How to Fail As a Therapist: 50 Ways to Lose or Damage Your Patients

by Bernard Schwartz

Depending on which study you read, between 20 and 57% of psychotherapy patients do not return after their initial session. Another 37 to 45% only attend therapy twice. A follow-up study on dropouts found that most clinicians had no idea why their patients had terminated, whereas their clients could define very specific "therapeutic errors." Clients who drop out early display poor treatment outcomes, over-utilize mental health services, and demoralize clinicians.It doesn't have to be that way. Well-researched strategies reduce dropout rates and increase positive treatment outcomes. How to Fail as a Therapist details the 50 most common errors therapists make, and how to avoid them. Therapists will learn practical, helpful steps for avoiding such common errors as not recognizing one's limitations, performing incomplete assessments, ignoring science, ruining the client relationship, setting improper boundaries, therapist burnout, and more.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Counselling, Social Work, Mental Health

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

Bernard Schwartz was Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa, and is the author of forty books on the law and the history of the Supreme Court.

Reviews

[Olwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be put off by the title - this is a basic, easy to read text that goes over the basic principles of client care. Fabulous as a refresher.

[Mihail · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK ideas, but the cited research is very outdated (mostly in the 80s and 90s of last century) and the ideas themselves are not very thoroughly investigated, nor are the suggested ways of avoiding the errors very detailed and thought provoking.

[Tomáš Kratochvíl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but nothing new under the sun. Especially since it builds on research that has been out there for quite some time. I found several pieces of advice that seemed useful, but mostly they were either too vague and broad or already somehow in my repertoire.

[Kateřina Vávrová · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rozečteno
Dobře napsané - takové shrnutí, rychle se čte

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Handbook with a nicely organized overview of common therapeutic errors, with easily digestible advice for avoiding them. I think I will likely reference this again in the future.

[Kayleigh Reading with A Therapist · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I am thinking about getting trained to become a clinical supervisor, How to Fail as a Therapist, covered a significant amount of things that I would want my clinicians to know. And also a wonderful reminder of things that I need to look out for.

Some include, over blending, over sharing (this I think I might do too little of sometimes), not holding boundaries outside of session (this depends on the approach and the work together, I often have suicidal clients text me everyday, as a form of check in and a thing to have them hold onto, some therapy techniques would say this is a no no), taking on more then the client, not talking through homework with the client and thinking they are in your head and know where you are coming from. The book covers multiple different things therapist may do to lose clients.

It’s a beneficial book as a reminder or as a guide to get you ready to go into the field. Must read for therapist.

[Aaron Lozano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love these books that offer realistic problems and brief, plausible solutions not only for the up and coming therapist, but also the established and everyone in between. One note to the authors...Johnny Wooden? Never heard him called that before!