September 21, 2020

Showing Up for Your Clients

34 minutes

Curt and Katie chat about the importance of therapists in the therapeutic process. We look at how the medical model, upon which the continuing education and ethical guidelines are built, is flawed leading to solely client-facing training and rules. We talk about the importance of optimizing your practices as well as the negative clinical outcomes when you aren’t taking care of yourself.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

In this episode we talk about:

The case for self-care as continuing education

The problem with looking at consumer protection bodies rather than the research

The goals of helping people and the problem with sacrificing ourselves in those efforts

How we protect consumers by taking care of ourselves

The importance of being strong clinicians, optimizing our performance

The problem with the medical model and framing ourselves as inconsequential to therapeutic outcomes

When we aim models or regulations around the minimally acceptable competence or performance

The benefit of seeing therapy as art versus as a science

How non-specific effects (therapist effects, client effects and effects of the therapeutic relationship) are more important than the specific treatment modality or adherence

Common factors and the Contextual Model

The requirement for a Bond for successful treatment

Pathways to change according to the Contextual Model: Real Relationship, Expectations, Specific Ingredients

How we practice at being better humans

Why we need to have more in our lives than being therapists

Showing up in resourced ways

Elements of burnout as specific predictors for clients having worse outcomes, dropping out, or not engaging actively in treatment

The importance of optimal performance in creating a therapeutic alliance

How we aren’t trained on optimal performance, focus, setting up our environment

The need to refocus our graduate programs to support the education that is needed to be a good therapist

How self-awareness can impact clinical work

The lack of humanity in the medical model and research based on it

Who we are makes a difference

The need to understand how to take care of ourselves and structure our practice

...more

View all episodes

By Curt Widhalm, LMFT and Katie Vernoy, LMFT

4.3

237237 ratings

September 21, 2020

Showing Up for Your Clients

34 minutes

Showing Up for Your Clients

In this episode we talk about:

The case for self-care as continuing education

The problem with looking at consumer protection bodies rather than the research

The goals of helping people and the problem with sacrificing ourselves in those efforts

How we protect consumers by taking care of ourselves

The importance of being strong clinicians, optimizing our performance

The problem with the medical model and framing ourselves as inconsequential to therapeutic outcomes

When we aim models or regulations around the minimally acceptable competence or performance

The benefit of seeing therapy as art versus as a science

How non-specific effects (therapist effects, client effects and effects of the therapeutic relationship) are more important than the specific treatment modality or adherence

Common factors and the Contextual Model

The requirement for a Bond for successful treatment

Pathways to change according to the Contextual Model: Real Relationship, Expectations, Specific Ingredients

How we practice at being better humans

Why we need to have more in our lives than being therapists

Showing up in resourced ways

Elements of burnout as specific predictors for clients having worse outcomes, dropping out, or not engaging actively in treatment

The importance of optimal performance in creating a therapeutic alliance

How we aren’t trained on optimal performance, focus, setting up our environment

The need to refocus our graduate programs to support the education that is needed to be a good therapist

How self-awareness can impact clinical work

The lack of humanity in the medical model and research based on it