Exam Prep Blog: February 2018

In last month’s blog, we focused on the importance of integrating self-care into your studies. This month, we are going to focus on an essential aspect of self-care, developing and maintaining healthy boundaries as you prepare for your LCSW or LMFT exam. Similar to the concept of self-care, ”healthy boundaries” is another popular concept in the world of psychotherapy and counseling. As clinicians, we know that healthy boundaries are important and we constantly assist our clients in developing and maintaining them in their personal lives. And, as is the case with self-care, we sometimes fall

Yesterday we explored the topic of scope of competence, including a free practice question. Today we have the answer and a discussion of the rationale for you. Did you get it right?

Scope of Competence Last month we have discussed the concept of scope of practice. This month, we talk about the concept of scope of competence. If scope of practice is a legal issue, scope of competence is an ethical one. If scope of practice is what we are permitted to do, then the scope of competence is what we are good at doing.

Yesterday we explored the differences between the defense mechanisms introjection/internalization and identification. These can be difficult ones to distinguish, so if you haven’t already, we encourage you to check out yesterday’s blog post! Today we have a discussion of the answer and rationale for yesterday’s practice question.

Introjection/Internalization and Identification As an LCSW and LMSW exam coach, there are no defense mechanisms I get more emails and questions about than introjection/internalization and identification. Introjection and internaization are used pretty interchangeably on the exam, so going forward in this blog I will just use ‘identification’ for the sake of simplicity. There is a lot of confusion out there regarding the differences between these defense mechanisms, and our hope is that today’s blog will help you distinguish between these as you prepare for your LCSW and LMSW exams!