Treatment & Interventions

Adoption Complexities

Counselors can help transracial and transnational adoptees heal the wounds from separation and being raised in an all-white world.

Bridging the Gap

For people who want to return to the workplace after a gap or extended break, the search for the right job can come with serious doubts about getting back into the game.

Happy Days

Counselors are using happiness interventions to help clients redefine happiness and live a more fulfilling life.

Voice of Experience: The danger of misinterpreting risk

Fear and stigma can often cause people to incorrectly perceive individuals with a mental health disorder as a threat, which can have serious consequences.

Assess more, judge less

To decrease the stigma around mental health in society, we must confront stigmatizing and biased thinking in the clinical world.

Voice of Experience: Disorders with the potential for dangerous outcomes

When working with people with disorders that are associated with more dangerous behaviors, counselors must be prepared to assess the client’s risk of violence to themselves and others.

Behind the Book: Q&A with Danica G. Hays

Danica G. Hays, author of Assessment in Counseling, discusses what’s new in the recently published seventh edition and how proper assessment of clients can help strengthen the therapeutic alliance.

Cultivating patience in counselors

A desire for change can sometimes cause counselors and clients to overlook the importance of building a sense of safety first.

The mental toll of adult bullying

Adult bullying is a social and mental health issue. Regardless of the reasons why a person is targeted by a bully, research shows that its impact can be disastrous to a person’s health and well-being.

Conceptualizing diagnosis through a social justice lens

Approaching diagnosis through a lens that considers systemic, cultural and ecological factors leads to better treatment outcomes for clients.

Working with adults who bully

Everyone can remember being bullied. Maybe someone teased you relentlessly about your name because it “sounded funny” or they made fun of your physical appearance.

Building rapport with clients experiencing psychosis

Stigma and misunderstanding about clients with severe mental illnesses can prevent some counselors from taking the necessary steps to build a strong therapeutic relationship.

Is mindfulness a cure-all approach?

Mindfulness is often seen as a cure-all approach, but as with other clinical approaches, counselors should carefully consider when and how they integrate this practice into sessions.

What’s new with the DSM-5-TR?

Find answers to common questions counselors have about the new edition of the DSM.

Why the body matters

The lack of evidence-based research supporting somatic therapy raises skepticism among many clinicians, but for those who do use it with clients, the benefits are clear.

Building trust with reluctant clients

Rather than labeling hesitant clients as “resistant,” counselors should check their assumptions, work to better understand the underlying reasons and barriers these clients face, and double down on unconditional positive regard.

Self-esteem: Tending to the roots and branches

Improving self-esteem involves exploring and dismantling unhealthy self-talk, values and beliefs that clients have internalized, often without realizing it.

Assessment, diagnosis and treatment planning: A map for the journey ahead

Competently assessing client needs and determining an accurate treatment plan are skills that counselors need to continually develop and improve throughout their career.

Case conceptualization: Key to highly effective counseling

Novice and experienced counselors alike too often ignore this process for understanding and explaining a client’s presenting issues and guiding the counseling process.

Taming impulses

Impulse-control disorders can exert a firm grip on children and adults alike, and if left unaddressed, they can end up wreaking havoc, not just for the individuals who have them but for everyone else in their orbit.