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Fifty Common Therapist Errors...

and How to Avoid Them

"There is a slippery underbelly to the successful practice of psychotherapy that is almost never taught in graduate programs or medical schools," claim Drs. Bernard Schwartz and John V. Flowers in their new book, How to Fail as a Therapist: 50 Ways to Lose or Damage Your Patients.

"Unfortunately," they argue, "the core curricula in psychology, psychiatry, counseling and social work have little to offer when it comes to nitty-gritty therapeutic decisions -- the artistry involved in managing interviews and dealing with minor lapses or oversights that may rupture relationships."

How to Fail as a Therapist is Schwartz and Flowers' answer: a guide to avoiding or remedying the most common errors -- those that can jeopardize the value and efficacy of therapy. "Clients often cite dissatisfaction with their therapists as the reason for early termination of therapy," they explain. Yet clinicians may not realize the client frustrations underlying negative outcomes: "Clearly, we are as adept at denial, deception, and rationalization as our clients."

For example, "The first and most fundamental error therapists make," assert the psychologist-authors, "is failing to recognize our own limitations."

Other error pitfalls they cite include:

Failing to address client expectations about therapy
Failing to assess for organic or medical conditions
Ignoring patient resources
Emphasizing technique over relationship building
Failing to monitor one's own well-being

How to Fail as a Therapist presents strategies for nurturing the therapeutic alliance and enhancing therapeutic progress, with advice on avoiding client-therapist boundary errors, judging readiness for change, providing sufficient empathy and support, using science judiciously, preventing professional burnout, and more. Each of the fifty errors described in the book includes discussion, illustrative examples, and straightforward corrective actions.

How to Fail as a Therapist is designed to serve as a desktop skill builder for clinicians at every level of training and experience, and of all persuasions. "All of us will experience failure at one time or another in our practices," Schwartz and Flowers acknowledge. "Accepting our fallibility keeps us humble by reminding us we don't have all the answers. Awareness of our imperfections can drive us toward improving our skills."

Bernard Schwartz, Ph.D. has written a number of books, including the highly successful How to Get Your Children to Do What You Want Them to Do. He has specialized in the fields of sports psychology, and child custody evaluations, and has written extensively on both subjects. As a supervisor of doctoral students, it became clear to him that there was no single book to which he could refer that briefly yet comprehensively described the major clinical errors which can lead to poor therapeutic outcomes. Hence the impetus to write this book.

John V. Flowers, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Chapman University and a clinical psychologist in private practice. His research has focused on psychotherapy process and outcome, and more recently psychotherapy in the cinema. He has authored dozens of journal articles, seven prior books and made hundreds of presentations to scientific societies. As a clinical supervisor for over twenty years, he has observed first hand most of the errors described in this book.

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How to Fail as a Therapist: 50 Ways to Lose or Damage Your Patients is available at online and local bookstores nationwide or directly from Impact Publishers, P.O. Box 6016, Atascadero, CA 93423-6016, www.impactpublishers.com, or phone 1-800-246-7228.