Hi everyone and welcome to The Therapist Development Center’s Social Work Exam Prep: The ABC’s blog! Each Thursday I will use this blog to post about various social work terms that may show up on the exam. We will go through each term alphabetically and illustrate the importance of knowing these terms so that you are ready come test day! Here’s a sample question to start us off this week with the letter A: Sample Question: Which of the following statements BEST describes the assessment process that occurs during the beginning stages of treatment? A.The process of determining what services are

The US Census estimates that in 2010, there were over 38 million people aged 65 and older living in the United States. As Baby Boomers continue to age, this number and the proportion of the population it represents will certainly grow. Despite these facts, many therapists out there (myself included) haven't been trained to and likely won't work directly with an elderly population. This can make test questions about working with the elderly tricky. Here's one way this topic can show up in a test item. Sample: A 67 year-old woman approaches a therapist in a community center and requests

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

After completing a graduate degree in social work and a post-graduate certificate program in Infant-Parent Mental Health, I like to think I know a thing or two about child development...but the truth is that I need reminders. Reminders of what is typical at each age and stage, reminders of what is cause for concern. The test makers and licensing bodies want to ensure both that you won't pathologize normal child behavior and that you won't normalize behavior that is a sign of a problem. Here's a example of a test item that incorporates this topic: Sample: A woman self-refers to a social worker

When it comes to passing the LCSW and MFT exams, people frequently ask me, "how much do I need to study?". They rarely ask, "how little do I need to study?". The first question is harder for me to answer. For one thing, people vary greatly in their studying efficiency. Most people say they are studying, but when you measure how much they’ve learned in that time, it’s very little. The other potential problem is that people tend to review the same material so many times that their brains stop listening and tune out, just as it does when a person tells you the same story over and over. Both of

It’s hard for me to believe, but we’ve been at this blog for 19 weeks now…we’re rolling through our 50 Topics pretty quick! This week, our attention turns to Stages of Development. You can guarantee that there will be a handful of questions on your exam that pertain to developmental stages, and most will reference either Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development or Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Let’s take a look at a potential test item that incorporates this topic: Sample: A 32 year-old man seeks treatment from a social worker for ongoing problems with both his personal and