I hear people say that the point of therapy is to be authentic, but I’m not sure that’s accurate. As a therapist, you are mandated, by law, to break confidentiality if you assess that the patient is suicidal or a danger to others.

I hear people say that the point of therapy is to be authentic, but I’m not sure that’s accurate. As a therapist, you are mandated, by law, to break confidentiality if you assess that the patient is suicidal or a danger to others. If you come to therapy as suicidal, it doesn’t sound like the game-plan is to be more authentic in that desire.

Ambivalence is not good or bad by itself, but depends on how you use it. Much psychological literature categorizes ambivalence as a negative trait or affect state. For example, ambivalent attachment styles are thought to be maladaptive, and stem from receiving inconsistent attention from one’s caregiver during their childhood.

Early in my clinical training, I was told that using the term client instead of patient is beneficial to the therapeutic alliance. I was told that it equalizes the power dynamic in sessions and leads to beneficial outcomes.

This might seem like a question with an obvious answer, but this question inspires huge debates in academia and beyond. The intention behind this post is to provide insight to anyone who is seeking treatment and is curious about various perspectives on their diagnosis.

All patients should be informed about how insurance affects mental health practices. The biggest thing to know is that when you see a provider through insurance, the provider is required to diagnose you with something. In order to understand whether or not that makes sense, it might be useful to think about what diagnoses are and how they work.

How does one self-transform? If you ask different therapists, you’ll get different answers. I believe that regardless of one’s theoretical orientation, every therapist guides their patient through a similar process. They may have different ways of describing this process or use different skills or techniques along the way.