ABSTRACT
The career of a licensed therapist—whether psychologist, marriage and family therapist, licensed social worker, or counselor—as defined by various state legislatures, is a unique and challenging profession. One comes to it for a variety of reasons: the urgent need to heal thy self, to share the rewards of personal self-growth with others; a desire to help others and the community; a spiritual interest in transformative processes; and an academic interest in research within the vast field of mind, behavior, and mental health. Whatever originally brought you to this career may or may not still be relevant as you now sit in the chair of the therapist. You are face to face, on a daily basis, with a variety of individuals, with a multiversity of issues, looking to you to help them discover a route to a better place. There are times the route is embedded in a mist; you can’t see where it is going, and the despair and hopelessness sits like dense fog between you and the patient. Other times, we are bathed in sunlight and the route is clearly demarcated in front of us; we have a road map guiding the way, and we will follow it through hill and dale. My intention for this guidebook has been to provide a road map to be used as a how-to reference for your clinical practice for new and mature therapists.
