While most clinicians know that self-care is a personal and professional responsibility, and we all want to prevent burnout, we don’t always fully accept and commit to this goal. Since our profession is unique in that one of the most essential “instruments” of our work is ourselves, staying fine-tuned through ongoing self-awareness and regular, mindful personal-battery recharging is imperative.

If a client repeatedly complained about the negative side effects of their anti-anxiety medication, what would you do? Advocate for or against the meds, even though you're not a psychiatrist? Do some deep exploration around those complaints? Schedule a call with the client's prescriber? Something else? Here, five therapists share how they'd proceed.

Unfortunately, there's no playbook for beginning and ending therapy. So how do you make first and last sessions not only less awkward, but memorable and meaningful? Here, six clinicians share some ways they've made beginnings and endings more impactful, for themselves and their clients.

Doing therapy with older adults poses unique challenges and opportunities. Here, five therapists who work with elderly clients share the best practices they've learned over the years, as well as the "hidden gifts" this unique population has to offer.

We all make mistakes. But oftentimes, it’s the mistakes that help us grow the most, personally and professionally. Here, three therapists share their stories about the learning experiences, recalibrations, and “happy accidents” that helped make them the knowledgeable, capable clinicians they are today.

When clients cry in therapy, should you pass the tissues? And what do you say? One clinician worries his clients might interpret passing tissues as him rushing them through whatever they're feeling. To tissue, or not to tissue? Five therapists share how they usually respond.

With plenty of misconceptions about treating traumatized children, one clinician shares why it's a chance to help them share their stories and a personal journey that helps us better understand our own.

Whether it's vanity, a failure to take constructive criticism, mistreating family and friends, or lacking empathy for others, clients with narcissistic traits can be incredibly frustrating to work with. Here, four therapists offer their takes on making the work a little easier.

Images of brave citizens protesting the death in police custody of a young Iranian university student accused of not wearing her hijab properly, have traveled around the world, garnering renewed outrage at the Islamic Republic's treatment of women. An Iranian-American therapist speaks to how the mix of grief, anger, and a new insistence on change in her former homeland, could be affecting clients throughout the Iranian diaspora and beyond, and what therapists can do to help.

If you have to cancel an appointment and your client asks you why, how much should you disclose? Here, four clinicians share how they'd respond.