Clinical Practice
Posts on the clinical work itself — assessments, modalities, ethics, and the craft of doing therapy well.
← Back to all postsWhy Good Therapists Work Themselves Out of a Job
An effective therapist's goal is to become unnecessary. Here's why that matters — and why the profession's incentive structure makes it hard.
Red Flags Your Therapist Isn't Evidence-Based
Not all therapy is created equal. Here are warning signs that your therapist may not be using methods backed by research — and what to do about it.
The Case for Measurement-Based Care
Measurement-based care doubles the odds of reliable improvement and halves the rate of deterioration. Here's what the evidence actually says.
Common Factors: Relationship and Structure
The common factors model shows that therapeutic alliance and structured methods both drive outcomes. What the research says and why it matters.
Acceptance and Change: What DBT Gets Right
DBT's core dialectic of acceptance AND change separates effective therapy from comfortable therapy. Why the balance matters and how therapists drift.
The GAD-7: Tracking Anxiety in Therapy
A therapist's guide to the GAD-7: scoring, severity bands, tracking changes over time, and using anxiety data to guide treatment decisions.
The PCL-5: PTSD Assessment for Therapists
A therapist's guide to the PCL-5: how to score it, interpret the results, track PTSD symptom changes over time, and integrate it into your trauma treatment workflow.
Clinical Alerts: Spot Risk Before the Session
A client's PHQ-9 jumped from 9 to 17 between sessions. Would you know before they walked in? Clinical alerts catch what session-to-session observation misses.
Custom Assessment Forms: Beyond Standard Tools
When standard assessments fall short and you need a DBT diary card or workflow-specific intake — practical guidance on building custom clinical forms.
What Is Measurement-Based Care?
Measurement-based care improves therapy outcomes by 2-3x, yet fewer than 20% of therapists use it. Here's what MBC is, why adoption is low, and how to start.
How to Talk to Clients About Their Assessment Scores
Sharing assessment scores with clients improves outcomes and strengthens the alliance. Here are practical scripts and framing for making score conversations natural.
Building a Safety Plan in Therapy: A Step-by-Step Guide
A step-by-step guide to building a safety plan with clients using the Stanley-Brown framework. Includes what to cover, common mistakes, and digital tools that help.
Set Up Outcome Tracking in 15 Minutes
Set up outcome tracking for your whole caseload in 15 minutes. Step-by-step guide to choosing assessments, assigning them to clients, and reading the data.
Using Diary Cards in DBT: A Digital Approach
Paper DBT diary cards get lost and can't be analyzed over time. Here's how digital diary cards improve compliance, enable trend tracking, and save session time.
Between-Session Assessments: Better Outcomes
Clients who complete assessments between sessions have better outcomes, more consistent attendance, and richer clinical data. Evidence and how-to.
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