychotherapy.net Blog
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2d ago
The Clinical Challenges of Adoption As an adoptive parent and psychologist, I’ve long been drawn to all clinical aspects of the adoption process. I began this part of my journey with my wife, who, as an adoption social worker, referred home studies to me. A home study is basically a psychosocial evaluation of the prospective adoptive parents with recommendations about their “readiness” or “fitness” to adopt. Through those many intimate visits with clients, who, for a variety of reasons ranging from infertility to choice, I learned of the frustrations, despair, and hope that accompanied the dec ..read more
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The Importance of Being Heard: When Clients Need Us to Listen
Psychotherapy.net Blog
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2w ago
“I feel completely useless to him. I feel like I could fall into a coma mid-session, and he wouldn’t even notice. He’d just keep jabbering away.” Like what you are reading? For more stimulating stories, thought-provoking articles and new video announcements, sign up for our monthly newsletter. Navigating Challenging Therapeutic Waters I spoke these words to my clinical supervisor, Ari. I had been a therapist for just a few months and had no idea how to help one of my clients. Tony, I told Ari, had arrived early to our first session, and before I could even ask, he began telling me his goal fo ..read more
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The Transformative Power of Empathy in Therapy
Psychotherapy.net
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1M ago
Therapy as a Place of Safety and Respite Each person’s therapeutic process will be unique, as will their stories, experiences, and needs. With that in mind, the approach I take with each of my clients varies. I offer a bespoke approach, tailored to the individual needs of each client, built around their personality and presentation. But regardless of their differences and needs, I will always use, and deeply value softness. Like what you are reading? For more stimulating stories, thought-provoking articles and new video announcements, sign up for our monthly newsletter. I have come to realise ..read more
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Balancing Between Creative and the Clinician: Reflections on Self-Integration
Psychotherapy.net
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1M ago
I was only 100 hours away from finishing my registrar program to be endorsed as a clinical psychologist when I confessed to my clinical supervisor: Like what you are reading? For more stimulating stories, thought-provoking articles and new video announcements, sign up for our monthly newsletter. “I don’t think I can do this anymore. I want to quit being a psychologist.” The pressure of clinical work was all too much. But let’s start at the beginning, a few years before that confession. Now, burnout is an experience all too familiar to psychologists, particularly early career psychologists. T ..read more
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Honesty, Not Empathy, is the Greatest Gift a Clinician Can Offer
Psychotherapy.net
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2M ago
Despite spending years in my own therapy, attending graduate school, receiving excellent supervision, and working as a therapist for the past couple of years, I am still in the process of discovering what exactly people find so healing about therapy. Is it the experience of empathy and unconditional positive regard? Perhaps it’s the space to express repressed thoughts and emotions? Then again, some people say it’s the reparative attachment relationship. Others feel that it’s the wisdom and insight of the therapist that’s paramount. Like what you are reading? For more stimulating stories, thou ..read more
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Standing With Clients in the Twilight of Life
Psychotherapy.net
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2M ago
Chris had advanced cancer, and only a short time left to live. Like what you are reading? For more stimulating stories, thought-provoking articles and new video announcements, sign up for our monthly newsletter. Connecting at the End of Life Chris was in his 70s, and he felt full of regret as he approached the end of his life; he felt afraid of dying, and disappointed in himself. He believed he’d damaged and lost all the key relationships in his life — who would want to be near to him now, he wondered? In the course of our weekly therapy conversations, Chris came to realize ways his selfishn ..read more
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The Secret to Forming Powerful Relationships that Spark Change
Psychotherapy.net
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2M ago
The very best paper on how psychotherapy works was also one of the earliest (written in 1936) - Saul Rosenzweig's “Some Implicit Common Factors in Diverse Methods of Psychotherapy.” It made the bold prediction that the psychotherapy relationship is much more powerful than specific psychotherapy techniques in promoting change. Hundreds of studies comparing different forms of psychotherapy (mostly done during the last forty years) confirm Rosenzweig’s brilliant intuition. Although a given specific technique may occasionally score a small win over another specific technique, the overwhelming numb ..read more
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Gift Giver: The Impact of Giving Clients Gifts
Psychotherapy.net
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2M ago
I don’t remember the first time I gave a client a gift. I don’t remember who it was or what I chose, but years ago, I established a tradition of giving gifts at particular milestones. If gift-giving was mentioned at all during my training as a psychologist, it was solely in the context of how to manage receiving gifts from clients. Therapists might lend something from their office as a transitional object during a long separation or a particularly difficult time, but to give a gift was viewed as a breach of boundaries. Forty years later, I take a different perspective. Like what you are readi ..read more
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Looking Beyond Trauma: A Neurodivergent Therapist Shifts Her Clinical Focus
Psychotherapy.net
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3M ago
As a therapist, I often find myself navigating the complex layers of my clients’ lives, working to untangle the web of trauma and its aftermath. In my years of practice, I have had the privilege of helping many individuals heal from deep traumatic wounds. I never planned on this, but my first job laid it in my lap, and I’ve loved every minute of it since. The hardships that I’ve seen people go through and be able to heal themselves are nothing short of impeccable. It’s almost indescribable. However, one particular case has profoundly impacted my perspective and approach: the story of an 18-yea ..read more
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The Healing Power of Therapeutic Presence
Psychotherapy.net
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3M ago
I was driving to my therapist’s office and listening to an audiobook when I started to cry. I wasn’t even sure why I was crying. Once in my twenties, I went several years without shedding a tear, but now, in middle age, two years since becoming a therapist, one year since starting psychoanalysis, I was doing this weekly. Like what you are reading? For more stimulating stories, thought-provoking articles and new video announcements, sign up for our monthly newsletter. “What were you listening to?” Laura asked once I sat down in her office. “It’s actually a children’s book. It’s this scene wh ..read more
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