The GoodTherapy Blog

We evaluate. That’s what we do. We ask question after question after question, and when we’re not asking questions, we’re noting answers to questions we haven’t asked. We’re so ... Read More

Some people differentiate “counseling” from “therapy.” I have practiced in Washington and Texas and have found no clear differentiation in state law, the language of ... Read More

A colleague of mine, a psychiatric nurse, was working alongside a psychiatrist who would often be insistent about his intention to change a patient’s medication regimen before they even ... Read More

During healthy development, children learn that the people around them are mostly safe and trustworthy. Even when they do not get what they want, they eventually learn to self-soothe in ... Read More

Father and son sitting on a park bench As parents, we frequently focus on learning how best to “discipline” our children. Yet I find the greatest challenge in learning how to be, as ... Read More

The continuum of exposure to domestic violence ranges from chronic arguing and yelling to controlling behaviors, threats, and intimidation, to physical threats, threats of suicide or murder, ... Read More

The absence of fathers in the lives of their children is not uncommon. David Blankenhorn (1995), author of Fatherless America, wrote, “The United States is becoming an increasingly fatherless ... Read More

It is the nature of abuse within families to be as behaviorally nuanced and emotionally complex as the individuals involved. Relationship abuses nearly inevitably reveal a life-draining ... Read More

Humanistic in nature and concerned with the existential qualities of human relationships, Virginia Satir was considered a founder and leading catalyst in the evolution of experiential family ... Read More

Problems that make their way to family therapy tend to involve self-reinforcing—or circular—dynamics and, as such, are commonly called “vicious cycles” or even “vicious circles.” ... Read More

By the mid-20th century, family therapy pioneers were overturning conventions. Chief among them stirred Carl Whitaker—country boy-turned-OB/GYN-turned-psychotherapeutic provocateur who ... Read More

I have 5-year-old twin daughters. For the sake of privacy, I’ll call them Mary and Martha. Mary is sensitive, nurturing, deeply compassionate, and easily distracted. Martha is industrious ... Read More