Therapists Mistakes and the Ethics of Owning Them- Advanced

This workshop is an advanced version of the original Common Therapist Mistakes workshop.

(Participants do not have to have attended the first workshop to sign up for this one. For those who attended the first workshop, there will be some review but more emphasis on mistakes related to therapist characteristics and agenda and practice of the recommended strategies).

This workshop will focus on common mistakes that therapists make, when and why we are most likely to make them and strategies to use to avoid making them. Our ethics and our own personal values require us to do no harm, however, several studies have found that 5-20% of people in psychotherapy experience adverse effects and 15-40% don’t get better. Additionally, patients surveyed tend to view adverse effects as more harmful than do their therapists.

So what factors might interfere with our good intentions and skills? All therapists are human and we all make mistakes. We sometimes give advice when it’s not necessary or find ourselves in power struggles with our clients. When our clients get stuck, we might feel inadequate or label them as unmotivated.

In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to explore their personality characteristics and narratives which make them vulnerable to making common mistakes. For example, if we ourselves struggle with perfectionism, we may have difficulty receiving feedback from our clients (one of mine). Since these are common mistakes, specific strategies apply and will be practiced. Participants will be given the opportunity to increase insight through experiential learning such as journaling and imaginal practice all in the comfort of your own environment.

Reducing common mistakes enables us to increase compliance with ethical codes regarding maintaining competence, monitoring outcomes, respecting clients' self-determination and avoiding harm. Finally, recognizing the universality of these mistakes enables us to use humor and even poke fun at ourselves a bit.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this workshop, the participant will be able to:

1) List at least 10 common therapist mistakes and utilize specific strategies to avoid making each of these mistakes

2) Identify the role of the relevant ethical codes in conceptualizing and addressing therapist mistakes

3) Increase skill using strategies for when a therapeutic rupture has occurred

4) Develop a model for assessing outcome in psychotherapy

5) Describe at least two ways that our own agendas can interfere with progress in therapy

6) Identify at least two personal factors which increase the likelihood of making these mistakes

Diversity Statement

In this workshop, we will cover issues related to validation, values and advice giving. One of the important ways to be culturally competent is to know yourself in light of who you are and what you might represent culturally to your client. Therefore, attendees will be encouraged to examine and learn to talk in therapy about what they may represent to their diverse clients. It is hoped that this will increase their skill and level of comfort facilitating conversations which encourage the client to describe their felt experience in regards to their diversity of ethnicity, gender, age, and/or sexual orientation. Additionally, participants will receive information and practice regarding recognizing their biases and managing countertransference. A model for identifying biases and processing them on a personal level will be presented. Similarly the therapist will be given an opportunity to explore personal needs that tend to occur with countertransference.

Finally, being aware of the diversity of the systems within which our clients currently live will be encouraged and strategies for minimizing negative effects on these systems will be presented.

Info: Breakfast will be provided by The Meadows

Info: A. Failing to Establish an Ethical Decision-Making Process
B. Failing to Establish and Maintain Clear Goals
C. Failing to Plan for and Address Alliance Ruptures
D. Failing to Assess Outcomes
E. Failing to Address Differences/Diversity

Info: A. Over-Validating
B. Against Another Person
C. Assuming Your Client is Being Truthful

Info: A. Failing to Address or Recognize Ambivalence
B. Siding with a Part
C. Resisting Resistance
D. Failing to Recognize Projections
E. Answering Questions

Info: Lunch provided by The Meadows

Info: A. Signs of taking too much Responsibility
B. Giving Advice
C. Talking too much
D. Being too attached to Own Agenda
E. Monitoring Effects of Own Values
F. Failing to Respect One’s Own Boundaries

Info: A. Signs of taking too little Responsibility
B. Failing to keep the session on a therapeutic path
C. Failing to find a personal style of confronting 
D. Focusing Primarily on Problems

Info: A. Limited Self Awareness/Blind Spots
B. Failing to manage countertransference
C. Failing to Provide for the Future
D. Insufficient Self Care

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