Clinical Skills & Experience

When Therapy Is Going Nowhere

Escaping the “Groundhog Day” Cycle

When we’re spinning our wheels from one session to the next, the key to progress often lies in shifting the therapist-client relationship. Read more

Depathologizing the Borderline Client

Learning to Manage Our Fears

Inevitably, given their history of trauma, many borderline clients will trigger their therapists from time to time. But forgoing the urge to blame these... Read more

7 Questions to Ask When Therapy is Stuck

Mobilizing Creative Thinking

When therapy gets stuck, here are key questions therapists can ask themselves to broaden their vision and open clients to new possibilities. Read more

Psychotherapy’s Mark Twain

For Frank Pittman, Self-Seriousness Was the One Unpardonable Sin

Networker movie critic and contributor Frank Pittman delighted in pointing out the follies, foibles, and excesses of the therapy world, especially anything he... Read more

Sympathy For The Devil

Mendota, a Youth-Treatment of Last Resort

The word psychopath distinguishes hard-bitten predators. Research shows a treatment center—run by shrinks, not wardens—has reduced new violent offenses by... Read more

Treating the Dissociative Child

The Road Back from the Ultimate Loss of Self

Few cases offer as eerie a therapeutic challenge as a suddenly noncommunicative child, lost in a dissociative shutdown. Read more

Motivating the Resistant Male Client

Terry Real On Why Leverage Is Key With Men

You’ve probably worked with men who’ve been dragged, kicking and screaming, into therapy by their partners. But how do you work with a client who doesn’t... Read more

Nothing Like Willy Loman?

A Classic Play Still Casts a Haunting Spell

More than 60 years after its Broadway debut, a classic play continues to cast a haunting spell. Read more

Do childhood trauma and a chaotic family environment cause adult borderline personality disorder (BPD)? Common clinical wisdom says yes, but new results are... Read more

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo knows a thing or two about tough guys. In 1971, his notorious Stanford prison experiment, originally planned for two weeks, had to... Read more

One Brick at a Time

Therapy is More Craft Than Art or Science

In this era of medical necessity and evidence-based therapies, it’s easy to lose sight of a basic truth. We heal not through prescriptions and procedures... Read more

How Conversation Sparks Therapeutic Change

The Search for the Unspoken Self

When we trust in ourselves to follow the signals of life that the patient emits in seemingly casual conversation, we increase chances of stepping outside the... Read more

Why Teens Hate Therapy

Mistakes Therapists Should Avoid

It’s probably fair to say that most teens loathe the very idea of therapy. Yet, with confused and troubled adolescents needing our help more than ever, the... Read more

Men with anger problems are generally highly reluctant clients who come to our offices only because they’ve gotten “the ultimatum” from their wives... Read more

Isle of Dreams

Searching for a lost self in the Ould Sod

Sometimes the places we long to visit speak to needs that go much deeper than our appetite for exotic sights. Read more

Editor's Note: July/August 2012

Ethics and Boundaries

The hallmark of the therapeutic encounter is that the therapist is an expert, trained in a particular skill-set to conduct a rather odd, rarified conversation... Read more

Yesterday’s Ethics Vs. Today’s Realities

Boundaries in an Age of Informality

As the status of therapist has shifted from an oversized figure with Svengali-like powers to an overworked and underpaid service provider at the mercy of the... Read more

Therapeutic Ethics In The Digital Age

When the Whole World is Watching

The revolution in communication technology has created a new set of ethical dilemmas, which are invading our sessions, whether we know it or not. Read more

Therapist Self-Disclosure

Think Before You Get Personal

The ways we disclose, read cues from our clients, and dialogue about what’s been divulged are the keys to whether therapist self-disclosure helps clients’... Read more

Psychotherapy and The Law

Two Practical Perspectives
Steven Frankel and Clifton Mitchell

A therapist–lawyer on what most often gets clinicians in trouble with the law and everything you need to know about the duty to report, to warn—and more. Read more

The Art of Hanging-In There

A Hospice Social Worker’s Take on Inside Curveballs

When something is coming at you that may cause pain or self-doubt, it’s natural to want to duck. Read more

The Anatomy of Self-Hatred

Learning to Love Our Loathed "Selves"

With stalemated cases in which the task of self-acceptance feels impossible, the therapist needs to offer more than compassion and encouragement. Read more

What If Your Mobile Device Went Missing?

The Importance of Tracking our Technologies

Ever consider what would happen if your portable device—chock full of information about your clients—went missing? Read more

Irvin Yalom on Psychotherapy as Craft

Looking Back to Move Forward

In an age when all eyes seem constantly riveted on the Next Big Thing, celebrated therapist-novelist Irvin Yalom takes a different approach. Read more

Mozart Redux

Not All Families are Related by Blood

Not all families are related by blood. Read more

For men who still consider entering couples therapy a stroll into a lion’s den of shame, humiliation and failure, men’s groups can be both a crucial source... Read more

Editor's Note: May/June 2012

Our Emotions: Unruly, Unnerving, Invaluable

This issue maps out not only what the latest science tells us about how emotion works, but also how therapists can more fully acknowledge within themselves the... Read more

Connecting with the Shut-down Client

Helping A Combat Vet Face His Vulnerability

Resonating with clients’ inner experience is key to working effectively with emotion in therapy. With traumatized and shutdown clients, however, it is easy... Read more

Psychotherapy's Greatest Debates

Assessing the State of the Art 2012

The State of the Art, the Networker’s first-ever virtual conference, offered an opportunity for leaders in our field who disagree to debate each other... Read more

Beyond Clinical Correctness

Unearthing the logic of the client’s solution

An understanding of the unconventional ways people demonstrate resilience is important in helping us avoid pathologizing clients and stop believing there’s... Read more