After receiving 4 (FOUR!!!!) emails asking about an erotic transference episode, we finally had a chance to discuss the topic. Erotic transference happens in a lot of therapeutic relationships and some theoretical orientations lean in to its exploration (think psychoanalysis), but many of us were not given any guidance about what to do when it comes up. How should we respond when a client has a crush on us, wants to keep seeing us because of their erotic feelings towards us, or wishes to have se...
Jul 31, 2024•44 min•Season 7Ep. 7
In this episode, we tackle the misuse of therapy speak and its impact. We delve into popular buzzwords, how these terms are being used (and misused), and discuss the important role therapists can play in educating clients on their proper use and definitions. Join us on Patreon for bonus content at www.patreon.com/edgeofthecouch or share your thoughts and questions via DM on Instagram @edgeofthecouchpod, email at connect@edgeofthecouch.com, or voice note at speakpipe.com/edgeofthecouch. We have p...
Jul 24, 2024•38 min•Season 7Ep. 6
In this episode, we explore what might be happening with clients when there is silence. Sometimes it's an awkward silence, sometimes they are contemplating what to say next or they are dissociated, and sometimes they are waiting for us to take the reigns. We share our perspectives on sitting in the silence versus breaking it, and talk about the different types of silences that show up in therapy. What happens if there are no silences? Join us as we uncover the significance behind these quiet mom...
Jul 10, 2024•29 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Unconditional positive regard, a concept introduced by Carl Rogers, emphasizes accepting and supporting clients without judgment regardless of what the client says or does. We have thoughts! Join us on Patreon for bonus content at www.patreon.com/edgeofthecouch or share your thoughts and questions via DM on Instagram @edgeofthecouchpod, email at connect@edgeofthecouch.com, or voice note at speakpipe.com/edgeofthecouch. We have partnered with Janeapp, an all-in-one practice management software. Y...
Jul 03, 2024•32 min•Season 7Ep. 4
What do you do when a client describes a traumatic experience, but then proceeds to shrug it off? In this episode, we explore what might be going on when clients dismiss what we gather are traumatic experiences. We discuss possible reasons behind this phenomenon, including denial, dissociation, or simply seeing it as common and therefore, normal and not worth discussing. We use examples like Alec Baldwin's 2007 voicemail to his daughter and an anecdote about Gabor Mate. This conversation mostly ...
Jun 26, 2024•30 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Now, we don’t believe that clients can be “too emotional” but many clients come to therapy with narratives around emotion that may make them feel that they are being too much when they are emotional in session - crying is a weakness, anger is a bad emotion, I’m a cry baby, stoicism is best etc. As clinicians we have to sit with the full spectrum of emotionality from clients, but we can sometimes be shocked by our own reactions to client emotional expressions (and many programs don’t specifically...
Jun 19, 2024•45 min•Season 7Ep. 2
This week, we talk about therapist enmeshment - what it is, how it happens, and what therapists can do to ensure they have appropriate boundaries with clients. For this conversation, we’re placing the context at the feet of the therapists and exploring how some therapy practices and some therapists encourage emotional enmeshment with clients. We talk about how over-identification with a client (we’ve experienced the same things so we must feel the same way), lack of energetic and relational boun...
Jun 12, 2024•42 min•Season 7Ep. 1
We're in between seasons right now, but we feel it is long overdue to talk about Palestine and what therapists are wrestling with when it comes to speaking up about genocide in session and in public. We are taught "do no harm" but at what point is our silence more harmful than speaking out? As always, we ask for openness and curiosity as we engage with the nuance about this "controversial" topic. How do we talk about genocide? How do we bring our feelings and stance into sessions? How do we cent...
Jun 05, 2024•17 min
In this special episode, we look back at the history of our podcast, our favourite episodes, and the vulnerable things about doing the podcast. We read some recent DMs from Instagram, a one-star review, and we listen to some voice notes sent in by listeners. We recorded this one late at night (for us at least!) so we get a little loopy at the end saying thank you thank you thank you, but truly, thanks for listening and being a part of our Edge of The Couch community. This marks both our 100th ep...
Mar 20, 2024•56 min•Season 6Ep. 16
Our penultimate episode this season explores what can happen when the content of the session tugs at all of our own shit! Maybe we’re experiencing something similar to our clients in our own lives or the client says something that reminds us of ourselves. Maybe the client experience is pulling forward memories of something we’ve said or done before. This episode is all about what to do in the moment when we are flooded with our own stuff AND we still need to be present for the client. We share e...
Mar 13, 2024•38 min
In this episode, we dive into a common struggle suggested by one of our awesome listeners: the nagging feeling of not "doing enough" in therapy. Join us as we unpack this topic and ask ourselves the question: Do trainings really make you a better therapist? We share our experiences and some controversial opinions. Whether you're a seasoned therapist or just starting out on your journey, this episode is your invitation to explore what's happening behind feeling the need to prove yourself in the t...
Mar 06, 2024•39 min•Season 6Ep. 14
This is a highly requested topic that comes with so much charge and tenderness. This week, we’re talking about being rejected by a client. We explore the myriad of rejections that can happen in the relationship - both micro and macro moments. We tenderly share what can come up for therapists when a client stops scheduling sessions or tells us they want to stop seeing us. This is an especially vulnerable moment for new therapists and we remember well how crushing it felt in the beginning. Through...
Feb 28, 2024•44 min•Season 6Ep. 13
This week we are taking it back to the basics-- how to open and close sessions! We share our favourite opening questions/remarks, talk about why it can be valuable to avoid “how are you” as the opening question, and what to do when clients look to you, the therapist, to lead. On the flip side, we wrap up the session by talking about the benefits of an intentional closing with clients, why it’s so important to be able to structure sessions, and how to build our interrupting skills. As clinicians,...
Feb 21, 2024•32 min•Season 6Ep. 12
This week, we’re sharing how we respond when clients answer with “I don’t know”s. We talk about why “I don’t know” can feel so discombobulating, how to respond effectively and without panicking, what these responses might mean from clients, and why they can help deepen the therapy work. We explore both when clients who often have robust answers suddenly give us an “I don’t know” and when clients often answer with “I don’t know”s, situations that have to be handled differently. When we were new t...
Feb 14, 2024•40 min•Season 6Ep. 11
No-show and cancellation conversations are some of the most charged and controversial among therapists. There are constant debates about whether to charge for cancellations or not, how much notice is reasonable to therapists, and how strict or flexible to be with these policies. This week we deep dive into the huge importance of having clear policies that have been communicated to clients, building flexibility into policy to centre the therapeutic relationship, and why it’s valuable to charge wh...
Feb 07, 2024•47 min•Season 6Ep. 10
Many clients come to therapy with a history of charged relationship dynamics. Maybe they’ve been people-pleasing, maybe they shut others out, maybe they have difficulty being vulnerable with friends, maybe they crave closeness but don’t know how to get it, maybe they dance between investing too little in relationships to putting everything into them, maybe they never rock the boat for fear of abandonment…the list is endless. How, as therapists, do we help clients to move from one of these dynami...
Jan 31, 2024•37 min•Season 6Ep. 9
If you’re on any therapy forums, part of a therapist group, or even currently becoming a therapist, you’ve undoubtedly seen people talking about therapists leaving the field. One of the most common questions we get from new therapists is how to know if the field is right for them given how much of a hard time they are having. This week we discuss our theories about why so many new and seasoned therapists alike are leaving the field. We talk about the disillusionment that happens when we transiti...
Jan 24, 2024•31 min•Season 6Ep. 8
The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed the landscape of therapy. Where before 2020 online therapy was met with a great deal of skepticism and judgment, once in-person sessions were no longer possible, clinicians across the world had to pivot into virtual work. At first, it seemed that the changes may only be temporary (“just until it’s safe to be in-person again”) but here we are almost four years later, and virtual work has become an undeniable part of our field. In this episode, we dive int...
Jan 17, 2024•46 min•Season 6Ep. 7
Major major MAJOR caveat: what clients bring to sessions is important regardless of the ‘size’ of it. We used the terminology “small things” as it felt that it explained the situation in the most precise way but we know that nothing is ever really “small” when we consider context, our clients’ lives, and the power of little things in our day-to-day existence. With that clarified, this week’s episode is about what comes up for us as therapists when clients explore minor/small/seemingly insignific...
Jan 03, 2024•45 min•Season 6Ep. 6
Join us in a candid conversation about policies and power in therapy. We delve into the topic of therapist boundaries, drawing parallels with dynamics with supervisors and bosses. We get real about the challenges of asserting boundaries within complicated power dynamics, whether you're the therapist with your own clients or you're navigating dynamics with your supervisor or boss. We hope you are better able to recognize red flags and take away practical strategies for making the work more sustai...
Dec 27, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Let’s imagine that in the course of a session, a client casually mentions something that feels big but the conversation moves beyond it quickly. As the therapist, we may have a sense that we need to go back to that big thing (such as a history of abuse or an upcoming grief anniversary or that they lost their job) but we may not know how or when to do so! Or let’s imagine that a client hasn’t paid for their last four sessions. It’s become such a big anxiety that it feels impossibly hard to mentio...
Dec 20, 2023•26 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Shame is often talked about in pop psych, but what does it mean? In this episode all about this tender emotion, we describe how the different theoretical frameworks understand how shame operates and how to work with it to move the therapy forward. From childhood trauma and abuse to marginalized identities and privilege, we unpack how shame might show up for people and the various ways we can help clients address it. It's a messy dive into this universal emotion, and we're well aware we've just s...
Dec 13, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 3
In our therapeutic work, we think of ourselves as ‘fellow travellers’ who journey alongside our clients in the evolving, changing, learning etc. But recently we were asked by a listener, “what does being a fellow traveller actually mean?” We realized then that we’ve never taken the time to dive into what we really mean when we use this metaphor. This episode is all about how we conceptualize the role of therapist, how we use ‘fellow traveller’ as a specific way to describe the relational nature ...
Dec 06, 2023•24 min•Season 6Ep. 2
We’re back and excited for Season 6!! We’re opening the season with a juicy question that we get a lot - what are practicum supervisors looking for? We can’t speak for all supervisors but we had a great time recording this episode explaining what we both look for in student applications. Applying to a practicum site or a new therapist job is a pretty vulnerable process. Students are often anxious and desperate to find a site and there is a lot riding on whether they secure a practicum or not! In...
Nov 29, 2023•34 min•Season 6Ep. 1
From celebrating clients' milestones and triumphs to helping them navigate the darkest seasons of life, in our final episode of Season 5, we'll share what makes being a therapist especially meaningful. We also discuss what happens when clients have news and we have very different feelings about it than our clients. If you have enjoyed listening along this season, please give us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Stay tuned for Season 6 coming in the Fall! For bonus episodes, you can join us...
Aug 30, 2023•42 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Alison McCleary www.alpenglowcounselling.com @alpenglow_counselling on Instagram Jordan Pickell www.jordanpickellcounselling.ca @jordanpickellcounselling on Instagram Edge of the Couch www.edgeofthecouch.com @edgeofthecouchpod on Instagram We have partnered with Janeapp, an all-in-one practice management software. You can learn more at Jane.app/mentalhealth . Or, if you are ready to get started, mention Edge of the Couch in the note during sign up. Join us on Patreon for bonus content at www.pat...
Aug 23, 2023•33 min•Season 5Ep. 15
We’ve often joked that if we were to start a counselling school, the basic skills training would look very different than the program we completed together. In this episode, we share with you the foundational therapy skills that guide our practice and that we think therapy school should focus on instead-- empathy, presence, comfort, attunement, and accuracy. Alison McCleary www.alpenglowcounselling.com @alpenglow_counselling on Instagram Jordan Pickell www.jordanpickellcounselling.ca @jordanpick...
Jun 14, 2023•39 min•Season 5Ep. 15
We met on zoom with listeners for a LIVE Q&A episode where members of our community asked questions in real time. We discuss how to help clients sit with their difficult feelings, how to manage the moments when a client is seeking answers but doesn’t seem satisfied with the tools you’re offering, how to be thoughtful about maintaining privacy during virtual sessions when the client is unbothered by being in public, what self-esteem building therapy looks like, and more! Thank you, thank you,...
Jun 07, 2023•47 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Grief and loss are inevitable parts of therapeutic work. Clients' pain (or anger or confusion) is sometimes so big and it can feel delicate for new therapists to know how to hold all of the bigness. Many programs don’t prepare new therapists for how to support clients who have experienced a significant loss. We know that new and seasoned therapists alike have moments of "What do I do here??". We discuss the myth of stages of grief, the importance of psychoeducation, how clients can feel devastat...
May 31, 2023•45 min•Season 5Ep. 12
There is a welcome discourse about the humanity of therapists. But with this new perspective, we risk losing sight of the reality that some therapists are actively harmful. In this episode, we talk about egregious mistakes therapists make. Alison McCleary www.alpenglowcounselling.com @alpenglow_counselling on Instagram Jordan Pickell www.jordanpickellcounselling.ca @jordanpickellcounselling on Instagram Edge of the Couch www.edgeofthecouch.com @edgeofthecouchpod on Instagram We have partnered wi...
May 24, 2023•44 min•Season 5Ep. 11
