Exam Prep Blog: December 2019

If you are preparing for the California MFT Clinical Exam or the National MFT exam, a topic that could very well be tested on your exam is personality disorders. We constantly hear people casually labeling others as narcissistic, borderline, or antisocial, to name a few. However, when working as a mental health professional, these personality disorders have specific criteria we must be familiar with before considering this cluster of diagnoses. So what are the distinguishing features of personality disorders? Personality disorders are: Generally egosyntonic Characterized by unhealthy and rigid

Have you ever wondered if your clinical skills were getting stale? Maybe you have the feeling that you need to add to your clinical toolbox, or while working with a client, you realized that you needed a different approach. Regardless if your a new clinician or have years of experience, there is a need to keep your clinical skills fresh. You’re responsible for delivering the best service possible for your client, and if it’s been a while since you worked on your skills, it’s time to learn something new. Here are five ways to refresh your clinical skills. 1) Attend a free webinar We are in a

I don’t know about all of you out there, but until I interned on an acute inpatient psychiatric unit, I really had no idea what a person experiencing psychosis really looked like (clinically speaking). This category of disorders, distinguished by the primary symptoms of delusions, prominent hallucinations, disorganized speech, or disorganized or catatonic behavior, is bound to come up on the MFT exam in a variety of ways. Here’s just one:

If you’re preparing for your ASWB Clinical Social Work Exam, transference and countertransference are two topics you definitely want to familiarize yourself with. As a coach I get a lot of questions on the differences between these two topics. Many social workers confuse the definitions of transference and countertransference and assume both warrant the same response. As we'll discuss throughout this blog, transference and countertransference require very different actions both on the exam and in real life. What is Transference? Transference is a dynamic that occurs in therapy between the

Minor consent for treatment is a topic I get questions on multiple times per week as an LCSW coach. So what is informed consent? Informed Consent Definition Informed consent is defined as the process for getting formal permission for treatment and services before engaging in treatment with a client(s). What makes minor consent for treatment so challenging is that rules and laws surrounding informed consent for minors vary state to state and this is a national exam. While you are licensed by your individual state, the licensure exam is the same across all 50 states. Because this is a national