Look, I’m not here to defend the BBS (California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences) or any other licensing board. They’re not your friend. They require deeply flawed exams that even they know don’t work. Their disciplinary guidelines, especially around substance use issues, are unreasonably punitive. They are notoriously unresponsive. There are a lot of problems there. But it’s also true that most complaints about the BBS are based on flat-out falsehoods.
Public policy
Why MFTs struggle to influence public policy
As marriage and family therapists, we have a vast body of knowledge supporting our work with families and communities. Many of the pinciples and interventions from this body of knowledge could be utilized in public policy, to great positive effect. As two examples, family breakdown could be reduced, and juvenile crime recidivism decreased, both in ways that actually save taxpayers money. Politicians of all parties should be chomping at the bit for such policies.
Except that they don’t. And the April 2009 Family Relations journal helps us to understand why not.
Podcast episode 9: Measurement with Casey Meinster
Casey Meinster is the Director of Evidence Based Practices at Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services, a major mental health services provider in Los Angeles. In that role, she wrangles a lot of information. But one piece of information I learned from her changed how I think about the importance of measurement in psychotherapy.
Hathway-Sycamores serves thousands of clients a year through more than a dozen programs. They fund those programs through a variety of sources, including government contracts, grants, and other sources. And it is now the case that every single program they run now has to produce outcome data on its clients. Their payors demand it.
Therapist shortage, or saturation? Depends who (and how) you ask
California suffers from a severe and worsening mental health workforce shortage. In fact, much of the US is in the same boat. There simply aren’t enough qualified mental health professionals to meet our country’s needs.
At the same time, therapists in private practice often complain about their local markets being saturated. There are so many therapists in some places, it seems, that it’s hard to get a career off the ground.
As it turns out, there’s truth to both of these perspectives.
What’s in a title? “Couple” versus “Marriage” and family therapists
Marriage and family therapists (MFTs) work with individuals, families, and couples of all types. We assess, diagnose and treat the full range of mental and emotional disorders. So, the title “marriage and family therapist” doesn’t provide the whole picture of what we do.
Should the name of the license be changed?