1st Edition
Inspiration for the Weary Therapist A Practical Clinical Companion
Inspiration for the Weary Therapist is a companion for the modern practitioner. Addressing a diverse audience and written by a master clinician and supervisor, Inspiration for the Weary Therapist helps modern therapists traverse the complicated landscape of practicing therapy in the age of COVID-19.
Instead of a heavy, theoretical approach that can leave the already exhausted therapist feeling more overwhelmed, Inspiration for the Weary Therapist guides readers through challenging professional situations, soothes them during upsetting clinical moments, and encourages them to keep going during changing times. Rather than teaching mental health professionals how to practice, this book helps them believe in themselves again and reconnect with their confidence as clinicians through increased self-compassion and personal growth.
This practical and helpful guide is essential reading for all mental health practitioners who are searching for inspiration and motivation and who want to reconnect to what it means to be a therapist.
Introduction, 1. Practicing During Uncertain Times, 2. Real Self Care: How to Avoid Burnout, 3. Empowering Through Love: How to Impart Strength to Our Clients, 4. How to Go With the Flow, 5. Are You a Therapist or a Pineapple? Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There, 6. When Your Client Ghosts You: How to Keep Clients, 7. Caring for Clients While Taking Notes, 8. The Ins and Outs of Transference, 9. Addressing Dimensions of Culture in Couples Counseling, 10. Starting and Stopping Who We Are: How to Be Yourself as a Therapist, 11. How Does That Make You Feel? Please Don’t Ask That, 12. Naming Your Shadow and Grappling with the Unknown, 13. Putting Thoughts into Words: How Finding Your Voice Helps with Clinical Confidence, 14. The Untaught Lessons of Professional Identity, 15. A Word of Advice: Don’t Give Advice, 16. How Much Is a Session Worth?, 17. Attention, Merging, and Guilt: How to Stay Balanced as a Therapist, 18. Anxiety is Like a Hand Without Fingers, 19. Therapy Posture: How to Orient Yourself in Session, 20. Permission to be Weird: The Cure for the Weary Therapist, 21. Accessing Your Higher Wisdom, 22. Conclusion, Index
Biography
David Klow, LMFT, is the author of You Are Not Crazy: Letters From Your Therapist and the founder of Skylight Counseling Center in Chicago.
"David Klow has offered us a supportive and generous book from the trenches. Although he too is wrestling with the role of the therapist during this time of massive global upheaval, he has found a way to convey to us a deep well of both empathy and leadership. This is no small feat! He writes simply (because he knows we are weary), but he writes thoughtfully (because he knows we cannot indulge simplistic formulations at a time like this). This is a book every clinician needs to have on their shelf."
Alexandra H. Solomon, PhD, adjunct faculty at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, licensed clinical psychologist at the The Family Institute at Northwestern University, and host of the "Reimagining Love" podcast
"Inspiration for the Weary Therapist is a delight to read! It richly delivers on Klow’s promise to fill the gaps in a therapist’s formal training, combat burnout, and offer practical suggestions from his many years of clinical work and supervision. Transcending models of therapy, the book covers the important topics of boundary setting, self-care, offering advice, and many more that bedevil practitioners. Therapists of all experience levels will find pearls of wisdom and telling clinical examples in these pages."
Arthur Nielsen, MD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and author of A Roadmap for Couple Therapy and Integrative Couple Therapy in Action
"Inspiration for the Weary Therapist is just that and more. David Klow, a superb therapist and supervisor, offers precisely the sort of book that early career therapists and students in the mental health fields need. Sagaciously, Klow’s overarching theme lies in helping readers to find and retain their own therapeutic voice, even in these trying times. Yet, this book also brilliantly offers an almost endless repository of therapeutic tools as well as practical guidance about the pragmatics of working as a therapist. Filled with clinical wisdom and well-chosen vignettes, this is clearly a book every therapist can learn from and should be required reading for every beginning therapist."
Jay Lebow, PhD, ABPP, LMFT, clinical professor, senior scholar, and senior therapist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University
