The Therapist's Craft

Challenges on the path to therapeutic connection, creativity, and healing

Can AI Make Us Better Therapists?

Using New Technology for Supervision

Work Issues at the Heart of Couples' Conflicts

Exploring Our Relationships with Our Jobs

Saying Goodbye to Work You Love

How Do Therapists Know When It's Time to Retire?

Releasing Guilt in Grief

The Vital Shift from Prevention to Postvention

Rethinking Codependence

An Attachment-Based Framework for Caregivers
Article March 13, 2025

The Myth of the Perfect Parent

Helping Clients Overcome Shame and Accept Imperfection

We all know that there’s no such thing as a “perfect” parent, but even so, many parents hold themselves to unreasonably high standards. Read more

Article March 7, 2025

The Therapist Who Sees Therapists

Working with the Trickiest Clients

It’s no secret: therapists make tricky clients—but there are specific ways we can help therapist-clients feel seen and cared for. Read more

Article March 7, 2025

Is Therapy Slipping into Pseudoscience?

Recognizing the Warning Signs

Are we doing enough as clinicians—and as a field—to ensure we’re using truly science-based treatments? Read more

Article March 7, 2025

Unlearning Behaviorism

The Mindshift of PDA-Informed Care

Tried-and-true behavioral strategies have been failing spectacularly in households with Pathologically Demand Avoidant children. Helping PDA families feel safe... Read more

Article March 7, 2025

Inside The PDA Safe Circle

Supporting Vulnerable Nervous Systems in Chronic Distress

Vulnerable nervous systems that are in chronic distress require a unique approach to understanding and creating a felt sense of safety. Read more

Article March 7, 2025

Healing a Lifetime of Neurodivergent Trauma

Accommodation, Validation, and Autistic Attunement

For many Autistic people, the trauma they carry is a result of society treating them like broken neurotypicals. Neuro-affirming care begins with providing... Read more

Article March 7, 2025

What Not to Do in Neuro-Affirming Intakes

And What You Should Always Do

Neuro-affirming intakes need to begin with doing no harm. Read more

Article March 7, 2025

Autism and Disordered Eating

What You May Be Missing and Misdiagnosing

The overlap between autism and eating disorders is poorly understood, even by many eating disorder specialists. Read more

Article March 7, 2025

The PDA Lens

A New Vision for Supporting a Nervous System Disability

What would you do if your active but chronically dysregulated four-year-old stopped speaking, eating, and moving, and everyone you turned to for... Read more

Article March 7, 2025

Neurodiverse Couples Therapy

The Truth about Relationships through a Neurospicy Lens

Couples therapy was designed for neurotypical people—yet we know that neurodivergence is everywhere. How can we better identify, help, and support... Read more

Article March 7, 2025

Today's Autism and Teens

Grappling with Identity, Belonging, and Self-Acceptance

When it comes to teens who’ve found belonging and understanding in the autism community, our job is more about validating than diagnosing. Read more

Article March 7, 2025

Forging a Multicultural Identity

How to Move from Isolation to Fusion

How can we help our clients work through the inner torment of trying to occupy two cultural identities at once when they don’t fully feel they belong to... Read more

Article March 3, 2025

"I Want to Be a Good Mom"

Normalizing Post-Partum Ambivalence in Therapy

Given our culture's incessant messages about the joys of motherhood, it's critical for therapists to help new moms to speak openly and honestly about their... Read more

Article February 13, 2025

IFS and Addictive Processes

Bridging the Gap Between Psychotherapy and Recovery

When therapists fail to recognize that the primary goal of addict parts is to protect clients, they may end up getting sidetracked—or worse, causing... Read more

Article January 23, 2025

Can True Love Be Designed?

Transforming How We Experience and Express Love

Discover two models of love and how distinguishing between them can help therapists support clients in designing a conscious relationship. Read more

Article January 22, 2025

7 Benefits of Concurrent Couples Therapy

Revisiting an Underappreciated Approach

Concurrent couples therapy has advantages over conjoint therapy that get overlooked by many therapists. Discover 7 ways concurrent couples therapy can improve... Read more

Article January 17, 2025

Supercharging Art Therapy with AI

A Surprising New Tool to Enhance Trauma Healing

Using AI art therapeutically is still a novel idea in the field of art therapy. For clients wary of traditional forms of creative expression, it allows them to... Read more

Article January 15, 2025

The Client Who's Tried Everything

ACT and ISTDP Tackle One Challenging Case

How do you approach a first session with a client who's tried all kinds of different therapies and yet continues to struggle? Steven Hayes, the cofounder of... Read more

Article January 13, 2025

The Trauma of Parental Abandonment

Helping Survivors Feel Safe, Minimize Shame, and Heal Old Wounds

Here's a five-step process for working with survivors of parental abandonment that helps mitigate self-blame and build trust with the therapist. Read more

Article January 10, 2025

Breaking the Cycle of High-Functioning Codependency

When Helper’s High Goes Too Far

Many therapists believe their intense care and concern for clients is a form of selfless love. Maybe it’s time to rethink that. Read more

Article January 10, 2025

Racial Trauma Assessment Tool

The Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale (TSDS)

Support your BIPOC clients in gaining clarity about the frequency and types of discrimination they’ve experienced as they heal from racial trauma. Read more

Article January 10, 2025

The Beauty of Longing and Melancholy

Susan Cain Celebrates the Sensitive Client

"Bittersweet" invites us to better understand and celebrate the wistful, sensitive people in our lives—and in our therapy practices. Read more

Article January 10, 2025

Reimagining God in Therapy

When a Parent’s Critical Voice Is Almighty

Creating a safe space for clients to slowly re-evaluate some core religious teachings they’ve absorbed can be delicate and clinically necessary work. Read more

Article January 10, 2025

Three Blocks to Processing Trauma

Getting to the Pain Behind Spiritual Bypass

How do you navigate toxic positivity, and other forms of spiritual bypass, when it’s a block to processing trauma? Read more

Article January 10, 2025

An Unlikely Companion to EFT

How Can Psychedelics Enhance the Work?

Talk therapy can help couples understand their negative patterns cognitively. Adding psychedelics to the work can help them feel it. Read more

Article January 10, 2025

Treating the Trauma in Religious Trauma

Body-Based Healing for Faith-Based Harm

High-control religions can disconnect people from themselves—and somatic therapies are the key to helping them heal. Read more

Article January 10, 2025

The Spiritual Therapist

Healing and the Secular Priesthood

Most therapists don’t shy away from discussing charged topics like sex and drugs. But religion and spirituality? That’s a different story—one that a... Read more

Article January 10, 2025

Discerning Three Types of Anxiety

Improving Outcomes for Anxious Clients

We can all get caught up in their “anxiety whirlwind” of dysregulation, distorted thoughts, and defensiveness. Understanding some of the most common ways... Read more

Article January 10, 2025

Rethinking Insecure Attachment

From a Fixed Model to a Fluid Spectrum

A new framework for visualizing attachment turns a potentially pathologizing concept into a friendly clinical tool. Read more

Article January 10, 2025

When Clients Ask for Session Notes

Tips for Navigating a Legal Gray Zone

Few things can spook therapists as much as emails from former clients requesting session notes for a legal proceeding, but handling these requests thoughtfully... Read more