Steven Walfish

Mental health professionals in private practice strive for clinical and financial success. Yet, there are myriad ethical issues and dilemmas awaiting every practitioner that serve as challenges to being successful for even the most clinically competent and savvy business persons. Some ethics issues are obvious while others are more subtle and can undermine the best intentions of practitioners who have not prepared for these challenges. Graduate training programs in the mental health professions offer courses in ethics for their students, but few offer practical training in the application of ethics to the business of practice. A resource focusing specifically on these challenges has been sorely needed. The Ethics of Private Practice helps mental health professionals understand the essential ethical issues related to many of the challenges of being in independent mental health practice. Seasoned clinicians Barnett, Zimmerman, and Walfish offer readers astute insight to help them build a practice that is designed to minimize unintended ethical violations and reduce associated risks. Each chapter focuses on a major aspect of the business of practice and incorporates relevant standards from the ethics codes of four mental health professions. Topics addressed include planning one's private practice, successfully running and managing one's practice, documentation and record keeping, dealing with third parties and protecting confidentiality, managing practice finances and making financial decisions, staff training and office policies, advertising and the effective marketing of one's practice, continuing professional development activities, and the closing of a private practice. The authors discuss important questions such as: What do you do as a practitioner when your best referral source wants to become your client? What is appropriate use of social media? How should you respond when a managed care company denies authorization for treatment for a client that you know is in obvious need of further treatment? Full of practical tips that can be readily implemented, The Ethics of Private Practice is sure to be a handy, go-to resource for mental health clinicians in private practice.

Introduces mental health care professionals to the business aspects of running a private practice, including billing, collecting, financial agreements with clients, and ethically balancing business and clinical interests.

Psychology students who want to continue their education today are confronted by a bewildering variety of possibilities. Succeeding in Graduate School offers them much needed practical help. Written by experienced mentors, this book: *explains the options provided by a bachelor's degree, describes what each of the many available programs at the master's and doctoral levels prepares one to do, helps in selecting the most appropriate program, and enhances one's chances of being admitted; *gives reader-friendly tutorials in teaching, research, and clinical/consulting skills; *describes the stresses of life as a graduate student; *suggests ways to cope with the management of difficult professors, the search for the optimal advisor-mentor match, and other political and emotional problems that can make or break a graduate career; *offers advice on overcoming obstacles to completing a thesis or dissertation; and *provides guidance on navigating beyond graduate school: maintaining one's ethical focus, getting into and completing the internship that is a requirement of many programs, obtaining a license for those requiring one to work, and in general, building a career beyond the degree. Clear, crisp, and comprehensive--with extensive references for further exploration--Succeeding in Graduate School is must reading for undergraduates and graduate students alike.

Psychology students who want to continue their education today are confronted by a bewildering variety of possibilities. Succeeding in Graduate School offers them much needed practical help. Written by experienced mentors, this book: *explains the options provided by a bachelor's degree, describes what each of the many available programs at the master's and doctoral levels prepares one to do, helps in selecting the most appropriate program, and enhances one's chances of being admitted; *gives reader-friendly tutorials in teaching, research, and clinical/consulting skills; *describes the stresses of life as a graduate student; *suggests ways to cope with the management of difficult professors, the search for the optimal advisor-mentor match, and other political and emotional problems that can make or break a graduate career; *offers advice on overcoming obstacles to completing a thesis or dissertation; and *provides guidance on navigating beyond graduate school: maintaining one's ethical focus, getting into and completing the internship that is a requirement of many programs, obtaining a license for those requiring one to work, and in general, building a career beyond the degree. Clear, crisp, and comprehensive--with extensive references for further exploration--Succeeding in Graduate School is must reading for undergraduates and graduate students alike.