Expert Interviews & Perspectives in Counseling

As one of the five core mental health disciplines recognized by the federal government under the Public Health Service Act, MFTs are licensed and trained to provide individual, family, and group psychotherapy services from the perspective that relationships matter.

If you aspire to work with trans and nonbinary people as a mental health professional, there are many trans-focused career paths to explore, depending on your area of focus and level of training and certification.

Some clients begin therapy without learning healthy boundaries or taking responsibility for their actions. For many, their behaviors are a reflection of the abusive systems they were raised in. Abusive systems teach a skewed perception of responsibility through blame and shame. These circumstances do not take away the need for personal responsibility but offer an understanding to counselors who encounter these behaviors. A part of therapy will be to hold the space, validate these experiences, and teach clients personal responsibility.

An important part of the empathic process is holding the space or creating quiet moments for your client. It is in these times, when less is said, clients and counselors can have the most profound insights.

Pregnant women often complain about sudden lapses in memory. We all have had the experience of walking into a room and then completely forgetting what we planned to do, but pregnant women seem to report these lapses more frequently than others of the same age. Are these experiences due to tiredness and sleep deprivation? Or are there other explanations?

Those who suffer from clinical perfectionism fear negative evaluation or failure. Some clients procrastinate, over-prepare for meetings, and seek over-reassurance from others because they fear the task they complete will not be exactly right.

It’s very common for counselors to struggle with a deep sense of “imposter syndrome” when we first begin our careers. Between the heavy nature of mental health counseling, the multifaceted approaches required to be an effective mental health counselor, and the steep learning curve involved, it’s no wonder that we may doubt ourselves or question our abilities.

Many clients who struggle with substance misuse have experienced childhood or adult trauma. This is not to say every client who has had one or multiple past traumas will misuse substances. When treating clients with trauma, it is important to remember these experiences create a vulnerability in some individuals.

Children ages six to 17 have an increasing need for mental health services, with one in six reporting at least one mental health disorder, according to a 2019 paper from researchers at the University of Michigan. And that was before the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit children’s mental health hard.

Identity formation and re-formation occur throughout the lifespan in response to external circumstances and internal revelation. Who we are can change dramatically over the course of one lifetime, shift in subtle ways, or become fortified and rigid. There is no singular path to identity formation, so an attuned counselor adapts therapy to meet a client’s understanding of self.