Suicide remains one of the most difficult topics mental health professionals face in clinical practice. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10–34 in 2023, and it ranked among the top eight causes of death for people ages 10–64. Despite these sobering numbers, many clinicians feel underprepared to initiate conversations about suicide with their clients. Knowing how to break that silence, and what to do when clients are in crisis, is an essential skill for any practitioner.

Why clinicians hesitate

A common fear among therapists is that asking about suicide will plant the idea in a client's mind. Research does not support this myth. In reality, many cli...

When the Internet Becomes the Therapist

Before many people ever sit across from a therapist, they have already spent hours on social media learning about mental health. They have watched symptom-checklist videos, joined online communities organized around specific diagnoses, and arrived at conclusions about their own psychological experience. For mental health professionals, this shift is not a minor inconvenience, it is a defining feature of clinical work today.

Why this matters now

Mental health content has become one of the most widely consumed categories on social media. Clients are learning about symptoms, diagnoses, trauma, neurodiversity, and treatment options from influencers and algorithmic feeds, often before any professional i...

Every clinician brings more than credentials into the therapy room — they bring identity, assumptions, and cultural conditioning. When those go unexamined, even well-intentioned treatment can miss the mark entirely, or worse, cause harm. Understanding how power, privilege, and oppression operate in clinical relationships is not a political exercise; it is a clinical competency.

Defining the terms

Power refers to the ability to influence outcomes and access resources. Privilege describes unearned advantages granted to members of certain groups — advantages that are often invisible to those who hold them. Oppression is what occurs when systems and institutions consistently disadvantage certain groups while benefiting others. In clinical pra...

Mental health professionals are increasingly called upon to testify in legal proceedings, providing expert perspectives on the impact of an individual’s mental health on their thoughts, behaviors, and overall wellbeing.

For many professionals, the idea of taking the stand can be daunting. The dynamics in the courtroom vary greatly from the therapy room; the rules and expectations are an entirely different game. Preparing for the experience by learning the rules can help make testimony less intimidating and enable mental health professionals to feel confident in developing a skill that enhances a meaningful part of professional practice.

Most of us do not ask to receive a subpoena. Our initial reaction may be panic, fear, or sheer terror, ...

The way mental health professionals communicate and document client care has changed dramatically in recent years. Telehealth has expanded at a pace few could have anticipated, messaging with clients has become routine, and electronic records now follow clinicians across devices and platforms. These shifts offer real benefits. They also introduce a new class of ethical risk, one that can surface not from bad intentions but from a single uninformed click.

Why digital ethics demands attention now

Telehealth use increased roughly 38 times over pre-pandemic levels and hasn't returned to its former baseline. Clinicians now conduct sessions over video, exchange messages between appointments, and store sensitive notes in cloud-based systems, oft...

Mental health care for older adults is one of the most complex and underserved areas of clinical
practice. As the older adult population grows — with projections showing that Americans 65
and older will outnumber children for the first time by 2034 — the demand for informed,
ethical, and compassionate geriatric mental health care has never been greater. Yet too many
older adults remain unsupported in today's behavioral health landscape.

The ethical terrain is uniquely challenging
Older adult care presents clinicians with ethical dilemmas that do not arise as frequently with
other populations. Cognitive impairments such as dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
can complicate the process of obtaining informed consent, requiring careful evalua...

Anger is one of the most universal human experiences, yet it remains one of the least
understood. Whether it surfaces as a child's frustrated outburst over a toy, a teenager's blow-up
during a stressful rehearsal, or an adult's loss of composure in a high-stakes job interview,
anger does not appear out of nowhere. It has roots and recognizing those roots is the first
step toward managing its impact.

Anger looks different across the lifespan
The triggers for anger shift as people grow. In children, unmet needs, perceived injustice, or
sibling rivalry can quickly escalate into physical reactions before the child has words for what
they are feeling. Adolescents face a more complex landscape: identity formation, peer pressure,
and academic stress all ...

Parental alienation and coercive control are critical issues in family dynamics, particularly during and after divorce or separation. Understanding their intersection is essential for anyone involved in the welfare of children. We also need to understand how parents impact their own child’s well-being and ensure equitable outcomes in custody disputes.

Defining Coercive Control and Parental Alienation
Coercive control is a pattern of behaviors aimed at dominating and diminishing another person’s autonomy. In family relationships, this often manifests as one parent exerting undue influence over a child to damage or sever the child’s relationship with the other parent.

Parental alienation involves behaviors by one parent that turn a child aga...