Stephen Ratcliff

Perhaps it was due to a special dispensation of masochism, but during the summer of 2018 I decided to pursue a bucket list goal and enrolled in a doctoral program. Prior to enrolling in this program, I had been held back from pursuing this life goal by fears about navigating the egotistical gatekeepers preventing many doctorates from completing and the incredible financial burden of many doctoral programs.

In a recent blog post (http://www.scottdmiller.com/blog/) and the associated interview video, Scott Miller discusses some compelling research regarding negative outcomes in therapy. Based upon randomized clinical trials, it is estimated that 35% of clients in therapy do not improve at all in counseling and 15% see a negative outcome in treatment. How astounding to imagine that these numbers suggest that 15% of the average counselor’s clients get worse in treatment!

As a therapist who primarily conceptualizes from a family systems perspective, the idea of family roles is far from new to me. However during a recent meditative retreat, I was struck anew by how pervasive the roles instilled in family of origin can feel. It is one reality to help another person with their family role rigidity and another to personally confront the emotional struggles of my own role despite years of contemplative growth.

A friend recently remarked that after briefly browsing CNN’s website she felt as if the world was coming to an end. Perceptions of apocalypse prevail when at every corner a natural disaster, shooting, rape, gang violence, or drug cartel event explodes from the screen complete with special effects and action packed cinematography!

“I’m an awful parent” is a common lament of many of the parents I work with professionally. These parents will enter my office with anger and regret tattooed from face to toes. A child or teen is commonly tugged in their wake, head downcast. Meeting individually with these parents to check-in regarding the cause of their disparaging facade, they commonly spill forth tales of their child’s becoming quite the little terror recently, to which they with all the heaviness of an over-stressed individual, responded in anger, only to deeply regret it later.