Counselors
230 articles for this audience.
- Collecting haunts: the clients who never leave your mind
- Diagnosing your ex-husband in session
- Empathy fatigue: when compassion turns into disgust
- Faking empathy for an hour
- Giving up on a Borderline before the first session
- Grieving the ones who get better
- I liked her better before she healed
- I miss the clients who needed me too much
- Keeping them in treatment for the mortgage
- Lies that help more than truth
- Manipulating the spouse to leave
- My burnout looks like enlightenment
- My favorite pathological liar
- My favorite sociopath
- My inner supervisor is drunk
- My unspoken crushes in session
- Righteous cruelty in the name of growth
- Secretly enjoying someone's relapse
- Strategic gaslighting for a good cause
- Taking a client you know you can't help
- The addiction of hearing secrets
- The client who reminded me of my mother — and paid for it
- The client who taught me to manipulate better
- The confession that shouldn't have healed me
- The day I wanted to slap a client
- The dopamine hit of being needed
- The erotic thrill of ethical restraint
- The erotic transference you actually enjoyed
- The fear of being useless when clients actually heal
- The god complex you never lose
- The guilt of enjoying transference
- The love affair that almost happened
- The orgasm nobody names: saving someone
- The porn addicts I envy
- The power trip of being the safe one
- The secret joy of a client's divorce
- The seductive charm of damaged people
- The superiority that keeps us employed
- The therapeutic use of a well-timed insult
- Therapy for sociopaths who want to get better at it
- Transference is just attraction we legalized
- Unethical fantasies at professional dinners
- When holding space becomes emotional masturbation
- When silence becomes punishment
- When the couple is better off breaking up (but you need the fee)
- When therapy becomes kink with paperwork
- When your client becomes more interesting than your spouse
- Why CBT is for robots
- Why I don't send my kids to therapy
- Why the most ethical thing I ever did looked terrible on paper
- Adapting the Directive Approach for Executive Coaching
- Assessing Motivation: Who Wants Change and Who is Invested in the Status Quo
- Building Therapeutic Authority Without Being Authoritarian
- Delivering Directives Effectively in Telehealth Sessions
- Designing a Practice Case for Trainee Skill-Building
- Designing Between-Session Tasks for Remote Clients with No Therapist Oversight
- Designing Consequences That Actually Work for Oppositional Teens
- Designing Social Assignments for Isolated Anxious Clients
- Designing the Client's Personal Crisis Plan as a Final Directive
- Designing the Trauma Boundary Directive: Containing Intrusive Memories Strategically
- Disrupting the Depression Ritual: Identifying and Changing Daily Maintaining Patterns
- Evaluating Whether a Trainee is Ready to Work Without a Supervisor
- How to Adapt Directives for Collectivist Family Cultures
- How to Assess Whether a Case Needs Individual or Family-Level Intervention
- How to Assign Physical Tasks to Break a Depressive Episode
- How to Avoid Being Triangulated into the Family System
- How to Conduct a Strategic Follow-Up Session 3 Months After Termination
- How to Design a Competing Behavior Task for Habit Disruption
- How to Design a Directive for a Client Stuck in a Life Decision
- How to Design a Goodbye Ritual That Consolidates Therapeutic Gains
- How to Design a Strategic Intervention for Chronic Lateness and Time Blindness
- How to Get a Teenager to Talk in the First Session
- How to Give a Trainee Feedback That Actually Changes Their Behavior
- How to Intervene When One Partner Has Already Emotionally Left
- How to Involve Extended Family Networks in the Intervention Design
- How to Involve Parents Without Making the Teen Feel Ganged Up On
- How to Read Family Dynamics Through a Video Screen
- How to Recover When an Intervention Fails in the Room
- How to Respond When a Client Returns After Successful Termination
- How to Stop Pursuer-Distancer Patterns with a Single Directive
- How to Stop the Anxiety-Reassurance Loop in Couples and Families
- How to Supervise the Trainee Who is Too Nice to Give Directives
- How to Use a Trial Separation as a Therapeutic Directive
- How to Use Humor Without Undermining the Intervention
- How to Use Metaphor to Address Trauma Without Re-Traumatizing
- How to Use Paradox in Coaching for the Overachiever Who Can't Rest
- How to Use the Family System to Lift Depression Without Medication Discussion
- How to Use the Genogram Strategically Rather Than Historically
- How to Use the Group as a Hierarchy Intervention
- How to Use the Paradox of Control for OCD-Type Presentations
- How to Use Your Body Language to Shift Family Dynamics
- How to Work Through an Interpreter Without Losing Strategic Momentum
- How to Work with Adult Children Who Are Taking Over a Parent's Life
- How to Work with the Adolescent Who Has Become the Parent's Confidant
- Incorporating Traditional Healing Practices into the Strategic Framework
- Recognizing the Stage of Family Life Cycle That is Driving the Problem
- Spotting the Cross-Generational Coalition Before It Derails Therapy
- The Accountability Directive in Coaching: Making Goals Impossible to Ignore
- The Anger Regulation Directive: Designing a Sequence Interruption for Rage Episodes
- The Anti-Helplessness Directive: Assigning Mastery Tasks for Depressed Clients
- The Anxiety Hierarchy Directive: Building Courage Through Graduated Tasks
- The Art of the Therapeutic Compliment: Praising Strategically Not Generically
- The Behavioral Activation Directive: Getting the Depressed Client Moving
- The Deliberate Use of Silence in a Strategic Session
- The Emergency Stabilization Directive for Couples on the Brink
- The Future Focus Directive: Moving Trauma Clients from Past to Present Action
- The Gratitude Directive: Rebuilding Positive Sentiment with Hostile Couples
- The Grief Directive: Moving a Bereaved Client from Mourning to Meaning
- The Group Ordeal: Designing Shared Tasks That Build Accountability
- The Isolation Directive: Assigning Deliberate Solitude to the Enmeshed Client
- The Maintenance Directive: Assigning Ongoing Tasks After Therapy Ends
- The Neutral Expert vs. The Involved Strategist: Choosing Your Therapeutic Stance
- The Parallel Process: When the Supervision Mirrors the Therapy
- The Public Commitment Directive for Clients Who Can't Stop a Behavior
- The Response Delay Directive: Inserting a Gap Between Urge and Action
- The Safety Ritual Directive: Designing Grounding Tasks for Dysregulated Clients
- The School Refusal Case: A Step-by-Step Strategic Intervention Plan
- The Sequence Map for Workplace Conflict: A Coaching Tool
- The Strategic Intervention for Selective Mutism in Children
- The Strategic Use of Peer Pressure in Adolescent Directives
- The Strategic Use of Self-Disclosure in Brief Therapy
- The Strategic Use of Worst-Case Scenario Thinking as a Directive
- The Three Questions Every Strategic Therapist Asks Before Planning an Intervention
- Using Live Supervision: How to Send a Message to the Therapist Mid-Session
- Using Strategic Directives in Group Therapy Settings
- When the Problem IS the Solution: Recognizing Attempted Fixes That Backfire
- When the Teenager Refuses Therapy: Working Through the Parents Instead
- When to Push and When to Back Off: Calibrating Therapeutic Pressure
- Working with the Elderly Client Who Has Lost Their Primary Role
- Working with Traditional Gender Roles: Strategic Flexibility Without Imposing Values
- Adjusting the Ordeal When the Client Finds It Too Easy
- Crafting Ordeals for Procrastination: The Work Before Work Method
- Creating Ordeals for Couples: The Scheduled Fight Technique
- Defining Specific Behavioral Goals Instead of Broad Emotional Ones
- Designing a Penance for Infidelity to Restore Marital Balance
- Designing an Ordeal for Insomnia: The Middle of the Night Chore
- Designing Metaphoric Tasks for Clients Who Resist Direct Advice
- Designing Tasks that Require Parents to Agree Before Acting
- Disengaging the Over-Involved Parent from the Child's Schoolwork
- Disrupting Cross-Generational Coalitions Between Mother and Son
- Empowering the Peripheral Father: Specific Tasks to Increase Involvement
- Ending the First Session: How to Leave the Client Hooked for the Next Visit
- Establishing Rules for the Parentified Child to Return to Childhood
- Exaggerating the Symptom: Making the Unconscious Conscious and Voluntary
- Follow-Up Strategies: What to Do When the Client Forgets the Homework
- Framing the Ordeal as a Cure to Bypass Client Defensiveness
- Gathering Information Through Action: Asking the Family to Enact the Problem
- How to Agree with the Client's Resistance to Neutralize It
- How to Amplify a Marital Quarrel to Break the Conflict Cycle
- How to Block a Grandparent's Interference in Parenting Decisions
- How to Block Mind Reading During Couples Mediation
- How to Ensure the Ordeal is Actually Worse Than the Symptom
- How to Frame a Directive So the Client Actually Does It
- How to Give a Directive Through a Third Party: The Message Technique
- How to Handle the Client Who Brings a Crisis of the Week
- How to Handle the Client Who Refuses to Speak in the First Session
- How to Handle the Spokesperson Child in the First Family Interview
- How to Handle the Threat of Divorce Used as a Weapon
- How to Identify the Hidden Function of Any Symptom
- How to Manage the Intellectualizing Client Who Won't Take Action
- How to Prescribe Silence When Couples Talk Too Much
- How to Prescribe the Symptom Without Sounding Sarcastic
- How to Shift the Family's Focus Away from the Identified Patient
- How to Stop Parents from Using the Child to Communicate with Each Other
- How to Use Awkward Social Tasks as an Ordeal for Anxiety
- How to Use Mind-Numbing Tasks to Eliminate Obsessive Thoughts
- How to Use Paradox to Deal with the Yes But Client
- How to Use Paradox with Rebellious Adolescents
- How to Use the Devil's Pact to Secure Commitment Before Revealing the Task
- How to Utilize a Client's Anger Toward the Therapist
- Intervening in Sibling Rivalry by Putting the Older Child in Charge
- Knowing When NOT to Use Paradox: Identifying High-Risk Clients
- Mapping the Sequence: How the Family Solves and Fails to Solve Problems
- Paradox in Mediation: Highlighting the Benefits of Staying Deadlocked
- Pinning Down the Vague Client: Moving from Complaints to Solvable Problems
- Predicting Failure: How to Use Pessimism to Provoke Client Action
- Prescribing the Worry: Setting a Daily Worry Hour for Anxious Clients
- Reading the Room: How to Assess Family Hierarchy in the First 10 Minutes
- Realigning Power in Blended Families: Integrating the Step-Parent
- Reframing Jealousy as Protective Caring: A Strategic Shift
- Relabeling Stubbornness as Fierce Independence
- Restraining Change: Telling the Client They Aren't Ready to Improve
- Reversing Roles: Having the Bad Twin Play the Good Twin
- Setting the Contract: How to Negotiate the Rules of Therapy
- Shifting from Facts to Metaphor: Working with Literal-Minded Clients
- Splitting the Therapy Team to Foster Client Autonomy
- Step-by-Step: Constructing a Penance Directive for Guilt-Ridden Clients
- Stopping the Blame Game: Shifting Focus from the Past to the Present Sequence
- Strategic Mediation: Forcing the Couple to Argue Over a Trivial Object
- Taking the Blame: Apologizing to Increase Client Cooperation
- The 4 Stages of the Strategic First Interview: A Practical Guide
- The Art of the Absurd Directive in Breaking Rigid Family Rules
- The Be More Depressed Paradox for Treatment-Resistant Clients
- The Benevolent Ordeal: Assigning Good Deeds to Disrupt Bad Behavior
- The Confusion Technique: Speaking Ambiguously to Disrupt Rigid Thinking
- The Courtship Task: Forcing a Distressed Couple to Date Again
- The Do Nothing Directive: When and How to Tell Clients to Wait
- The Donation Ordeal: Using Financial Stakes to Stop Destructive Habits
- The Encouraging the Relapse Technique for Post-Therapy Anxiety
- The Exercise Ordeal: Linking Physical Exertion to Unwanted Habits
- The Go Slow Intervention: Warning Clients Against Changing Too Fast
- The Illusion of Alternatives: Giving Choices That Lead to the Same Goal
- The Incompetent Parent Stance: Forcing the Teenager to Take Responsibility
- The Leaving Home Strategy: Pushing the 20-Something Out of the Nest
- The Listening Only Task for Defensive Partners
- The No Sex Directive: Taking the Pressure off Intimacy Problems
- The Odd Days Even Days Rule for Managing High-Conflict Couples
- The One-Down Position: Playing Dumb to Elicit Client Competence
- The Parental Executive Meeting: How to Realign Divided Parents
- The Pretend Technique: Asking Clients to Fake Their Symptom
- The Public Speaking Ordeal for Social Phobias
- The Secret Mission Technique to Build Solidarity Between Spouses
- The Sequence Map: Tracking the Six Steps Before and After a Symptom
- The Social Stage: Why Small Talk is Crucial to Strategic Assessment
- The Symptom Scheduling Technique for Somatic Complaints
- The Therapeutic Double Bind: Creating a Win-Win Catch-22
- The Veto Power Technique for Gridlocked Financial Decisions
- The Waking Up Early Ordeal for Depressive Ruminations
- Timing Your Interventions: When to Deliver the Task During the Session
- Treating an Individual's Problem as a Marital Metaphor
- Troubleshooting Ordeals: What to Do When the Client Refuses the Task
- Turning the Client's Critical Language into a Therapeutic Asset
- Unbalancing a Couple: How and When to Strategically Take Sides
- Using Ordeals with Teenagers: Enlisting Parents as the Enforcers
- Using Small Step Directives to Build Momentum in Depressed Clients
- Using the Client's Spiritual Beliefs in the Design of an Intervention
- Using the Partner as Co-Therapist for the Other Partner's Symptom
- Utilization: Using the Client's Hobbies as the Vehicle for Change
- Utilizing Client Symptoms to Protect Another Family Member
- Writing Strategic Letters: A Tool for Long-Distance Interventions