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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.
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
Linda Buchanan
Jan 2, 20234 min read
590 views
0 comments
From One Therapist to Another: Not My Finest Moment!
All therapists make mistakes. Read about one of mine.
Linda Buchanan
Nov 5, 20223 min read
1,407 views
17 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Mar 8, 20215 min read
1,784 views
2 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Jan 25, 20213 min read
527 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Nov 18, 20203 min read
1,744 views
0 comments
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.
Linda Buchanan
Jul 30, 20205 min read
2,451 views
0 comments
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
Linda Paulk Buchanan PhD
Jun 24, 20204 min read
839 views
1 comment
From One Therapist to Another: To Return or Not to Return
Strategies for working through ambivalence about returning to brick and mortar therapy offices.
Linda Buchanan
Jun 2, 20205 min read
971 views
0 comments
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?
Linda Buchanan
May 3, 20203 min read
140 views
0 comments
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
Linda Buchanan
Mar 2, 20205 min read
463 views
0 comments
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.
Linda Buchanan
Jan 20, 20205 min read
321 views
0 comments
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
Linda Buchanan
Dec 16, 20192 min read
2,983 views
0 comments
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.
Linda Buchanan
Nov 18, 20195 min read
314 views
0 comments
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.
Linda Buchanan
Oct 28, 20196 min read
16,291 views
8 comments
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.
Linda Buchanan
Oct 8, 20194 min read
307 views
2 comments
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.
Linda Buchanan
Sep 23, 20194 min read
1,748 views
1 comment
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
Linda Buchanan
Sep 4, 20194 min read
516 views
0 comments
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.
Linda Buchanan
Aug 2, 20194 min read
3,128 views
0 comments
From One Therapist to Another
Denial is a powerful defense mechanism which is difficult to shift even in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence.
Linda Buchanan
Jul 22, 20193 min read
750 views
1 comment
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
Linda Buchanan
Jul 8, 20192 min read
563 views
0 comments
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.
Linda Buchanan
Jun 23, 20195 min read
17,751 views
0 comments
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,
Linda Buchanan
May 29, 20194 min read
432 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Apr 4, 20194 min read
174 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Mar 11, 20193 min read
424 views
4 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Feb 19, 20193 min read
617 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Feb 2, 20194 min read
5,212 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Jan 20, 20193 min read
3,398 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Jan 11, 20194 min read
455 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Dec 29, 20182 min read
102 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Dec 14, 20183 min read
634 views
2 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Dec 7, 20183 min read
1,893 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Nov 17, 20186 min read
2,920 views
0 comments
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’...
Linda Buchanan
Nov 10, 20183 min read
1,336 views
2 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Oct 29, 20181 min read
94 views
0 comments
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...
Linda Buchanan
Sep 17, 20184 min read
35 views
0 comments
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