Advances in the mental health professions
A pair of recent court rulings have declared therapy to be speech, not conduct. That distinction could make it much more difficult for states to regulate psychotherapy at all. That’s precisely what the law firm representing one of the plaintiffs hopes to achieve. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled in Chiles v Salazar that ... Read more The post How court rulings could end therapist…
There’s an important error on the California Department of Social Services form for reporting suspected elder and dependent adult abuse. The form misquotes the statute that defines an “elder” for mandated reporting purposes. It may lead therapists, teachers and others to report instances of abuse that they don’t actually have the obligation — or even ... Read more The post California’s elder abuse…
Sometime in February or March, AMFTRB made major revisions to the National MFT Exam outline. Why weren't the changes announced? The post AMFTRB quietly changed its 2026 National MFT Exam handbook appeared first on Psychotherapy Notes .
Are fewer people seeking out therapy? Good nationwide data is hard to come by, but we have some signals. Online therapy provider BetterHelp reports a dwindling subscriber base, down about 20% from its peak two years ago, even as they continue to spend millions of dollars on advertising. And anecdotally, we’re hearing lots of individual ... Read more The post Are therapy referrals down? 3 possible…
I’ve been reading and enjoying Blind Spots, a 2011 book about why people make choices that go against their own genuinely-held values. It’s a good read, full of insights that I hope to bring to my work in ethics and policy going forward. One unexpected nugget for therapists: Your late cancellation fee might actually be ... Read more The post Your late cancellation policy may be causing late…
I wrote this poem several years ago, and republish it each fall as a welcome to students beginning their graduate studies in the mental health professions. Every fall, the university where I teach enrolls dozens of new students into our graduate programs in mental health care. Our new students tend to be immensely talented, and ... Read more The post Prologue: A poem for new graduate students…
ASWB promised to release its exam validation studies and continue to provide exam data broken down by demographic factors. It has done neither. The post ASWB made two big promises about their social work exams. They haven’t kept either one appeared first on Psychotherapy Notes .
New evidence shows that the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) misinformed examinees about recent exam format changes. They then quietly updated their exam handbook two weeks after the changes had taken effect. Even if examinees had been correctly informed, the format changes appear to violate testing industry standards. What changed in the ASWB exams ... Read more The post ASWB misinformed…
Discussions about value-based care among therapists are often confusing and unproductive. In my experience, that seems to be because a lot of us simply don’t know what the term means. So it gets either dismissed as just a new term for things many of us already do (like measuring outcomes), or it gets framed as ... Read more The post Value-based care in mental health: An explainer appeared first on…
In response to mass shootings, wildfires, and other disasters, many therapists and counselors have sought to support impacted areas. One way they have done so is with free services. Marketing therapy after disasters can be difficult, though. Done well, it reinforces our roles as community caregivers. It shows off the best of who we are ... Read more The post Marketing therapy after disasters…