R118: Tools of the Trade: Handling Everyday Issues in Therapy

This Reading Course collects some of the most popular In Consultation columns to address the common questions practitioners ask about ordinary clinical situations. In these brief articles, you'll learn how to deal with clients who resist your advice, won't do homework, and refuse to pay their bill. You'll also learn methods for enhancing recall of therapeutic insights, calming anxieties, and dealing with client anger. In addition, you'll get advice about introducing breathing and meditation techniques into your work and how to reduce the possibility of clients relapsing.

Course Readings

Breathing Lessons: Getting beyond the Limits of Talk Therapy by Patrick Dougherty

How to Prevent Relapse: Treatment Strategies for Long-term Change by Jon Carlson

Anxious Is as Anxious Does: Overcoming Clients' Fears by Provoking Them by Reid Wilson

The Bottom Line: A Fee Policy Can Clarify the Therapeutic Relationship by Lynne Stevens

The Art of the Enactment: How to Get Real Conversation Going in the Consulting Room by Mike Nichols

The Dog Ate It: When Clients Don't Do Their Homework by Bill O’Hanlon

Brining Mindfulness to Your Practice: When Meditation Helps…and When It Doesn't by Lorne Ladner

Lessons Well Learned: How to Help Your Clients Hold On to Their Gains by Danie Beaulieu

Cease-Fire: Five Steps to Anger Management by Steven Stosny

Learning Objectives

1. Describe an intervention to get a client to do homework
2. Describe three ways to use physical props in therapy
3. Explain how therapists can cope with their anger in session
4. Discuss benefits of breathing techniques in therapy