Psychology and counseling index

The outward, visible side of emotion: tone of voice, expression, posture. Clinicians sometimes describe affect as flat, bright or changing.

A feeling of worry, dread or unease, often with a racing heart, tight muscles or trouble settling. Everyone feels anxious at times; it becomes a concern when it is intense, lasting and gets in the way of life.

Feeling anxious is not the same as having an anxiety disorder. A clinician makes that call, not a web page.

The pattern of closeness and trust a person learns early with caregivers and carries into later relationships. Patterns are often described as secure, anxious, avoidant or disorganized.

Attachment styles describe tendencies, not fixed types, and they can shift.

The ability to focus on some things and filter out others. Attention is limited and is affected by sleep, stress, interest and surroundings.

Steering away from a feared situation, feeling or memory. It brings relief now and often keeps the fear going over time.

Planning small, valued activities and doing them even before motivation arrives, since action often comes first and mood follows.

A predictable shortcut in thinking, such as remembering what comes to mind easily or anchoring on the first number heard. Everyone has them.

Having biases is a human feature, not a flaw in you.

Exhaustion, distance from one's work and a sense of reduced ability, linked to long-running workplace stress. The World Health Organization describes it as an occupational phenomenon.

Burnout describes a work situation, not a medical condition in a person.

Jumping to the worst possible outcome and treating it as likely. One of the common thinking patterns CBT looks at.

The mental work of noticing, remembering, reasoning, deciding and understanding language.

A habitual way of thinking that bends the picture, such as all-or-nothing thinking, mind reading or discounting the positive.

A list of distortions is a learning tool, not a test of whether something is wrong with you.

Emotional and physical tiredness that can build up in people who care for others, including family caregivers and helping professionals.

Whatever a person does to handle stress. Coping can be problem-focused (changing the situation), emotion-focused (changing how it feels) or avoidant.

Two things that rise and fall together are correlated. That alone does not show that one causes the other. A third factor may drive both.

An automatic way the mind protects itself from uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, such as denial, rationalizing or humor. A psychodynamic idea.

Sadness, emptiness or loss of interest that lasts most of the day, most days, for weeks, often with changes in sleep, appetite, energy and concentration.

A low mood that passes in days is part of life. Lasting low mood is something a clinician can talk through with you.

How people change across the lifespan, in body, thinking, emotion and relationships. Stage models describe averages, not timetables.

A sense of being detached from oneself, one's body or one's surroundings, from everyday spacing out to more intense experiences under stress.

The ways people influence which emotions they have, when, and how they express them. It is a skill that can be practiced, not a fixed trait.

Understanding and sharing what another person feels. Counselors use it on purpose; it is also part of ordinary friendship.

The set of mental skills for planning, starting tasks, holding information in mind, shifting between tasks and holding back impulses.

Automatic body responses to threat: confront, escape or go still. They are survival reactions, not choices, and can fire when no real danger is present.

The natural response to loss, which can include sadness, anger, numbness, relief and longing, often in waves. There is no set timetable.

Grief is not a disorder. Lasting, disabling grief is something a clinician can help with.

Responding less to something the more often it is encountered without harm. It is one reason planned, repeated exposure can lower fear.

A mental rule of thumb that saves effort, such as going with the first explanation that comes to mind. Fast, useful and sometimes wrong.

Being on constant alert for danger, scanning and startling easily. Often described after frightening experiences.

An unwanted thought or image that pops in uninvited. Most people have them; having one does not mean wanting it.

Whether a person tends to see outcomes as shaped by their own actions (internal) or by luck and other people (external). Most people are somewhere in between.

Memory is rebuilt each time it is recalled, not played back like a recording. Details can shift, and confidence is not the same as accuracy.

Paying attention to the present moment on purpose and without judging it. Practiced in meditation and in daily activities.

A longer-lasting emotional background, such as an irritable or calm week, as opposed to a brief emotion in reaction to something.

What energizes and directs behavior. It can come from inside (interest, values) or outside (rewards, pressure), and it rises and falls.

The brain, spinal cord and nerves. The autonomic part runs automatic functions and includes the alerting (sympathetic) and settling (parasympathetic) branches.

The idea that differences in how brains work, such as autism and ADHD, are part of natural human variety rather than only deficits.

The brain's ability to change its connections with experience and practice, throughout life.

A sudden surge of intense fear with strong body sensations, such as a pounding heart, shortness of breath or dizziness, that usually peaks within minutes.

The sensations are frightening and are not dangerous in themselves. New or chest-pain symptoms still deserve a medical check.

How the brain organizes and interprets what the senses take in. Two people can perceive the same event differently.

A person's lasting patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. Researchers often describe five broad traits that vary along a range.

Improvement that comes from expecting to improve rather than from an active ingredient. It is real, and it is why studies use comparison groups.

The Greek word for breath, life and soul, now used loosely for the whole mind, conscious and not. Psychology is literally the study of the psyche. See the history section on this page.

The scientific study of mind and behavior, from nerve cells to cultures. Clinical and counseling psychology are the parts concerned with distress and helping; most of the field is not clinical.

Anything that makes a behavior more likely next time, such as relief, praise or a result that felt good.

Adapting well in the face of hardship. It is shaped by relationships, resources and circumstances as much as by the individual.

Struggling is not a lack of resilience. Conditions matter.

Going over the same worries or regrets again and again without reaching a new place. It feels like problem-solving and often is not.

Responding to one's own struggle with the same kindness one would offer a friend, instead of harsh criticism.

A person's belief that they can carry out a specific task. It grows with small successes and tends to be task-specific.

A person's overall sense of their own worth. It moves with circumstances and is not the same as confidence in one skill.

Conditions such as income, housing, safety, discrimination and access to care that shape mental health across whole communities.

The practical help, information and emotional backing people get from others. One of the best-studied protective factors.

Negative beliefs and unfair behavior toward people because of a mental-health or substance-use experience. It can also be turned inward as shame.

The body and mind's response to demands. Short bursts can be useful; long-running stress without recovery wears people down.

The event or situation that sets off a stress response, from a deadline to a loss to an unsafe home.

Inborn tendencies in reactivity and self-regulation, visible from infancy, that interact with experience to shape personality.

A deeply distressing event or series of events that overwhelms a person's ability to cope, and the lasting effects it can leave. People respond to the same event differently.

Reading about trauma can stir things up. Go at your own pace, and crisis help is at the top of every page.

Something in the present, such as a smell, place or tone of voice, that sets off a strong reaction connected to a past experience.

Mental activity that happens outside awareness, from the automatic to the deeply buried. Modern research supports the automatic part; Freud's detailed picture of a hidden mind is a historical theory.

A broad term for feeling good and functioning well, including purpose, relationships and a sense of control, not only the absence of problems.

The small amount of information held in mind and worked with right now, such as a phone number before it is written down. It is easily overloaded.

Two free U.S. numbers. 211 connects to local help such as food, housing and counseling referrals. 988 is the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, by call or text, any time.

Listening to understand rather than to reply: reflecting back, asking open questions and checking meaning. A core counseling skill that anyone can practice.

The clinician's process of understanding a person's situation, history and goals, usually through conversation in the first sessions and sometimes with standardized tools.

This site has no assessments. Only a licensed clinician assesses, and only in a real appointment.

The limits that keep counseling safe and professional: session length, contact between sessions, no dual relationships, and clear roles.

A written agreement on goals and how the work will go, reviewed over time. Clinicians and insurers often call it a plan of care; this site does not write one for anyone.

Help coordinating practical needs such as housing, benefits, appointments and referrals, often from a social worker or care navigator.

The person receiving counseling. Counselors and social workers usually say client; medical settings usually say patient.

Insurance terms: a co-pay is a set amount per visit, a deductible is what you pay before coverage starts, and out-of-pocket is your total share. Check your plan's own documents.

What a client shares stays private, with specific legal exceptions such as risk of serious harm to self or others, abuse of a child or vulnerable adult, or a court order. Clinicians explain these at the start.

Overlapping words for structured talk-based help from a trained professional. Counseling often means shorter, goal-focused work; psychotherapy often means deeper or longer work. In practice the words are used interchangeably.

A free phone, text or chat service staffed around the clock for moments of crisis. In the U.S., call or text 988. For immediate danger, call 911.

Short-term services that come to a person or receive them during an acute crisis, as an alternative to an emergency room where available. Check their site for what exists in your county.

A formal label a licensed clinician may give after assessment, often needed for insurance. It describes a pattern of experiences at a point in time, not the whole person. This site does not diagnose anything.

Legal duties that require clinicians to act, such as reporting suspected abuse of a child or taking steps when someone is in serious danger. Rules differ by state.

A benefit some employers offer: a small number of free, confidential counseling sessions and referrals. Check your workplace's own information.

Combining the best available research with the clinician's judgment and the person's culture, preferences and circumstances.

Paying the clinician directly rather than through insurance. Some people choose it for privacy; it costs more up front.

What the person wants to be different. Good goals are the client's own, concrete enough to notice progress, and open to change.

Small tasks agreed in a session and tried in daily life, such as a worksheet, an experiment or a new routine. Common in CBT and skills-based work.

In-network clinicians have a contract with your insurer and cost less. Out-of-network clinicians may be covered partly or not at all. Check with your plan before the first visit.

Before counseling starts, the clinician explains how it works, the costs, the limits of confidentiality and the person's rights, and the person agrees in writing. You can ask questions and withdraw.

Levels of care. Inpatient means staying in a hospital or facility. Outpatient means appointments while living at home. Intensive outpatient (IOP) and partial hospitalization (PHP) are several hours a day, several days a week, while living at home.

The first appointment or paperwork, where the clinician gathers history, current concerns and goals, and the person decides whether the fit feels right.

A state credential that allows someone to practice. Each state has a board where anyone can look up a license and any disciplinary history. The Local & Community Resources page links to license checks.

Appointments focused on prescribing, adjusting and monitoring psychiatric medication, usually with a psychiatrist, nurse practitioner or physician.

This site has no information about specific medications. A prescriber and pharmacist are the people to ask.

The format or approach of counseling: individual, couples, family or group; in person or by telehealth; CBT, psychodynamic and so on.

Many clinicians charge for a missed session or a late cancellation, often with 24 to 48 hours' notice required. It is in the consent paperwork.

U.S. law that requires most insurance plans to cover mental-health and substance-use care on terms no more restrictive than medical care. Check their site for details and how to complain.

The clinician's record of each session. Under HIPAA, people generally have a right to see and get a copy of their records, with some exceptions for psychotherapy notes.

Plain teaching about how a concern works and what tends to help, for the person and sometimes their family. This index is a form of it.

The sense of trust and teamwork between client and clinician. Research consistently links a good alliance with better outcomes, across approaches.

If the fit is poor after a few sessions, saying so or changing clinicians is normal and allowed.

Being directed to another provider or service, for a specialty, a level of care or a better fit. A referral is a suggestion, not an order.

A form the client signs so the clinician can share specific information with a named person or provider, such as a doctor or school. It can be limited and revoked.

A short personal note, often written with a clinician, listing warning signs, things that help, people to contact and crisis numbers. A template is on the Library page.

One meeting, commonly 45 to 60 minutes for individual counseling and longer for couples, families or groups. Frequency is agreed together.

A fee that goes down with income. Many community clinics, training clinics and some private clinicians offer one. Ask; it is a normal question.

Regular meetings in which a licensed clinician reviews a trainee's work. Required for licensure and a sign of a well-run training clinic.

A group of people with a shared experience who meet to support each other, with or without a professional facilitator. Different from group counseling.

Counseling by video or phone. Convenient for many people; ask about privacy, what happens if the connection drops, and whether the clinician is licensed in your state.

The planned ending of the work, ideally discussed ahead of time with a review of what was learned and what to do if things get hard again.

Many clinics have one. While waiting, people often use crisis lines, peer groups, a primary care doctor or an EAP. Ask to be called if a spot opens early.

When one provider introduces a person directly to another, in the same visit or call, instead of just giving a phone number.

California's short involuntary hold for evaluation when, because of a mental health condition, a person is a danger to self, a danger to others, or gravely disabled. Only designated professionals and officers can start one.

Definitions changed recently in California. Check current rules.

The professional code for marriage and family therapists, covering responsibility to clients, confidentiality, competence, students and supervisees, research, and financial arrangements.

In California, a registered associate gains supervised hours toward licensure: 3,000 hours over at least 104 weeks, under a qualified supervisor, before taking the clinical exam.

Requirements change. Check the BBS for current rules.

Associated with: Sue Johnson

A moment when one partner felt abandoned by the other at a time of great need, which blocks trust until it is repaired.

Associated with: Mental Research Institute (MRI): Watzlawick, Weakland, Fisch

The MRI view that problems persist because of the very solutions people keep trying. Change comes from interrupting the attempted solution.

Accepting goods or services instead of money. Codes discourage it and allow it only in limited cases that are not exploitative and are clearly agreed.

Associated with: Carl Whitaker

Early in therapy the therapist sets the conditions of the work (structure); the family must then take responsibility for change (initiative).

Associated with: Richard Stuart, Neil Jacobson

Couples agreeing to increase specific positive behaviors toward each other. A component of behavioral couples therapy.

Gathering biological, psychological, social and cultural information to understand a client's situation as a whole.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

The invisible rules about who takes part in what. Clear boundaries allow both closeness and autonomy; rigid ones lead to distance; diffuse ones lead to over-involvement.

The California association's ethics code, often studied alongside California law for the state's law and ethics exam.

The clinician's working explanation of how the problem developed and is maintained, linking assessment to the plan of care.

California's Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act makes therapists mandated reporters. A report goes to child protective services or law enforcement immediately or as soon as practicably possible by phone, followed by a written report within 36 hours.

Reasonable suspicion is the standard; certainty is not required. Check the current law.

Seeing behavior as part of a repeating loop in which each person's actions both cause and respond to the others', instead of a straight line from cause to effect.

Associated with: Milan team

Questions that ask one member about relationships between others, such as "Who is most upset when Dad leaves?", to reveal differences and patterns.

Associated with: Gerald Patterson

A pattern where a child's escalating behavior is rewarded when the parent gives in, and the parent's escalation is rewarded when the child stops. The basis of behavioral parent training.

Confidentiality is the therapist's ethical and legal duty not to disclose. Privilege is the client's legal right to keep therapy communications out of court.

Associated with: Solution-focused brief therapy

"How have you managed to keep going?" Highlights strengths when things feel stuck.

Short, focused help to restore safety and coping right after a crisis: assess risk, stabilize, connect to support and plan next steps.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

A parent and child allied against the other parent, which blurs the hierarchy.

An ongoing stance of self-reflection about one's own culture and power, and openness to learning from clients about theirs. Codes require nondiscrimination and culturally responsive practice.

Associated with: Steve de Shazer

Solution-focused terms for how ready a person is: a customer wants to change, a complainant wants someone else to change, a visitor was sent by others.

Associated with: Norbert Wiener, Gregory Bateson

The study of how systems regulate themselves through feedback. Early family therapists used it to describe the family as a self-correcting system observed from outside.

Associated with: Narrative therapy

Questioning the cultural ideas, such as gender or success norms, that hold a problem story in place.

Associated with: Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy

When someone who was treated unfairly feels owed and passes the injustice on to others, often to their own children.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

Staying calmly connected to both people in a triangle without taking sides, so the original pair has to deal with each other directly.

Weighing which of several possible diagnoses best fits, and ruling out medical causes and substance effects.

This site gives vocabulary only and does not diagnose anyone.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

The ability to stay emotionally connected to others while keeping one's own thinking and feeling separate. The central goal in Bowen theory.

Associated with: Jay Haley

Specific tasks the therapist gives a family to do in or between sessions; central to strategic therapy.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

Rigid boundaries, where members are isolated and support is hard to reach.

Associated with: Gregory Bateson and colleagues (1956)

Contradictory messages at different levels, such as words and tone, where the person cannot comment on the contradiction or leave. An early systemic idea, now mainly historical.

The diagnostic manuals used in the United States. The DSM-5-TR is published by the American Psychiatric Association; the ICD by the World Health Organization, with codes used for billing.

From the California Supreme Court's Tarasoff decisions (1976). California Civil Code section 43.92 now frames it: when a client communicates a serious threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable victim, the duty is met by reasonable efforts to warn the victim and notify law enforcement.

Courts have extended this to threats reported by a client's family member. Check the current law and CAMFT guidance.

Associated with: Ann Hartman

A diagram of a family's connections to outside systems, such as school, work, faith community and services, showing strong, weak and stressful ties.

Mandated reporting of suspected abuse of adults 65 and older, and of dependent adults aged 18 to 64, to adult protective services, the long-term care ombudsman or law enforcement, depending on the setting.

Check the current California reporting rules and timelines.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

Managing unresolved family tension by reducing or ending contact. Bowen saw it as a sign of fusion, not of independence.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

Asking family members to act out a typical interaction in the session so the therapist can see the pattern and help change it in the room.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

Diffuse boundaries, where members are so involved in each other's lives that autonomy is hard.

Equifinality: different starting points can lead to the same outcome. Multifinality: the same starting point can lead to different outcomes.

Associated with: Solution-focused brief therapy

Asking about times the problem was absent or smaller, to find what already works.

High levels of criticism, hostility or emotional over-involvement in a family, which research links to higher relapse in conditions such as schizophrenia.

Associated with: Michael White and David Epston

Talking about the problem as separate from the person, so the person and family can stand together against it.

Associated with: Betty Carter and Monica McGoldrick

The predictable stages families move through, such as forming a couple, raising young children, launching adult children and later life, with the stress that each transition brings.

The family a person grew up in. Many models explore how its patterns show up in present relationships.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

How parents pass their own anxiety and unresolved issues onto a child, who then carries them.

Associated with: Virginia Satir

A group method that re-enacts scenes from a person's family history to understand and update old learning.

Associated with: Virginia Satir, David Kantor, Fred Duhl

Members physically arranging each other in space to show how they experience their relationships.

Paying or receiving money just for referrals is prohibited. Fees must be disclosed in advance and based on services actually provided.

Associated with: Paul Watzlawick, John Weakland, Richard Fisch

First-order change is a change within the system's existing rules. Second-order change alters the rules themselves.

Associated with: John Gottman

Physiological overwhelm during conflict, with a racing heart and narrowed thinking, that makes listening very hard. A break of around 20 minutes is the usual suggestion.

Associated with: John and Julie Gottman

Criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling: four communication patterns that Gottman's research links to relationship breakdown. Contempt is the strongest predictor.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

Emotional stuck-togetherness, where people react to each other's anxiety instead of thinking for themselves.

Associated with: Ludwig von Bertalanffy

The idea that a family, like any living system, is a whole made of interacting parts, so a change in one member affects the others.

Associated with: Associated with Bowen; standardized by Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson

A family diagram across at least three generations, showing members, relationships, losses and patterns.

A legal standard: being unable, because of a mental health condition, to provide for basic needs such as food, clothing or shelter. California has broadened it in recent years.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

How power and responsibility are organized. Structural therapists usually look for parents working together in charge.

The federal privacy rule for covered providers. Clients receive a notice describing how their health information may be used and their rights to access it.

The client normally holds the privilege, and the therapist asserts it on the client's behalf until the client waives it or a court orders disclosure. For minors and some others, a guardian or court-appointed person may hold it.

A family's tendency to keep its familiar balance and patterns, even when those patterns cause distress.

Associated with: Milan team

The Milan session guidelines: form a systemic hypothesis before the session, follow feedback circularly, and stay curious without taking sides.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

Calmly stating one's own view ("I think", "I will") without blaming or demanding that others change. Practiced in Bowen coaching.

The family member whose symptoms brought the family in. Systemic therapists see the symptom as tied to family patterns rather than located only in that person.

Explaining the nature of therapy, fees, limits of confidentiality, the therapist's license status and the client's rights before starting, and keeping consent current as things change.

Associated with: Andrew Christensen and Neil Jacobson

Adds acceptance of differences, through empathic joining and unified detachment, to behavioral change strategies.

Before conjoint couples work, interviewing each partner separately about violence and safety. Couples therapy is generally not appropriate when there is ongoing violence or fear of a partner.

Associated with: Mara Selvini Palazzoli

A fixed task given to parents, such as going out together in secret, designed to strengthen the parental boundary.

Associated with: Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy

Unspoken obligations to one's family of origin that shape behavior, sometimes at a cost to current relationships.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

The therapist entering the family's world by respecting its style and language, building the trust needed before change.

Associated with: Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy

The family's running balance of what members have given and are owed. Contextual therapy aims for fairness and trustworthiness across generations.

In California, MFT candidates take the Board of Behavioral Sciences law and ethics exam and a clinical exam. Most other states use the national exam from the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards (AMFTRB).

Exam content and formats change. Study from the current candidate handbook.

A structured observation of appearance, behavior, speech, mood and affect, thought process and content, perception, cognition, insight and judgment.

California law lets some minors aged 12 and older consent to outpatient mental health counseling, with rules about when parents are involved. The rules were updated recently.

Check the BBS and CAMFT for the current rules before relying on them.

Associated with: Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg

"If a miracle happened overnight and the problem was gone, what would be the first sign?" Used to describe a preferred future in concrete terms.

A system's capacity to stay stable (morphostasis) and to change its structure in response to new demands (morphogenesis). Healthy families need both.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

How levels of differentiation and patterns of relating are passed down and can shift across generations.

Having another role with a client, such as friend, employer or business partner. Codes prohibit those that risk exploitation or impaired judgment, and require care with unavoidable ones, such as in small communities.

Negative feedback reduces deviation and restores the old balance. Positive feedback amplifies deviation and pushes the system toward change. Neither word means good or bad.

Associated with: Sue Johnson (Emotionally Focused Therapy)

The repeating pattern, often pursue and withdraw, that a couple gets stuck in. EFT names the cycle as the shared problem rather than either partner.

In couples and family work, an agreement at the start about how the therapist will handle information one member shares privately.

The whole family is more than the sum of its members; the patterns between people matter as much as the people.

Associated with: Harlene Anderson and Harry Goolishian (collaborative language systems)

The therapist approaches the family as a curious learner, treating the family as expert on their own life.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

The four ways a family absorbs anxiety: couple conflict, dysfunction in one spouse, impairment of a child, and emotional distance.

Associated with: Jay Haley

Pairing a symptom with a task that is more effortful than the symptom itself, so giving up the symptom becomes easier.

Associated with: Michael White, drawing on Barbara Myerhoff

Invited listeners respond to a person's preferred story, which helps make it more real and shared.

Associated with: MRI, Jay Haley

Asking a person or family to continue or exaggerate the symptom on purpose, which can loosen its hold. Used carefully and ethically, never when there is risk of harm.

Associated with: Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy

A child taking on adult emotional or practical responsibilities for a parent or siblings, beyond what fits their age.

Associated with: Milan team (Selvini Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, Prata)

Describing each member's behavior, including the symptom, as well-intended and serving the family's stability.

Associated with: Cloé Madanes

Asking a child to pretend to have the symptom and the parents to pretend to help, which changes the meaning of the pattern playfully.

Associated with: Emotionally Focused Therapy

Secondary emotions, such as anger, are reactive and visible. Primary emotions, such as fear of loss or shame, sit underneath and drive the cycle.

Associated with: Michael White and David Epston

A dominant account of a life told only through its problems, which leaves out skills, values and exceptions.

Associated with: Object relations family therapy (David and Jill Scharff)

Unconsciously placing disowned feelings into another person, who may then come to act them out.

Associated with: Carol Anderson and others

Teaching families about a serious mental health condition, building coping and communication skills, and lowering stress at home.

Under HIPAA, a therapist's separate process notes kept apart from the main record. They have extra protection and are not part of a client's general right of access.

Where each person says a sequence starts. A partner may say "I nag because you withdraw" while the other says "I withdraw because you nag".

One partner pushes for contact or change while the other pulls back, and each move intensifies the other.

Associated with: Michael White

Building a richer preferred story from unique outcomes and the values they show.

Keeping accurate, secure records. California requires MFTs to keep client records for at least seven years after the last professional service, and for a minor, at least seven years after the client turns 18.

Check the current BBS rule.

Associated with: Tom Andersen

A team that observes a session, then talks openly in front of the family about what they noticed, after which the family responds.

Offering a new, believable meaning for a behavior, such as seeing nagging as caring, so that different responses become possible.

Associated with: John and Julie Gottman

Any statement or action that de-escalates conflict, such as humor or an apology. Whether repairs land matters more than avoiding conflict.

Associated with: MRI

Cautioning a family to go slowly or questioning whether change is wise, which can lower resistance.

Associated with: Barbara Stanley and Gregory Brown

A short written plan made with the client: warning signs, coping steps, people and places for distraction, people to ask for help, professionals and crisis lines, and making the environment safer.

Associated with: Virginia Satir

Four stress responses (placating, blaming, super-reasonable and irrelevant) contrasted with congruent communication, where words, feelings and actions match.

Associated with: Solution-focused brief therapy

"On a scale of 0 to 10, where are you now?" Used to notice progress and name the next small step.

Practicing only within one's education, training and supervised experience, and getting consultation or referring when a case goes beyond it.

Associated with: Heinz von Foerster

The view that the therapist is part of the system being observed, so their own assumptions and presence shape what they see. Groundwork for postmodern approaches.

Always prohibited with current clients. The AAMFT code also prohibits it with former clients and their known family members, and California law adds its own rules.

California therapists must give the state brochure "Therapy Never Includes Sexual Behavior" when a client reports sexual contact with a previous therapist.

Associated with: Murray Bowen, drawing on Walter Toman

The idea that birth order shapes typical roles and ways of relating in the family.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

Bowen's extension of his ideas to society, which he saw as going through periods of rising anxiety and lower differentiation.

Associated with: John and Julie Gottman

Gottman's model of a healthy relationship in levels, from knowing each other's world through managing conflict to shared meaning, supported by trust and commitment.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

A diagram of boundaries, alliances, coalitions and hierarchy, used to form a hypothesis about how the family is organized.

A subpoena alone does not require a therapist to release records; the usual first step is to assert privilege and consult. A court order requires compliance unless it is successfully challenged.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

Smaller units within the family, such as the couple, parents or siblings, each with its own tasks and boundaries.

Asking directly about thoughts, plan, intent, means, history and protective factors, then acting to keep the person safe. Asking about suicide does not plant the idea.

Supervisors are responsible for the clinical work of their supervisees, must be qualified, keep agreements and records, and ensure supervisees practice within their scope.

Associated with: Carl Whitaker

An intuitive, often playful approach that values the therapist's own spontaneity and uses co-therapy.

The therapist generally must be licensed where the client is located at the time of the session, and must address privacy, emergencies and the client's location in consent.

Ending therapy when it no longer helps, with notice and referrals when needed. Abandonment is ending care without reasonable arrangements for a client who still needs it.

The exam term for a written plan with the presenting problem, measurable goals, interventions and how progress is reviewed. Hotolosophy does not write one for anyone.

Associated with: Murray Bowen

When tension between two people is relieved by pulling in a third, such as a child, an in-law or an affair. Bowen saw the triangle as the smallest stable relationship unit.

Associated with: Salvador Minuchin

The therapist deliberately siding with one member for a time to shift a stuck hierarchy.

Associated with: Michael White and David Epston

Moments that do not fit the problem story, used as the starting point for an alternative story.

Who the clinician is assessing: the individual, the couple, the family or the wider system. In MFT practice it is often the relationship itself.

In conjoint work the therapist clarifies at the start whether the client is the couple or family as a unit, which shapes confidentiality, records and releases.

Associated with: Emotionally Focused Therapy

Two key change events in EFT: the withdrawing partner becomes more present, and the pursuing partner asks for connection from a softer, more open place.