Before you see your first client: 55 things counselors, therapists and human service workers need to know

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface to the Classic Edition -- Introduction -- 1. Join Forces with a Psychiatrist to Open a Risk-Free Private Practice -- 2. Don't Become Married to a Single Referral Source -- 3. Accept the Fact That Salaries in This Field Are Often Unfair -- 4. It Pays to Be Assertive When You're Shopping for Your Salary -- 5. Managed Care Panels Often Slam the Door in Your Face -- 6. Managed Care Firms Dictate Who, When, and How -- 7. The Multicultural Diversity Secret: You Can Work with a Wider Range of People than You Think -- 8. Never Give Any Client Information without a Signed Release-of-Information Form -- 9. You Must Use a DSM or ICD Diagnosis to Secure Third-Party Payments -- 10. The Insurance Superbill Must Have Your Name as the Provider -- 11. Lecturing May Not Flood Your Waiting Room with Clients -- 12. Referrals Received Do Not Determine How Many New Clients You Actually See -- 13. Managed Care Companies Discriminate against Some Counseling and Psychotherapy Theories -- 14. Refer Severely Disturbed Clients for a Medical or Psychiatric Evaluation -- 15. Find Out Whether the Psychological and Psycho-Educational Test Reports You Receive Are Individualized -- 16. Don't Be Misled by Clients Who Initially Put You on a Pedestal -- 17. Most Professional Certifications Won't Help You Secure Insurance Payments -- 18. Don't Use Paradoxical Interventions with Suicidal and Homicidal Clients -- 19. Conduct a Suicide Assessment on Each Initial Client -- 20. Don't Try to Clone Your Favorite Therapist -- 21. When In Doubt, Use a Person-Centered Response -- 22. Read Ethical Guidelines Before You Even So Much as Hug a Client -- 23. Don't Rush to Therapeutic Judgment Until You Get All the Facts -- 24. The Number One Therapeutic Blunder: Confronting Sooner than Later.

Before You See Your First Client begins where courses, workshops, training seminars, and textbooks leave off, providing a candid behind-the-scenes look at the fields of therapy, counseling and human services. In a reader-friendly and accessible style, Dr. Howard Rosenthal offers his readers 55 useful and practical ideas for the implementation, improvement, and expansion of one's mental health practice. Based on the author's own personal experiences, the book is written in an intimate and personal style to which inexperienced and beginning therapists can easily relate