Your Questions About Marriage And Family Counseling

MarriageCounseling answers:

Read as much as you possibly can about childhood and adolescent biopsychosocial development, attachment theory, and family dynamics.

It helps to understand that their brains do not work like adults’ brains work, or like typical adolescents’ brains work. Some had intrauterine drug and alcohol exposure. Some have had multiple TBIs. It helps to understand that they’ve had nightmarish childhoods. It helps to understand that they have never had a healthy and supportive social network. And it helps to understand that their delinquent friends’ opinions of them matter 1,000x more than their parents or your opinion of them. Teens are learning to explore their independence and make a new “family” out of their peer groups, but the part of their brains dealing with judgment, insight and consequential decision-making has not yet developed.

Troubled adolescents are the hardest population to work with in all of existence, I am convinced. Most of them have had almost none of their needs met. They have very limited ability grasp the consequences of their actions. They have no belief system that suggests to them that someone will ever be there for them. They are a troubled bunch, but their needs are the greatest and, for those who can stand the intensity of the work, it can be very rewarding.

MarriageCounseling answers:

I’ve been a Clinical Social Worker providing marriage and family therapy for over 31 years, and I love what I do. I don’t even consider it work. The hardest part of what I do (besides dealing with insurance companies) is making sure that I keep track of my emotions so I can resist the influence of my clients’ emotions on me. That’s the only way that I know I can remain objective while still caring about my clients. If I get invloved in either agreeing or disagreeing with my clients, then I don’t believe that I am of any use to them. I will just support one side or the other of the status quo.

I don’t really understand what you mean by your question about having “to work everyday all day;” so I’m not sure that what follows will answer. However, I will say that you and the agency, hospital, or practice that you work for will negotiate the days and hours you will work. You do need time off to eat, sleep, and play, not to mention observe and deal with your own family. If and when you establish your own practice, you will need to be fully in charge of the time you spend with clients and in your personal life. Otherwise you will burn out. I’m not a morning person; so I see clients in the afternoons and evenings Monday through Thursday and enjoy a three day weekend.

If it’s a steady income you’re looking for as a therapist, work for an agency or hospital. Once you have some experience and if you are willing to take some financial risks, work for a private group practice or start your own practice. While your income will fluctuate in a private practice (your own or someone elses), you have the potential of earning more than in an agency or hospital. Exactly how much you can earn is dependent on the fees that you set for your services which are influenced by the fees that other therapist in your area charge. (You don’t want to price yourself out of the competition.) If you want to know what the potential is in your area, call several of your local therapist and ask what they charge for marriage and family therapy. If you want to increase your earning power and reduce the financial fluxtuations in your practice, then take some business and marketing as well as clinical courses. Most therapist that I know have never taken a business or marketing course and suffer for it.

MarriageCounseling answers:

Harvard

MarriageCounseling answers:

USMC ooooRAHH