For the early-career clinician, getting started in the world of therapy in either private practice or an outpatient clinic can be both overwhelming and exciting. After graduation, many of us are in this state of transition out of student mode and into professional mode. Developing confidence as a young professional, while also building a caseload, […]
Due to changes in demographics in the United States, counselors and therapists are likely to serve clients who have a culturally diverse background. Data from the 2010 United States (U.S.) Census indicated that foreign-born individuals represented 13.3% of the U.S. population, some 42.3 million people (Colby & Ortman, 2014). In 2014, the U.S. population by […]
The interpersonal difficulties experienced by patients diagnosed with a personality disorder (PD) tend to pose great difficulty in negotiating a strong therapeutic alliance between patient and therapist (Muran, Segal, Samstag, & Crawford, 1994; Stern, 1938; Vaillant, 1992; Waldinger & Gunderson, 1984). Patients with PDs often generate intense and uncomfortable reactions in their therapists, sometimes producing […]
The quality of the therapeutic alliance is a robust predictor of psychotherapy outcomes (Horvath, Del Re, Flückinger, & Symonds, 2011). Recent studies have shown that some therapists are consistently better at developing and maintaining alliances with their patients than others (Baldwin, Wampold, & Imel, 2007; Dinger, Strack, Leichsenring, Wilmers, & Schauenburg, 2008; Zuroff, Kelly, Leybman, […]
Primary care physicians and pediatricians are often the first ones to provide a mental health diagnoses and prescribe psychotropic medications. In fact, one study found the proportion of primary care visits at which antidepressants were prescribed, but no psychiatric diagnosis was noted in the record, increased from 59.5% to 72.7% from 1996 to 2007 (Mojtabai […]
The breakneck speed of working on an inpatient behavioral medicine team of an urban tertiary hospital is quite often both exhilarating and exhausting for clinical psychology doctoral students. There is an idiosyncratic rhythm to the workload, as new consults roll in or patients the service follows are readmitted to the hospital. The expectation for trainees […]
When I was in graduate school, the Scientist-Practitioner Model was every clinical psychologist’s ideal. We were trained to appreciate, understand, and actually do research following the lines of the Boulder Model (1949 Conference). In 1973, a new clinical psychology training model was proposed at the Vail Conference on Professional Training in Psychology. The Practitioner-Scholar model […]
As I’ve reflected on the question of what made me choose forensic psychology as a profession, I realize that the answer may be a surprising one: heavy metal music and horror movies. The 1980s were a great time to be in high school and college. For an adolescent male with grief and loss (and subsequent […]
By last count I had retired three times—once from the state of Colorado as the mental health director, once from the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and finally from the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver. You might conclude that it was difficult for me to retire! Retirement is a […]
https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/teaching-learning-evidence-based-relationships/ Like many of you, at the heart of my professional identity lies a psychotherapy relationship researcher. While my specific interests have changed and evolved over time, this aspect of my professional identity has always remained constant. This part of me has delivered professional talks about the relationship, has studied it under the lens of […]