They're a rite of passage every counselor and therapist has to go through. And yet, there's no actual evidence that they do the one thing they are supposed to do: Ensure safe practice. In this first episode of the Psychotherapy Notes podcast, we talk about the problems with license exams -- and why we should keep them anyway.

Episode 1 - How licensing exams are like the TSA

Developments in the world of counseling and psychotherapy. Episodes short enough that you can listen between sessions.

Health & Fitness

Casey Meinster, of Hathaway-Sycamores in Pasadena, joins us to talk about measuring outcomes in psychotherapy. Her agency's funding depends on their staff gathering data on every single client, and that is rapidly becoming the norm for larger mental health care providers.

09 - Measurement with Casey Meinster

In two separate studies almost a decade apart, hundreds of mental health clinicians evaluated their own work compared to that of their colleagues. In both studies, *not a single participant* evaluated themselves as being below average. In this episode, we'll talk about why we as therapists and counselors think we're so good, and how measuring outcomes can give you a far more accurate and useful -- if occasionally humbling -- picture.

08 - Measurement, or, When Everyone Is Above Average, No One Is

We talk with Angela Caldwell (yes, relation) about what men want from their usually-women therapists, and how that knowledge transformed her work with men.

07 - Therapy and gender, with Angela Caldwell

The overwhelming majority of therapists are women, and the gender balance in the field is only growing more one-sided. We'll talk about gender in the therapy world, and the impact of having so few men around.

06 - Psychotherapy's gender gap

When it comes to the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

Episode 1 - How licensing exams are like the TSA

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