Ben Caldwell, Author at Psychotherapy Notes

Graham-Cassidy health care bill would be disastrous for US mental health care

September 25, 2017 by Ben Caldwell

US Capitol dome The US Senate may take action this week on the Graham-Cassidy health care bill, a last-ditch effort by Senate Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. If Graham-Cassidy becomes law, the consequences for US mental health providers and their clients would be disastrous.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office will not score the bill before a September 30 deadline for Senators to vote on it. But estimates suggest that under the bill, at least 16 million Americans would lose health insurance entirely after 10 years, given the bill’s similarity to prior Republican health care bills. This would leave millions paying out of pocket for mental health care that is currently covered by insurance.

Talkspace forces therapists to break rules. The rules may be the problem.

September 13, 2017 by Ben Caldwell

Matthew Henry / Burst / Licensed under Creative Commons Zero App-based therapy platforms may well represent the next evolution of psychotherapy practice. I praised Talkspace a few years ago for offering access to mental health care for many who otherwise would never find their way to a therapist’s office. But the platforms — Talkspace, Betterhelp, and the like — have run into controversy over their confidentiality policies. Therapists using these apps may have little to no ready access to the client’s full name, address, or other information necessary in an emergency.

Every excuse for California’s MFT Clinical Exam pass rate, debunked

September 6, 2017 by Ben Caldwell

At the August meeting of the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, I had a tense exchange with representatives from the state’s Office of Professional Examination Services about pass rates for the California MFT Clinical Exam. That pass rate has fallen off a cliff. For the first six months of the year, just 56% of those taking the test for the first time passed.

At the meeting, OPES presented about their exam development process, and argued that nothing meaningful had changed on their end. They and the BBS raised several hypotheses about both the current low pass rate and the drop in pass rate at the start of the year.

Over the past week, I investigated every one of the hypotheses offered. Not one of those hypotheses stands up to scrutiny.

Applying for a job as a prelicensed therapist: How to stand out

August 30, 2017 by Ben Caldwell

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of applications. Caldwell-Clark, a nonprofit I co-founded, regularly hires prelicensed MFTs for paid positions. We tend to get good interest in those openings when they happen, with many good candidates applying. And in the years I spent as core faculty for a graduate program, I saw hundreds of applications from students eager to get in to that program.

In both contexts, the application process can be nerve-wracking for applicants, and frustrating for people like me who are responsible for evaluating the applications. People who would likely be great students, great employees, and great therapists can easily be overlooked on the basis of a few mistakes in their application materials.

Here are some things you can do to make your application for a prelicensed therapist position as strong as it can be.

Prove yourself: Accountability is changing mental health care

August 28, 2017 by Ben Caldwell

We can’t say we didn’t see this coming. In the first edition of The Heart and Soul of Change: What Works in Therapy, published in 1999, authors Mark Hubble, Barry Duncan, and Scott Miller predicted that psychotherapists would soon be facing a new era of accountability for their work. Clients, payors, and policymakers would all demand hard evidence that psychotherapy was effective. That era is well underway, and so far we have provided a wealth of the kind of information these parties have demanded.

We can demonstrate that therapy works as an overall conclusion, and within the contexts of specific problems and populations. Proving the effectiveness of specific models has been helpful in many ways (showing that model-based treatment is superior to no treatment) and enlightening in others (showing that, for most problems, the model of therapy has little to no impact on outcome). The brain research discussed by Siegel, Cozolino, and others explains why therapy works. Psychotherapy in general is being held accountable, and it is passing the test with flying colors.

The same cannot be said of specific therapists, or of therapy training programs – yet.