Professional Development

A therapist is working with a couple in which one partner is clearly disengaged in therapy. She shows up and says she’s interested in improving the... Read more

A new client who survived a harrowing car crash is going through a deep depression. When she recounts her story, her therapist feels unusually affected, as if... Read more

A therapist reflects on a key lesson from his long career: clients don’t necessarily need new answers to their questions—they need new questions. Read more

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

A client sees his perfectionism as an advantage, even though it ramps up his anxiety, exacerbates his sense of shame, and keeps him living a very rigid life... Read more

Sandra has been struggling with depression for many years. A psychiatrist has prescribed her an antidepressant, but she’s told her therapist she doesn’t... Read more

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

Our offices don’t make people well, but they extend an invitation. They provide a comforting consistency in the midst of hard, often unsettling work. So a... Read more

Although it’s not usually acknowledged, change in the consulting room goes both ways. Even as they help clients wrestle with their issues, it’s the rare... Read more

At the 2016 Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, Bill Doherty offered his take on how psychotherapy can reassert its cultural relevance by deepening its vision... Read more

Back in 1979, I was a young dance therapy intern at St. Elizabeth’s, the country’s first federally operated psychiatric hospital, which opened in 1855. St... Read more

Therapists who grew up in the communities of color they serve often have the social capital and particular wisdom to better understand clients’ core needs... Read more

Recently, a therapist has found herself losing steam. She mentally checks out when clients are talking, and constantly feels exhausted. She worries this... Read more

What’s the best way to open and close therapy? It’s a question with many answers, but depending on your client, a particular... Read more

Fourteen-year-old client Tyler’s parents brought him to therapy because they say he rarely engages with classmates or teachers, isn’t interested in... Read more

We’ve all seen it happen. Maybe some of us are even guilty of it ourselves. When you get an email from that pesky neighbor, a text message from the boring... Read more

Therapists can flop in their “performance” with clients, coming off as inauthentic or over the top. One former actor discovers how to embody the kind of... Read more

Deran Young of Black Therapists Rock talks to Psychotherapy Networker’s Lauren Dockett about what the field can do to fight professional isolation and... Read more

Should you do when your client is behind on their session payments? Five clinicians weigh in on this Clinician's Quandary. Read more

Podcasts have exploded in numbers and popularity. What do mental health professionals need to know about this way of expanding their audience and their... Read more

We all know therapists who seem magically able to establish a powerful sense of trust and connection with even the most distrusting clients. But are there... Read more

Our last Clinician’s Quandary received an overwhelming number of responses. Here are a few more that didn’t make it into Part One but offer other useful... Read more

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

How to handle end-of-session bombshells therapeutically—and still wrap up on time. Read more

Diane has just announced she intends to move overseas to marry a man she recently met online. This raises an alarm for her therapist, but he's unsure about... Read more

In the following video from her 2018 Networker Symposium storytelling piece, couples and family therapist Sue Johnson shares a therapeutic moment that stands... Read more

Most therapists were never coached about how to reconcile the closeness of the therapeutic encounter with the fact that therapy is also a business. Read more

The best way to ensure clients' cooperation is to make the assignments relevant for them. Task assignments are designed to bring about changes in the... Read more

Becoming a sport psychologist requires throwing away much of the rule book for starting a more traditional practice. Read more

What therapists can learn from performers. Read more