Four steps mental health professionals can use to directly address client dependency in this digital age and set the stage for positive therapeutic outcomes.
Therapy carries inherent risk, and eventually we’ll get into accidents, but what if we abandon the “do no harm creed” and build strategies into therapy for damage-reduction?
Working with clients at the intersection of chronic health problems, disability, and mental health issues offers great challenges and powerful benefits.
A therapist shares his quest to define a “meaningful life” and insights that therapists can use to improve their clinical efficacy and help clients live richer lives.
Sudhanva Rajagopal, a clinical psychology graduate student, ponders our animal nature as he relates the poignant complexity of working with inmates in jail.
Psychotherapists Anastasia Piatakhina Giré and Joseph Burgo, who conduct therapy with clients around the world over Skype, share about the unique aspects of being let into the intimate spaces of their clients homes.
Psychologist Deb Kory pulls no punches in critiquing what is missing from our training programs, and calls for more authenticity, humor and humility in the ways we teach and learn to practice therapy.
Pete Walker provides a convincing argument for the recognition and proper treatment of emotional flashbacks and complex PTSD, which result from childhood neglect and emotional abuse.
Renowned family therapist Sue Johnson discusses Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) in light of new research on attachment in adult love relationships.
In this excerpt from her biography, Nothing Left to Give, clinical psychologist Shannon Swales journals her descent into burnout and her successful return to health and balance.
For clinicians, using tools like ChatGPT, the potential of generative AI in clinical psychotherapy practices spans from administration to creating visual representation of clients’ experiences.
Working with underlying personality dynamics in therapy can lead to a more effective outcomes than focusing solely on diagnoses and presenting symptoms.
A look at the paradox of providing mental health care in corporatized settings, and what it would take to improve the wellbeing of providers and those they serve.
A therapist shares his own history of OCD, clinical experiences treating clients with OCD, and thoughts on pop-culture depictions like “Turtles All the Way Down.”
Social media can threaten children’s emotional and psychological health; a family therapist shares how to identify the benefits and pitfalls, and ways to intervene.
A Cognitive Behavioral Therapist moves beyond her avoidance of exposure therapy to create an effective CBT intervention that helps a client face their fear of flying.
A Brazilian narrative therapist takes us on a journey through a lush garden of metaphors she uses in her clinical work to add enthusiasm and imagination to her questions.
Psychiatrist Allen Frances reviews the past and present contributions of psychodynamic therapies, and offers hope for therapists pursuing this rewarding career path.
In a poignant memoir chronicling her return to wholeness, Vivian Conan, with the help of her therapist, Jeffery Smith, shares her tortuous yet liberating journey.
Taking the long view, behavioral sciences expert, Allen Frances offers a pointed review of psychotherapy’s failures and achievements, with suggestions for a hopeful future.
Internationally renowned author, Maggie Jackson, tells us that developing “uncertainty tolerance” in both clinician and client is key for building better outcomes.
A therapist who lost a sibling during childhood shares her sense of gratitude when she has an opportunity to help parents who are grieving the loss of their own child.
After accidentally missing a session, a therapist uses the here-and-now to repair the ruptured bond with his client and in doing so, opens the door to deeper insight.
Four steps mental health professionals can use to directly address client dependency in this digital age and set the stage for positive therapeutic outcomes.
Using a structured, written, organizational map can help clients disentangle their many problems, so they may begin effectively addressing them in therapy.
Poignant and instructive for both clients and clinicians, Vivian Conan shares her 29-year therapeutic journey from fragmentation and fear to wholeness and connection.
A skilled therapist guides us through a riveting session with a young, brutally traumatized client as she struggles to regain a foothold into her previous life.
In this excerpt from “Becoming a Citizen Therapist: Integrating Community Problem-Solving into Your Work as a Healer,” Bill Doherty and Tai Mendenhall lay out a roadmap for helping clinicians transition from private practitioner to community educator therapist.
In the spirit of Irvin Yalom’s “Every Day Gets a Little Closer,” a therapist and her client share the richness of the therapeutic journey through collaborative writing.
Therapy carries inherent risk, and eventually we’ll get into accidents, but what if we abandon the “do no harm creed” and build strategies into therapy for damage-reduction?
A creative clinician shares her romance with – and successful use of – narrative letter writing in therapy to deepen the therapeutic bond with her clients.
Explore how to tune into and access the flow of information that comprises your psychic mind by developing your Intuitive attunement and receptive access.
Working with clients at the intersection of chronic health problems, disability, and mental health issues offers great challenges and powerful benefits.
Bridging the distance between herself, a Pakeha" New Zealander, and her client, a Maori" New Zealander, Sasha McAllum Pilkington shows how relationships can mean the difference between life and death.
A culturally sensitive therapist connects deeply with an indigenous client, using Narrative Therapy techniques and EMDR to support her in healing herself and her community.
The keys to successful therapy with gay men are connection, support, and attunement. Excerpted from Unwrapped, Integrative Therapy with Gay Men...the Gift of Presence.
Join Christoffer Haugaard and David Epston as they deepen and conclude their powerful work with Irene to build stories through which she heals from brutal childhood trauma.
A therapist shares his quest to define a “meaningful life” and insights that therapists can use to improve their clinical efficacy and help clients live richer lives.
What psychotherapists and counselors should know about the bond between gay sons and their mothers, and why it’s critical to healthy identity development.
Using a “revolutionary” Narrative Therapy approach, Kay Ingamells and David Epston free a family held hostage by their daughter’s manipulative behavior.
A clinician uses Narrative Therapy to work within a client’s native culture while counselling her through the painful grief of losing her grandmother to COVID.
A therapist shares her experiences working with two grieving clients and how attending to countertransference improved her ability to help them address anger and pain
Clinician, researcher and author Daryl Chow asks us to consider what really works in clinical supervision and how therapists and counselors can optimize client outcomes in the process.
A therapist shares his experiences with The Play in Prison Project, and how play therapy fostered growth and created hope for one group of incarcerated men.
Explore the systemic nature of child protection casework with troubled families and learn a useful clinical exercise that therapists, counselors, and social workers can use to connect with family strengths.
Researcher, educator, and child clinician Jennifer Baggerly leads a child from the shadow of COVID’s isolation to connection and security through play.
In the volatile domain of transgender care, science often clashes with beliefs and values, leaving mental health professionals with many unanswered questions.
In part one of Spitting Truth from My Soul, Narrative Therapist Travis Heath and his client “Ray the Philosopher” use rapping to forge a bond of connection and hope.
In a provocative excerpt from his “McMindfulness” treatise, Ronald Purser suggests that mindfulness training without societal change does little more than fuel capitalism and deflect responsibility from society to the individual.
In this excerpt from “The Existential Importance of the Penis: A Guide to Understanding Male Sexuality”, sex therapist Daniel Watter helps us to appreciate how existential issues often lay just below the surface in sex therapy.
Ditch the binary metrics of good and bad self-esteem. When you and your clients focus on self-compassion instead, you’ll build better outcomes, nurture empathy and develop a more authentic therapeutic presence.
In this excerpt from The Ethical Lives of Clients: Transcending Self-Interest in Psychotherapy, William Doherty helps therapists address their client’s relational ethical dilemmas.
In this excerpt from Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke introduces us to Jacob, who, like many of our clients, struggles with his own unique form of over-overconsumption.
After being diagnosed with aggressive terminal cancer, a psychotherapist shares how she addressed grief, gratitude and loss professionally and personally.
Therapists working with abuse survivors will learn invaluable lessons about the intergenerational transmission of trauma in this powerful excerpt from Galit Atlas’ Emotional Inheritance.
Help victims of childhood abuse thrive by giving them the opportunity to value themselves and teaching them how to create compassionate connections with the people in their lives.
In an excerpt from “Unlocked: Online Therapy Stories,” Anastasia Piatakhina Giré shares intimate reflections on her work with Laila, whose harrowing escape to freedom is a tale of personal empowerment and the power of connection.
In this excerpt from A Matter of Death and Life, Irvin Yalom speaks from the depths of pain over losing his beloved wife and co-author, Marilyn; not only to fellow therapists but to all of us who have lost loved ones.
Return to the intriguing therapeutic dialogue between Trish and Anne as they deepen bonds of trust, using humor and their unique relationship for healing and growth.
Safeguarding our clients’ stories is a rare privilege that enhances our therapeutic bond and deepens our humanity. We take them with us and carry them outside of the therapy room. The resonances that work to create neural circuitry and bond the hearts and minds of our clients do the same for us—if we allow them to.
Noticing others’ needs goes beyond improving their wellbeing; our own connection benefits as well when we develop finely-tuned empathy for other people.
Discover how Existential-Humanistic therapy techniques can be used as a catalyst for hope when working with clients who are struggling with the anxiety and fear left in COVID’s wake.
Helping clients with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder may seem like an uphill battle. Get tools for increasing your efficacy with these often misunderstood clients.
Experiencing authoritarian wounding leaves lasting scars, but Eric Maisel offers useful therapeutic insight and tips to help clients mitigate its impact.
Psychotherapist F. Diane Barth takes a critical look at boundaries, both personal and therapeutic, as an essential ingredient to healthy relationships.
Clinician Janet Jaffe works with clients who have experienced traumatic reproductive loss, helping them to rewrite their narrative on the road to healing.
Clinicians Pooja Gala and Urvi Paralkar reflect on the challenges of unlearning cherished notions about therapy in order to be fully present for their clients.
Doctoral student and former non-believer Deepika Bose explores and dispels the myths around using exposure therapy with children, confronting her own anxiety about the process.
Reflecting upon personal experience, therapist Christine Hammond takes us into the personal and professional world of working with Alzheimer’s Disease.
International psychotherapist Anastasia Piatakhina provides a place of refuge and healing through online therapy with women living in oppressive societies.
Bill Macaux combines his executive coaching and clinical experience with Penberthy’s Interpersonal Circumplex to help a professional couple struggling to free themselves from the pull of family of origin issues.
Asking us to consider whether chronic anger is or is not a choice, psychotherapist Bernard Golden shares his clinical expertise with a chronically angry client.
Bilingual family therapist Jason Linder shares his first-hand experience getting to know and appreciate the resilience of DACA clients, and discusses how to work with them therapeutically.
Psychotherapy researcher and clinician Tony Rousmaniere teaches us that 10,000 hours of psychotherapy doesn’t make you an expert; focused deliberate practice is the path to excellence.
While shepherding her own children through adolescence, Donna C. Moss soon realized that working therapeutically with teens was a whole different challenge.
Recounting a failed relationship with an emerging psychotherapist, veteran clinician Joseph Burgo explores the origins, anatomy and far-reaching impact of toxic childhood shame.
Looking beyond day-to-day rigors and challenges from behind the couch, seasoned clinician Catherine Ambrose reflects on the gratitude and growth she continues to experience helping others.
Dan Williams recounts a session with a suicidal teenage girl in which he attempts to use a discussion of The Great Gatsby story to help her understand her own story.
A therapist reflects on her work with PhD students doing field work abroad and the healing that can happen doing online therapy at such a vulnerable moment in people's lives.
After decades of writing about his patients' lives as they journey with him through therapy, Irvin Yalom finally puts himself on the couch in this touching memoir—his final book.
In this excerpt from Anna Lembke's book, Drug Dealer, MD, she illustrates the dangers early access to prescription opioids can have even for kids who are not at high risk for addiction.
In this raw but compelling clinical vignette, therapist Dan Williams uses paradoxical intention in an all-out effort to save his client from committing suicide.
In this delightfully imaginative excerpt from Tea with Freud: An Imaginary Conversation About How Psychotherapy Really Works, psychiatrist and author Steven B. Sandler, travels back in time to consult with Freud on some of his most challenging cases, and challenges Freud to think about his famous theories in new ways.
Queer therapist, Mark O'Connell, describes therapy with a heterosexual woman client, and how claiming his queerness, rather than playing a role of "expert," helped his client create a new story for her life.
Therapist Charlotte Fox Weber describes an agonizing 5-year therapy as the client of a cold and withholding therapist, and the lessons she learned about what NOT to do with her own clients.
Sudhanva Rajagopal, a clinical psychology graduate student, ponders our animal nature as he relates the poignant complexity of working with inmates in jail.
Psychologist Scott Miller, who has spent years researching what works in psychotherapy, details the dark days after losing his faith in the profession, and his long journey back to loving and believing in his vocation once again.
Psychotherapists Anastasia Piatakhina Giré and Joseph Burgo, who conduct therapy with clients around the world over Skype, share about the unique aspects of being let into the intimate spaces of their clients homes.
Psychologist Margaret Clausen shares poignantly about the loss of her client to suicide, the steps she took to heal her grief, and the isolation and shame that many clinicians needlessly suffer in the wake of client suicide.
In this excerpt from psychologist Darcy Lockman's book, Brooklyn Zoo: The Education of a Psychotherapist, follow Lockman through an ordinary day as a post-doc at a notorious Brooklyn psychiatric hospital.
In this excerpt from his best-selling exposé, The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry, psychotherapist Gary Greenberg pulls back the curtain on the DSM's surprising evolution and deconstructs the very notion of "diagnosing" our clients.
Psychotherapist Chris Peterson makes a strong case for welcoming all of our intense feelings—both loving and hateful—into the therapy process with clients to deepen the therapy relationship and its healing potential.
Psychologist Deb Kory pulls no punches in critiquing what is missing from our training programs, and calls for more authenticity, humor and humility in the ways we teach and learn to practice therapy.
With attempted suicide rates greater than 40% in the transgender community, it's important for clinicians to be aware of the issues gender nonconforming clients bring to therapy, and to be knowledgeable about how best to support them. Karisa Barrow challenges therapists to deconstruct the gender binary, identify and work through prejudices, and seek guidance from gender specialists to ensure that we "do no harm."
Psychotherapist Gary McClain discusses the importance of understanding clients' reactions to new diagnoses, the three main responses they have, and advocating for them with healthcare providers.
Psychologist Laura Brown critiques the limited and limiting methods so often used in psychotherapy training programs to promote cultural competence, and offers a model of intersectionality and integration that honors the full complexity of modern identities—including those of psychotherapists.
In this excerpt from her most recent book, Love Sense: The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic Relationships, EFT founder Sue Johnson offers tools for couples and their therapists to repair wounded bonds and navigate the cycles of disconnection and reconnection that can make—or break—relationships.
In this excerpt from his newly-released book, Pete Walker offers therapists an accessible, compassionate and refreshingly de-pathologizing framework for treating clients whose childhood abuse and neglect have created lifelong suffering and instability.
Famed feminist and psychotherapist, Kim Chernin, discusses her work with women, body image and eating disorders over the past 40 years. Not surprisingly, eating disorders are at an all time high in our culture. She discusses what has changed and what seemingly never will.
ACT trainer Russell Harris distills the essential components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) into a simple framework, with case studies to help illustrate the theory and practice of ACT.
Psychoanalyst and Zen master, Joseph Bobrow, PhD, describes his groundbreaking work providing healing retreats for traumatized veterans and their families.
Clinical Psychologist and Buddhism expert Tara Brach, PhD, shares her insights about working with pain and suffering, meeting our edge and softening, and the simple but profound technique she uses with clients to bring mindful awareness into their daily lives.
After suffering from a stroke herself, a therapist recounts her journey from patient to professional, culminating in her leading groups for other stroke survivors.
A social work intern grapples with a situation that would challenge even an experienced clinician: helping a loving wife decide whether to stop feeding her dying husband of 64 years.
By imagining the unexpected intersection of Jewish philosopher Spinoza’s life with that of powerful Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, bestselling novelist Irvin Yalom explores the mindsets of two men separated by 300 years. Psychotherapy.net is pleased to publish this exclusive excerpt.
A geriatric clinical psychologist debunks the stereotypes about working with elderly populations, and shares his discovery of the joy and gratitude that come from intimate contact with wise elders.
Learn how to spot the often subtle signs of partner abuse in couples therapy, and how to take effective action. This article includes the author's Abusive Behavior Inventory as a free download.
A therapist reflects upon the dark side of the profession—stress, anxiety, and burnout—and offers helpful insights as well as activities for combating these negative states using professional community building and art making.
A specialist in cults discusses a real-life example of a former cult member's struggle to recover from his traumatic experiences within the group, and offers treatment advice for this unusual and challenging population.
A review of existential psychologist and author Kirk Schneider’s latest work, which explores the nature and power of awe through interviews of people personally transformed by an emotion which has been much neglected by psychology.
Using three different case studies with clients, a British therapist describes his personal journey from his early career as a behavioral psychologist, to his later years, where he embraced a more intuitive and reflective psychodynamic approach.
Working in the here-and-now of the therapeutic relationship requires therapists to be fully engaged, and take risks in revealing themselves. But utilizing the transference and counter-transference makes for rewarding and powerful therapy.
Empathy and compassion generally serve us well with our clients, but aren't necessarily the skills we need to navigate the world of running a practice. This story, excerpted from Duped: Lies and Deception in Psychotherapy serves as a cautionary tale.
If we could learn from all of our less-than-optimal therapy outcomes, we'd really acquire some true clinical wisdom. Here are some practical tips to increase your odds of success.
Working with clients who are medically ill not only requires us to learn more about the seemingly distant and disembodied relational aspects of medicine, but also forces us to confront painful existential realities on a daily basis.
Pete Walker provides a convincing argument for the recognition and proper treatment of emotional flashbacks and complex PTSD, which result from childhood neglect and emotional abuse.
Yalom is confronted to live up to his ideals of therapist self-disclosure and authenticity. Excerpted from the recently updated version of The Gift of Therapy.
When do we shift from trying to work within the parent-child relationship to seeing the child as a separate entity needing to cope with a destructive parent?
Clients of the best therapists improve at a rate at least 50-percent higher and drop out at a rate at least 50-percent lower than those of average clinicians. What is the key to superior performance?
Barry Duncan and Scott Miller provide a comprehensive summary of the Outcome-Informed, Client-Directed approach and a detailed, practical overview of its application in clinical practice.
Renowned family therapist Sue Johnson discusses Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) in light of new research on attachment in adult love relationships.
When are we far enough down the path of our own healing that we can safely go back and help someone else along? A therapist shares the story of confronting this urgent question with a traumatized client suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
In this exclusive excerpt from his latest book, Irvin Yalom delves into the ultimate existential concern, and how therapists can help clients in facing death anxiety.
A therapist explores her experiences of racism by investigating her family's history of racist trauma, and shares how autoethnography can help therapists disentangle their own experiences with racism so they can more openly engage painful areas of the client's story.
Dr. Sommers discusses the prevalent problem of cultural silencing called "niceness," and offers case studies and advice for addressing associated client issues of anxiety and helplessness.
Encountering resistance is likely evidence that therapy is taking place. In fact, successful psychotherapy is highly related to increases in resistance, and low resistance corresponds with negative outcomes.
Dr. Rice offers a new perspective on oppositional-defiant children based on temperament, and suggests effective therapeutic interventions for both parent and child.
Therapist Jay Reeve offers advice on balancing structured, direct instruction and process-oriented exploration in supervision sessions with new therapists.
The main elements of successful therapy include a positive therapeutic alliance, a clear focus, a coherent problem formulation, and improvised techniques—not a particular theoretical orientation.
Jamison reviews highlights of Yalom's book, The Gift of Therapy. focusing on his willingness to engage fully and reveal himself in the therapeutic relationship.
What happens when a therapist becomes ill or dies? Dr. Steiner provides a valuable blueprint for therapists to prepare for unexpected absence and termination.
Existential psychotherapist Irv Yalom offers insights into the therapist's role as an obstacle remover and fellow traveler. Excerpted from his book The Gift of Therapy.
In a discussion of the growing problem of work-life balance in American culture, Dr. Philipson shares the stories of clients whose overidentification with work ended in disaster.
Renowned substance-abuse specialist Stephanie Brown discusses effective therapeutic interventions for families of alcoholics during the recovery process.
An excerpted introduction to psychiatrist Irv Yalom's new novel about the challenging reunion between a therapist and his long-ago patient, who is now a philosophical counselor.
Psychiatrist Ron Leifer gives a compelling account of the historical context of Thomas Szasz's career as the leading critic of the medical model of psychiatry, along with its implications for the profession of psychiatry and for free thought and speech in the United States.