Linda Buchanan
From One Therapist to Another: Not my Finest Moment - Episode 2
A mistake I made when taking the side of one part of my client while neglecting another part. This is a common mistake with ambivalent clien
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From One Therapist to Another
Do you ever feel stuck with your clients? When this happens do you find yourself labeling these clients as resistant, oppositional or borderline? Or instead, do you end up feeling confused, frustrated or inadequate as a therapist? In this blog, I offer an alternative interpretation along with very specific strategies to help new and more experienced therapists improve outcomes, increase job satisfaction and feel more effective with the most challenging clients.
Linda Buchanan
- Nov 5, 2022
- 3 min
From One Therapist to Another: Not My Finest Moment!
All therapists make mistakes. Read about one of mine.
1,335 views14 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Mar 8, 2021
- 5 min
From One Therapist to Another: To Confront or Not to Confront
To Confront or Not to Confront ... Is That the Question? I lead several clinical consultation groups for therapists and one issue that...
1,327 views2 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Jan 25, 2021
- 3 min
From One Therapist to Another: The Best Thing We Can Give Our Clients
Although I personally love hearing my clients tell me that I'm wise or helpful, what I professionally want is for them to know that they...
456 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Nov 18, 2020
- 3 min
Common Therapist Mistakes: Part 12 Assuming That Your Client Wants To Change
We've all experienced it. Those clients that ask for help and then don't change despite our best efforts. It is very frustrating for...
1,541 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Jul 30, 2020
- 5 min
Common Therapist Mistakes - Part 11: Resisting Resistance
How to address your clients' resistance to change. Do you resist resistance. If so, you may find yourself in uncomfortable power struggles.
2,312 views0 comments
Linda Paulk Buchanan PhD
- Jun 24, 2020
- 4 min
From One Therapist to Another: What is Narrative Therapy and Aren't We all Doing it Anyway?
Clients project early beliefs, which were always understandable but almost never justifiable, onto their circumstances with disastrous resul
694 views1 comment
Linda Buchanan
- Jun 2, 2020
- 5 min
From One Therapist to Another: To Return or Not to Return
Strategies for working through ambivalence about returning to brick and mortar therapy offices.
953 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- May 3, 2020
- 3 min
From One Therapist to Another: The Covid Coaster
After shelter in place, are we getting back to normal or heading to something new? What are the silver linings that we take from this time?
139 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Mar 2, 2020
- 5 min
From One Therapist to Another: When Client's Don't Want to Be There
During Lauren's sessions, she repeatedly said that she did't want to be in therapy. She seemed to feel like I was going to take something fr
419 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Jan 20, 2020
- 5 min
From One Therapist to Another: Accessing Your Client's Wisdom for Change
When our clients come to us, they have often lost sight of their own wisdom. The most powerful interventions help them find wisdom within.
284 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Dec 16, 2019
- 2 min
From One Therapist to Another: Do You Talk Too Much?
Being sensitive can enhance our effectiveness as a therapist but it can also enhance a need to be understood leading to being too talkative
2,657 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Nov 18, 2019
- 5 min
From One Therapist to Another - Potential Hazards in Individual Therapy: Part 2
When clients talk about people who are not in the room, a false narrative may be operating. This can be lead us down the wrong path.
299 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Oct 28, 2019
- 6 min
From One Therapist to Another: 10 Most Common Therapist Mistakes
10 most common mistakes that therapists make. Therapists can improve their effectiveness by increasing awareness of these common mistakes.
12,939 views4 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Oct 8, 2019
- 4 min
From One Therapist to Another: Should We Tell our Clients What We Hope They Will See?
How do therapists show people where to look without telling them what to see? help them see their ambivalence rather than give suggestions.
293 views2 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Sep 23, 2019
- 4 min
From One Therapist to Another: Clients Lie in Psychotherapy! What?!?
Barry Farber et al., surveyed 547 psychotherapy clients and found that 91% admitted to lying in psychotherapy, and 84% on a regular basis.
1,489 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Sep 4, 2019
- 4 min
From One Therapist to Another: Do No Harm
I wonder if I unknowingly participate i at timesi n helping one part of an interpersonal system change without considering the consequences
483 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Aug 2, 2019
- 4 min
From One Therapist to Another
One of the most uncomfortable feelings I've had in conducting psychotherapy is finding myself in a power struggle with a client.
2,776 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Jul 22, 2019
- 3 min
From One Therapist to Another
Denial is a powerful defense mechanism which is difficult to shift even in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence.
633 views1 comment
Linda Buchanan
- Jul 8, 2019
- 2 min
From One Therapist to Another: Ambivalence/Resistance
n this series of posts, I have been focusing on relabeling resistance as ambivalence and noting the common ways that ambivalence shows up in
485 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Jun 23, 2019
- 5 min
From One Therapist to Another
As therapists we often hate to use the "M" word and we often resist talking about manipulation or feeling manipulated with our clients.
15,769 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- May 29, 2019
- 4 min
From One Therapist to Another
Procrastination is one of the most often experienced expressions of ambivalence. This could be called resistance (and often is) however,
399 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Apr 4, 2019
- 4 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 10: Underusing the Phrase "I don't know"
This is a series of posts that I’ve written where I poke a little fun at common mistakes that we therapists make. Believe me, I’ve made...
149 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Mar 11, 2019
- 3 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 9: Challenging Denial Prematurely
I have been writing blogs about common therapist mistakes and poking fun at us therapists to some degree. I want to point out that I...
355 views4 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Feb 19, 2019
- 3 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 8: Missing the Dialectic Nature of Suicidal Intent or Gestures
This topic isn’t conducive to using cute cartoons as with the other posts in this series so I used my sister’s art work. I explained to...
503 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Feb 2, 2019
- 4 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 7: Over-validating
Sometimes validating our clients may not actually be in their best interest! In the first blog of this series, I wrote "Although...
4,463 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Jan 20, 2019
- 3 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 6: Being Focused on Your Own Agenda for Change
As I said in the last post, a common therapist mistake is to be unaware of how our agendas and values may be impacting the therapy...
3,099 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Jan 11, 2019
- 4 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 5: Assuming We Know What’s Best or Advice is Cheap
A common therapist mistake is to be unaware of how our agendas and values may be impacting the therapy process. Do you think you do not...
404 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Dec 29, 2018
- 2 min
An Atypical New Year's Resolutions: Fail
Surprised by that statement? So was I when I first began to read a post on Medium by Danny Forest. He talks about how he made his goal...
99 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Dec 14, 2018
- 3 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 4: Colluding in “either/or” Thinking
In my last blog, I talked about ways to avoid answering direct questions when they are a function of projection. I hope the take away was...
526 views2 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Dec 7, 2018
- 3 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 3: Answering Direct Questions
I sometimes use self-disclosure with my patients; however, I avoid answering direct questions when a projection may be occurring. Lindsay...
1,482 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Nov 17, 2018
- 6 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 2: Engaging in a Power Struggle
One of the most common mistakes therapists make in dealing with ambivalence in psychotherapy is to engage in a power struggle with a...
2,556 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Nov 10, 2018
- 3 min
Common Therapist Mistakes Part 1: Taking a Side
Although therapists are usually skilled in empathy and validation skills, we need to avoid taking sides and validating patients’...
1,074 views2 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Oct 29, 2018
- 1 min
From One Therapist to Another
Resistant, Oppositional, Borderline? Do you ever feel confused and stuck with your clients? Are you sometimes surprised that they pay...
91 views0 comments
Linda Buchanan
- Sep 17, 2018
- 4 min
My Latest Book for Clinicians
A Clinician’s Guide to Pathological Ambivalence: How to Be on Your Client’s Side Without Taking a Side* After working for 30 years with...
32 views0 comments
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