Consulting For Mental Health Professionals

In addition to providing direct clinical services to clients, one of the things that I’m passionate about is providing clinical support to other therapists. In my own professional development, having the support of mentors and other clinically-sound clinicians is what helped me thrive. Now as a professional in private practice I want to create a safe, supportive, judgement-free space for other therapists to benefit from clinical consultation. My goal is for every therapist that I work with to walk away from our time together feeling empowered, confident in their ability to help others, and to understand their individual strengths and how they can best use them in sessions with their clients.

Some of the many things that I can do with therapists with as part of clinical consultation are:

Help therapists new to private practice manage feelings of imposter syndrome.
Provide clinical support to therapists who feel isolated in private practice.
Help therapists manage and explore feelings of counter-transference that they may have towards clients.
Help therapists evaluate a client’s changing needs and the appropriate level of care for them.
Help therapists brainstorm additional resources their clients would benefit from in addition to 1-to-1 therapy.
Help therapists navigate best practices when there is involvement from other agencies with a client, such as child protective services.
Help therapists prioritize what should be the treatment focus when their clients are presenting with several issues at one time.
Help therapists assess for progress that is being made with clients even if they feel “stuck”.
Help therapists implement and maintain boundaries with clients who are always presenting as being “in crisis”.
And more!

Creating Intentional Business Practices

Having intentional business practices means moving your practice from existing to thriving. If you’re a therapist who feels like they are constantly working hard but isn’t seeing the results they want in financial gains, client retention, or work/life balance, then creating more intentional business plans around the following could be helpful for you:

Exploring when you are most efficient at working with clients versus office tasks (i.e. paperwork, phone calls) and structuring your work week to reflect that.
Creating realistic plans about how much time certain tasks should take you.
Effectively communicating to potential clients and referral sources who your ideal client would be.
Perfecting your screening process for potential clients to make sure you are accepting clients who will be a good match for you and/or your practice.
Clarifying language in your business documents that reflect the boundaries and expectations you have for your clients.
Establishing healthy boundaries for yourself around when you are available to clients and what your communication outside of sessions will look like.

What About Burnout???

Burnout is something that many therapists struggle with throughout their career, but many of those same therapists don’t realize that they are facing the challenges of burnout. Some indicators of burnout in our field can look like:

Struggling to have empathy for your clients
Going through the motions of your workday without actually connecting to your coworkers or clients
Considering leaving the field to do something other than therapy
Feeling resentful towards your coworkers or clients when they ask to you do reasonable parts of your job
Feeling like the work you do as a therapist is pointless, never-ending, or just a “drop in the bucket”
And others…

Burnout is nothing to be ashamed of. If this sounds like your experience, I would love to help you assess your situation and help you implement realistic strategies to help you get back to enjoying your work again.

Support for Therapists Working with Children and Families

My passion working within the mental health field has always been helping children, families, and individuals struggling with relationship issues. If you are someone who often works with children and families, some of the things that we can work on within consultation include:

Establishing your sessions as a safe space for honest discussions, especially when there are feelings of mistrust or tension between family members.
Managing challenges with maintaining empathy for parents of children after there have been allegations of abuse or neglect made.
Handling difficulties with setting and/or maintaining appropriate boundaries with families when they appear to constantly be in “crisis”.
Processing feelings of frustration with family members who struggle with their own awareness into their behavior or how they contribute to the problem.
Dealing with over-involvement by some family members and under-involvement by others and not being sure how to change the dynamic to a more equitable one.
Taking a systems-approach to evaluating contributing factors to the child/family’s current challenges.
Creating genograms to identify generational patterns.
Safety planning in situations involving self-harm and domestic violence.

My Credentials

I want all professionals who reach out to me for consulting services to feel confident my ability to help them. Here is a list of the various experiences I’ve had that enable me to help you along your own professional journey:

2012 – Graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in Education.
2014 – Graduated from Rutgers University with a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology.
2014 – Became a certified school counselor in the state of New Jersey.
2014 – Completed New Jersey’s 40-hour domestic violence certification training program.
2018 – Completed a clinical certificate program through Rutgers University in Adoption Counseling.
2018 – Completed training through the Department of Children and Families to implement the “I Am” curriculum, which works on preventing human trafficking of children.
2019 – Completed the 20-hour certificate in Clinical Supervision offered by Family Intervention Services (an approved NBCC provider).
2019 – Participated in a year-long collaboration with the University of Oklahoma to provide Trauma Focused-CBT to children with problematic sexual behavior.
2019-2020 – Supervised Children’s Mobile Response Crisis Program in Morris County, New Jersey.
2022 – Completed a clinical certificate program through Rutgers University in Bowen Family Systems.
2023 - Completed a clinical certificate program in Advanced Bowen Family Systems Theory through Rutgers University.

Thinking Consultation Services Might Be Right For You?

Consultation services are available via video conferencing to therapists located in anywhere in the United States. However, therapists must have their independent practice/clinical license, such as your LPC, LCSW, or LMFT. If you would like to schedule a free twenty-minute call with me to see if I can meet your needs, please reach out to me at 973-970-3735 or at stephanie@harvestinghopenj.com.