Podcast (therapist-confidential): Play in new window | Download
What do you do when something in a therapy session quietly tells you to pay attention? Mauricio Yabar joins Travis Heath to explore clinical intuition as an embodied, relational form of knowing shaped by lived experience, culture, pattern recognition, and the therapeutic relationship. They discuss learning to hear intuition's "little whispers" without automatically acting on them, distinguishing intuition from anxiety and bias, and making room in clinical practice for forms of knowledge that don't always arrive with an immediate explanation. Together they explore the role of intuition in therapy, supervision, research, and clinical training; the limits of privileging only what can be rationally explained; and the value of making room for the "half-baked ideas" that emerge when therapists allow themselves to be surprised.
Mauricio Yabar, PhD
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Author and Assistant Professor, Slippery Rock University
After receiving his master’s degrees in clinical social work and human sexuality education from Widener University, Mauricio received formal postgraduate training in narrative therapy from some of the field’s leading practitioners, including its co-founder, David Epston.
As a therapist, Mauricio works with individuals suffering from the effects of sexual shame, trauma, and social stigma. These may include relationship issues, anxiety, low self-esteem, anger and resentment, among other challenges. Through his narrative therapeutic approach, Mauricio works with his clients to repair harm to their identities and self-concept, thus enabling a transformative journey toward preferred realities and new possibilities. Mauricio has presented on his therapeutic work and his research at numerous conferences, both nationally and internationally.