Client Relationship

Clinician's Quandary September 6, 2024

"I Just Want Your Advice!"

Four Top Responses to a Common Client Plea

If there’s ever been a professional stance that we thought most therapists shared, it’s that therapy is not about giving advice. And yet, how many times... Read more

So You Want to Be Your Client's Friend

Two Therapists Discuss a Clinical Taboo

Join the conversation between two therapists as they discuss the longing for friendship in the therapy room. Read more

Watch this clip of Dr. Ramani explaining how to help your clients who are survivors of narcissistic and build trust. Read more

I Want to Be My Client's Friend

A Taboo Longing in the Therapy Room

How far is friendship from the special type of closeness we call the therapeutic relationship? Read more

In Consultation April 28, 2023

Weighing Your Clients’ Needs Against Your Own

The Ethics of Handling Your Personal Crisis

What are the ethics of carrying on with your regular practice when dealing with an ongoing personal crisis or medical emergency? Read more

Preparing for the End of Therapy

A Walk into the Unknown

Regardless of your expertise or advanced degree, client terminations can derail you at any time. So why don't we do a better job of planning for them? Read more

Clinician's Quandary December 8, 2022

One Foot Out the Door

Six Ways to Address Impending Premature Endings

Ending therapy is tough. But a client leaning out of therapy midway through treatment? That’s a whole other pill to swallow. Here, six therapists share how... Read more

In Consultation November 29, 2022

Reducing Client Dropout

What Makes a Difference?
Bernard Schwartz

How to build a therapeutic relationship from the first session that keeps clients coming back. Read more

Debunking Myths About Aging

The Benefits of Therapy for Older Adults

Some older people sink into states of depression, apathy, or agitated irritability, but emotional distress in this population is too often seen as part of an... Read more

Clinician's Quandary July 27, 2022

The Narcissistic Client

Four Ways to Break Through

Whether it's vanity, a failure to take constructive criticism, mistreating family and friends, or lacking empathy for others, clients with narcissistic traits... Read more

The Inheritance of Loss

A Therapist and Client Grieve Together

While grief can be a familiar creature that lives inside us, we often treat it as a stranger Read more

The Playful Therapist

7 Clinicians Share Their Best Strategies

In this collection, master therapists share how they’ve used humor in ways that both enliven and enrich the work of therapy. Read more

When Therapists Encourage Family Cutoffs

Are We Helping or Harming?

Today’s culture of therapy both reflects and contributes to our nation’s ever-growing embrace of individualism—for better and, sometimes, for worse. Read more

Clinician's Quandary July 29, 2021

Close to Home

When the Problem You Treat Becomes Your Problem Too

A couples therapist is going through an emotionally wrenching separation from their partner and finding it hard to treat clients. Five clinicians offer advice. Read more

The Fox and the Hedgehog

Flexibility and Focus in the Therapy Room

As a therapist, is it better to adapt an eclectic approach or specialize in the one you believe in most? Perhaps the answer isn’t as simple as it seems. Read more

The Outcast

A Hard Road to an Unexpected Connection

How do you work with a client who intentionally tries to break every rule of therapy, spoken and implicit? Read more

Clinician's Quandary August 3, 2020

How Can I Safely Reopen My Practice?

Five Clinicians Weigh In
Psychotherapy Networker

As parts of the country start to open back up from COVID-19 lockdown measures, a therapist worries about the risk of seeing clients in person again. Five... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 6, 2020

VIDEO: Esther Perel on Our Shared Trauma

Navigating the "Parallel Process" Covid-19 Has Created

In the midst of covid-19, therapists and clients are sharing many of the same anxieties. As a therapist, how do you talk about it? In this clip from her 2020... Read more

Two Scoops of Vanilla

“I think I broke my therapist”

When a challenging clients brings out our true inner colors. Read more

In the last few weeks, as the specter of contagion has rapidly grown more ominous with each news cycle, an unthinkable professional reality has emerged for... Read more

VIDEO: The Power of Predictability

The Cornerstone of a Strong Therapeutic Alliance

Providing familiarity and predictability is one of our greatest tools in therapy, and can provide much-needed comfort to clients who aren't used to it... Read more

Meet You in McGinnis Meadows

Lessons in Attunement

What horsemanship can teach us about making sure our clients feel seen, heard, and helped. Read more

VIDEO: What Keeps Clients Coming Back?

The Power of Transparency

In today’s Information Age, therapy clients are more informed—and have greater expectations up front—when it comes to the look and feel of therapy... Read more

Confessions of a Former People Pleaser

The Radical Act of Rethinking Your Boundaries

I used to view boundaries as a fancy way of dressing up rejection, incompetence, and selfishness. But after a decade of working as a couples counselor, I've... Read more

Clinician's Quandary July 5, 2019

My Client Ghosted Me

Five Clinicians Give Their Take
Psychotherapy Networker

Sara had been attending weekly therapy for three months. Her therapist thought they'd developed a strong bond, but Sara has missed her last two sessions. Her... Read more

Clinician's Quandary February 5, 2019

Mark and his wife, Nicole, have been in couples therapy for almost six months. But Mark recently requested an individual session, where he revealed he recently... Read more

VIDEO: Peter Levine's Somatic Tools for Self-Soothing

Creating a Path to Client Independence

Often, traumatized clients find that they become dependent on their therapists to help them handle their extreme emotional states. But according to Peter... Read more

Clinician's Quandary September 7, 2018

My Client Keeps Checking His Phone During Sessions

Five Clinicians Give Their Take on This Tricky Clinical Scenario
Psychotherapy Networker

Sometimes during sessions, Jonathan checks his phone for emails or updates, even though his therapist has asked him not to. She suspects Jonathan's... Read more

VIDEO: What to Do When Your Client Cries

Making Tears Your Therapeutic Ally

Many times, when clients cry, clinicians feel an urge to rush in and “fix things” that aren’t broken, which can actually make things worse. Watch as Jay... Read more

Case Study May 9, 2018

Taken Over

Breaking the Spell of Obsession

A therapist struggles to help an obsessive client with whom she develops an unusual preoccupation. Read more