Customer Reviews

How to Fail as a Therapist: 50 Ways to Lose or Damage Your Patients (Practical Therapist)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is with great enthusiasm that I recommend How to Fail as a Therapist. Rarely, indeed, does a small book contain such large volume of relevant clinical information. It spans orientations and levels of training/experience on the therapist's side, and diagnoses/ exposure to therapy on the side of clients. As noted by the authors, as well as reviewers on the back cover, this manual is intended for therapists-in-training and for seasoned therapists alike. In this reviewer's opinion, this little book should receive a must-read place in graduate programs for clinical professionals at all levels.

The chapter divisions and titles of specific therapist errors make this manual especially valuable to use as a reference book when self-examination points to omissions/commissions in one's clinical work. Like all good teachers, Schwartz and Flowers have not only articulated a wide range of clinical pitfalls (supported by meticulous research), but also offer ideas (as integral part of the book) and tools (in the appendixes) towards their avoidance or remedy.

Proactive avoidance of many of these errors is the self-evident best use of this manual, and the authors give ample assistance with relevant examples and assessment tools. However, even more valuable to this reader is the comfort that if therapy feels "stuck",
this book can be used as a quick reference for how to "unstick" the therapy process (providing, of course, that it is not too late!). Beyond such future usefulness, reading How to Fail catapulted this clinician to do a first sorting of her own therapy behaviors into a personal list of: (1) "Ooops, I vaguely remember that one but am not doing it"; (2) "Ouch, I am not paying adequate attention to that one; and (3) "glad that I am OK doing this one (more often than not)" etc. Over and above such listing in progress (with the promise to self to make changes!), this clinician revised her intake form to include questions regarding prior therapy (when, how long, issues and outcome) and treatment expectations.

Lastly, echoing the focus by the authors on human resilience, it is reasonable to hope that even with the commission of the occasional therapy error we not only forgive ourselves these professional shortcomings, but that most of our clients do also (and stay in therapy to benefit from their hard work, in spite of our imperfections.)

Monika Davignon, Ph.D., MFT

I liked this book, for it poses the ways we can and should be vulnerable. Instead of hiding behind the illusion that we know what we are doing, it shows how and how often we make mistakes as therapists. Let's be honest folk, we fail all the time, and still get paid for our failures. Instead of burying our patients with whom we fail as physicians, we simply say "they weren't ready," they were non-compliant," "they were resistant," or any array of moving the locus of responsibility away from our mismanagement and on to the patient. If we can honestly assess our failures, we'd be better therapists and better as a field. Well done.

GUEST REVIEW BY Sean Stanek, MA, LMHP, LPC
(from [...])

I would like to share with you a little book that was recommended to me by Janice Maddox of Reno Counseling through a comment on my blog: How to Fail as a Therapist: 50+ Ways to Lose or Damage Your Patients. This book inspired Janice to begin getting feedback on the quality of her services from her clients. This book has many helpful suggestions, not just on soliciting client feedback, but also on talking to patients about medication, conducting research, and avoiding burnout.

As a the title suggests, How to Fail as a Therapist is a bit snarky and satirical. Written by Bernard Schwartz and John Flowers, both of whom are PH.D psychologists and clinical supervisors, this book draws heavily on fictional and real examples of how both new and experienced therapists interact with their clients. Such examples are short and illustrate the points in each chapter rather well.

How to Fail as a Therapist uses chapter titles similar to the book title, which in my opinion, makes the book rather fun. The first chapter, titled "How to fail before you start therapy - The intake process" sets the tone for the book. The authors go on to address the problem the chapter title suggests, then offers ways that therapists can avoid making the same error. Each chapter afterwards follows in a similar manner.

I believe that this book is invaluable to new counselors because it addresses common problems that arise while learning how to meet the needs of our clients. The section on "How to avoid collaboration with the client" was helpful to me because it reminded me that I do not have to have all the answers. Sometimes it is our clients that come up with a great solution, and we need to celebrate this more often. Ultimately, the client is likely to experience a better outcome when he or she is a part of generating a solution. Each chapter provides so many great suggestions that you will likely walk away with a few great insights and ideas each time you flip through the book.

I think counselor educators should use How to Fail as a Therapist as part of their programs. It enriches the discussion by showing clearly the mistakes that we all can unintentionally make while learning our craft. Plus, it adds an element of reality. Sometimes in our graduate programs we can forget that therapy is serious, that our clients' pain is real and they are looking for ways to ease this pain. This book reminds us that we need to take care, involve our clients, avoid our own burnout, keep abreast of current research, and help turn around bad attitudes, among many similar directives.

How to Fail as a Therapist is an entertaining read and a helpful one too. This little volume is easy to read, understand, and use because it shows the common mistakes but also offers solutions to avoid these pitfalls. I hope that if you read it you find it as helpful as I have in my practice.

--Sean Stanek, MA, LMHP, LPC

I bought this after some thought and it's been really helpful with addressing the various issues that therapists and clients face. I let my professor borrow it and she decided to have it as required reading for future classes. She found the chapter on termination so helpful that she discussed it with the class.

This book was very helpful to provide personal examples of mistakes therapists encounter in order to minimize risk in ethics in today's litigatious society. However, it could have offered more comprehensive and critical reasoning and logic behind a couple of the 50 offered examples.

This a great book, for trainee and newly graduated therapist.