09 - Measurement with Casey Meinster

Casey Meinster, of Hathaway-Sycamores in Pasadena, joins us to talk about measuring outcomes in psychotherapy. Her agency's funding depends on their staff gathering data on every single client, and that is rapidly becoming the norm for larger mental health care providers.

In two separate studies almost a decade apart, hundreds of mental health clinicians evaluated their own work compared to that of their colleagues. In both studies, *not a single participant* evaluated themselves as being below average. In this episode, we'll talk about why we as therapists and counselors think we're so good, and how measuring outcomes can give you a far more accurate and useful -- if occasionally humbling -- picture.

We talk with Angela Caldwell (yes, relation) about what men want from their usually-women therapists, and how that knowledge transformed her work with men.

The overwhelming majority of therapists are women, and the gender balance in the field is only growing more one-sided. We'll talk about gender in the therapy world, and the impact of having so few men around.

When it comes to the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

Two students at a private graduate program. Together they have amassed more than half a million dollars in student loan debt. These are their stories, in their own words.

When educational costs rise but salaries don't, the burden of student loan debt gets tougher and tougher for therapists. On this episode, we discuss just how much of a burden that is.

We talk with Kim Madsen, the Executive Officer of the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, about the mythology surrounding license exams and what she recommends if your test is coming up.

They're a rite of passage every counselor and therapist has to go through. And yet, there's no actual evidence that they do the one thing they are supposed to do: Ensure safe practice. In this first episode of the Psychotherapy Notes podcast, we talk about the problems with license exams -- and why we should keep them anyway.