It is of great importance to prioritize self-care. I hope that your training has emphasized the value and importance of taking time for yourself, and I encourage you to think long and hard as to what self-care activities you want to incorporate that fit you and your...
There is empirical evidence that explains how our clients achieve lasting change and healing. There are many components to such change. However, one vital component is this: Healing is an experience. As a therapist, you are invited to learn how to provide such...
There is much empirical evidence that explains how our clients achieve lasting change and healing. There are many components to such change. I want to focus on one particular component that I believe is vital to healing. Healing is experienced and you, as the...
Many times, your clients will move you, inspire you, and challenge you. They come in with their stories trying to make sense of them, wanting to find peace. I invite you to pay attention, listen, and learn to notice the everyday miracles that occur in your office....
Take notice and reach out your hand. Much of what you do can be depicted by the image of having the honor and privilege of holding a piece of your client’s heart. Many of your clients will give you their secrets, their pain, their dreams, their desires, their needs,...
It’s important that you take time to step back and contemplate the impact you, as a therapist, have on your clients. The purpose is not to boast about your ego. Just the opposite actually. The purpose ought to be aimed at coming to a deeper affection of what we get to...
Pay attention to your client’s body language. What they do with their bodies or what they don’t do will give you a greater insight to what is occurring in their mind and in their hearts. Such insight will give you the ability to uncover deeper truths as well as the...
Rejoice and celebrate your client’s victories for they have achieved something miraculous. A dragon was slain in your midst. I wasn’t expecting it honestly, this idea or reflection. But no good reflection is planned, I guess. It was a weekday. I got home from my day...
Learn to notice the difference between when your clients cry vs when they weep. Tears are significant to a client's healing. They represent a cleansing of suffering and shame. They bear forth validation of self-worth and a newfound freedom. Often it relates to the...
Personalize your office space. If you have to share your office space, bring an item or two that’s yours to help you feel like it’s your space. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com The Therapist Office. A room that holds secrets, its walls witnessing great...
Pay close attention to your client’s eyes. What are their eyes saying that their words are not? Who do you see in front of you? Always remember that truth is found in a person's eyes. You will see what they truly are thinking, feeling and believing. The significant...
Learn to create an environment that allows your clients to view themselves freely. An environment where they have permission to be raw, honest, and take risks. Allow space that encourages your clients to not just talk about change, but to do and say things that...
Learn to be grateful for the many blessings in your life and have humility in knowing that those blessings can be lost. Thus requiring intentional efforts to foster and take care of such blessings. Over Thanksgiving, I had a great and insightful conversation with my...
You will experience suffering and distress in your personal life, that is a fact. Don’t choose to fall into the idea that as a therapist you are supposed to have a perfect life. You will have hard, personal days and still have to go to work. Learn to surrender and...
I’m sitting here contemplating my day. The sorrow and pain we get to witness as counselors…some days are harder than others. Today was one of those hard days. Much can be said about the suffering our clients go through and much more can be analyzed by what it means to...
Reinforce and celebrate with your client’s ability to enact their sense of agency for themselves, and in particular their agency with you in therapy. What do I mean by agency? What I mean is this; the power and ability to choose for oneself, to advocate and decide a...
Who do you see in front of you? I encourage you to frequently ask this question when you meet with each of your clients. This reflection will assist you in seeing past your client’s brokenness and problems. This contemplation of the person sitting before you allows...
Learn to celebrate victories with your client. Whether it’s small and something seemingly unimportant or when they overcome a huge obstacle and it becomes life-changing. Positive reinforcement encourages children and adults to continue or repeat a behavior over a...
I encourage you to take time to reflect and review the progress of treatment with your client periodically. During this reflection, be intentional when evaluating the therapeutic process (what happens during a session, the therapeutic rapport, etc.) with your client....
Cherish the hearts of your clients. There have been many times when I would have a hard day in the sense that my clients would recount their stories of severe trauma or how they were severely hurt by another’s malicious hand. Oftentimes during these sessions, I...