Exam Prep Blog: June 2012

Happy Tuesday folks! I know summertime doesn't exactly come with images of exam preparation...but the extreme heat in many places over the past few weeks can actually make it easier to stay indoors and study! Remember not to do too much -- no more than 2 hours a day to make the best use of your brain (unless you're doing a mock exam, in which case you should sit through the whole thing in order to accurately simulate the real thing!). This week we're moving onto the topic of Treating Families...oh the places we could go with this one! Let's get things going with a sample item. Sample: A

This is the big question most people are asking as they get ready to start their test preparation. Believe it or not, researchers have spent a lot of time studying this -- well not specifically LCSW/MFT prep, but the learning/testing process. But, before we look at this question, try a mental experiment. Imagine for a moment that you are told you needed to pass a physical fitness test to get your license. You haven't worked out in a while, so you sign up for a program that has you train by running and running and running. You train really hard and you get in shape. But the problem is, when you

It’s Tuesday, and even though I have a wicked case of the sniffles, it’s time for another Hot Topic. We’re headed into pretty juicy territory here: Treating Couples. Not everyone will work with couples directly, but even if both partners aren’t in the room with you, couples issues will impact your work and need to be addressed. Here’s a sample question… Sample: After 10 years together, a couple decides to seek treatment for increasing tension and feelings of disconnection and anger. They meet with a therapist and decide on a course of treatment that includes weekly sessions and homework. After

Okay, folks, we're moving on tonight to the topic of Work Issues. In this topic, we cover things like EAP treatment and vocational training. There are a pretty limited number of ways that this topic can show up on the exam, so let's take a look at a practice question that represents one of them. Sample: A 43-year-old man is referred to a therapist through his company EAP; he has been having difficulty at work following a contentious divorce and subsequent custody battle. In the initial session, he talks about his difficulty finding an affordable house close to his children, his sadness about

I like to think that all therapists have a population which, when considered, brings on sweaty palms and feelings of anxiety. For me, that population is adolescents -- I've had some good experiences working with them, but it does NOT come naturally to me. In some ways, they're like giant toddlers -- and I love working with toddlers -- but with adolescents, their natural inclination toward defiance, independence, and challenging authority just makes me nervous (as do the potential consequences of their behavior!). On the test, dealing with adolescents can come up in a few different ways. Sample