Therapist Blog Challenge #4: Answer An FAQ

One quick and easy way to generate content for a blog post is to answer a frequently asked question

What questions do you get asked over and over again about your practice? The questions can be about your therapy approach, about therapy in general, or specific a question about your practice. Make a list of common questions, choose one question and write your answer...and voila! You have a new blog post.

Here are a some sample questions to choose from or feel free to come up with on of your own:

• How do I know if a therapist is the "right fit" for me?

• Do you work with my insurance?

• How do I know if I need therapy?

• Is therapy confidential?

• I think my partner is depressed. How do I get my partner to go and see a therapist?

• My daughter is losing weight quickly. Could she have an eating disorder?

• What's the difference between a therapist and a coach?

• How does talking to a therapist differ from talking with a friend?

• How long does therapy take?

• How will I know when I'm done with therapy?

Ok, colleagues. This challenge is so easy. Let's get blogging! I'm excited to read what you come up with.

Additional reminders about the 2013 blog challenge

• Write and post your blog article in the next 2 weeks. If you miss the deadline or you read this article months later, that’s OK too.
• Post a link for this blog challenge in the comment section of this blog post.
• Read, comment, and share other therapist’s articles.
• Tweet your post using hashtag #therapistblog and tag @julie_hanks so I can retweet it.
• Pin it on the challenge Pinterest Board. I’ve invited everyone who posted a comment on the initial blog challenge post as collaborators so you can pin onto the group board.
• Spread the word and invite mental health colleagues to join the challenge. Articles can be added anytime throughout the year.
• Write no more than 600 words, make it easy to read, use a conversational tone, and gear your articles toward your ideal client (not other professionals).
• The goal of a professional blog is to provide value your website visitors, help them get to know your professional perspective, increase traffic to your private practice website, and build your practice.

Practicing Outside The Box: Growing Tomatoes In Psychotherapy

Stuck in a therapeutic rut? Find inspiration from other therapist's creative strategies and get outside the box!

As therapists, especially those of us who have been practicing for a few years, it's easy to get into a rut and become less creative than we were as eager, bright-eyed interns. Feeling the need to be more creative in the therapy hour inspired me to reach out to other therapists for ideas and inspiration and start this series about practicing outside of the box.

Because I managed to kill every plant I have ever owned (I have a "black thumb") and because I have always fantasized about living in New York City, I was intrigued by psychotherapist Janet Zinn, LCSW's use of "outside the box" strategies to help her clients. Janet found that incorporating nature in the form of a garden in the middle of a New York City practice was a welcome and healing environment for her clients.

Here is what Janet said about her work with a female client:

I had a client who was diagnosed with a serious borderline personality disease. She had been hospitalized on a number of occasions.  She loved gardening, and we planted a tomato plant that she watered, cut back and cultivated twice a week. When the tomatoes grew in she had a sense of accomplishment. As someone who was always told that she was bad, here was something she could feel good about.

We used the tomato plant as a metaphor for her own process in life.  How could she treat herself in a kind and cultivating way? What would nourish her soul?  The tomato plant calmed her.  She felt less reactive when working with the tomato plant.  In the winter, we would use the tomato plant as a  metaphor of patience and the seasons became a lesson on the process of growth and change.

Have you found a creative niche, a unique office space, use non-traditional interventions, or have something that sets you apart from other private practice clinicians? I want to hear about it! Email me with "outside the box" in the subject line.

jacki-dee (catching up) via Compfight