Why Don’t We Just Blame Your Parents and Call it a Day:
Common Therapist Mistakes and How to Avoid Making Them
Friday, July 28, 2023
2:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Richmont’s Atlanta Campus
Presentation Description
An ethics workshop that will make you smile rather than cringe. Do you sometimes give too much advice or give it too early? Do you validate what you don’t know, get into power struggles by taking the healthy voice, or project your values? If you’re like most therapists, you do! All therapists are human and we all make mistakes. This workshop focuses on those mistakes that are very common in the practice of psychotherapy. The word common is used intentionally because we all make them. They are the kind of mistakes that may slow down the therapeutic process but generally won’t halt it or create adverse effects unless they are made too frequently. Talking about these common mistakes enables us to keep them in the forefront of our minds so that we make them less often. Finally, recognizing the universality of these mistakes enables us to use humor and even poke fun at ourselves a bit. Reducing common mistakes enables us to increase compliance with ethical codes regarding the boundaries of competence, maintaining competence, monitoring effectiveness and avoiding harm.
Presenter: Linda Paulk Buchanan ’83, M.Ed., Ph.D.
Dr. Linda Buchanan is a 1983 graduate of PSI and recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999. She has also earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from Georgia State University with a specialty in family therapy. Dr. Buchanan founded Atlanta Center for Eating Disorders in 1993 which she sold in 2017. She now primarily focuses on consulting and writing. Her book A Clinician’s Guide to Pathological Ambivalence was published in 2019, the content of which she has presented at national and international conferences. She has also self-published three workbooks (one serves as a client companion to the Clinician’s Guide). Additionally, she has published four research articles on the treatment of eating disorders including two outcome studies of the treatment provided at Atlanta Center for Eating Disorders and two book chapters. Dr. Buchanan serves as a peer reviewer of American Psychological Association (APA) Journals and writes a blog called From One Therapist to Another, writing about experience gained in over 35 years of clinical practice. She has been married for over 30 years to Dr. Bill Buchanan and is the mother of two adopted sons.
Learning Objectives: As a result of attending, participants will be able to:
Continuing Education: 3 Ethics CE Hours Available
Target Audience: Psychotherapists from all disciplines: Psychologists, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Social Workers, graduate students
Instruction Level: Appropriate for all levels
Refund policy: In order to receive a refund, requests must be submitted prior to July 21, 2023.
For questions, please contact Amy Estes at aestes@richmont.edu.
There is no known commercial support for this program.
Richmont Graduate University has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 4534. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Richmont Graduate University is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Richmont Graduate University is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Richmont Graduate University maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Presentation References:
Blanchard, Matt & Farber, Barry. (2015). Lying in psychotherapy: Why and what clients don’t tell their therapist about therapy and their relationship. Counselling Psychology Quarterly. 29. 1-23. 10.1080/09515070.2015.1085365.
Hardy, G., Bishop-Edwards, L., Chambers, E., Connell, J., Dent-Brown, K., Kothari, G., O’Hara, R., & Parry, G. (2019) Risk factors for negative experiences during psychotherapy. Psychotherapy Research 29(3), 403-414.
Klatte, R., Strauss, B., Flückiger, C., & Rosendahl, J. (2018). Adverse effects of psychotherapy: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis. Systematic reviews, 7(1), 135. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-018-0802-x
Mitchell, S. (2020). When therapy goes wrong – A case for increasing focus on the negative effects of counselling and psychotherapy in training programs. The Irish Journal of Counseling and Psychotherapy, 20(1). 4-9.
Roei Chen, Dana Atzil-Slonim, Eran Bar-Kalifa, Ilanit Hasson-Ohayon, Eshkol Refaeli. (2016) Therapists’ recognition of alliance ruptures as a moderator of change in alliance and symptoms. Psychotherapy Research 28:4, pages 560-570.