Passing your National Licensing Exam
Getting licensed can open up incredible opportunities, but the exam can seem daunting. Our podcasts make passing more achievable and even fun. Dr Hutchinson and Stacy’s energy and passion for this content will get you motivated and confident.
We break things down in understandable ways - no stuffiness or complexity and focus on the critical parts you need so your valuable study time counts. You’ll come away feeling like, “I can do this!” Whether it’s nailing down diagnoses, theoretical approaches, or applying ethics in challenging situations, we help you get into a licensed mindset. Knowledge domains we cover in these podcasts include:
Professional Practice and Ethics
Intake, Assessment, & Diagnosis
Areas of Clinical Focus
Treatment Planning
Counseling Skills and Interventions
Core Counseling Attributes
And, of course, the DSM-5-TR.
If you listen, you might surprise yourself at how much you absorb and enjoy it along the way. Take that first step – you’ll gain confidence and valuable skills and feel confident getting ready for your licensing exam!
Passing your National Licensing Exam
Choosing the Right Reflections Pt 2
If you need to study for your national licensing exam, try the free samplers at: LicensureExams
This podcast is not associated with the NBCC, AMFTRB, ASW, ANCC, NASP, NAADAC, CCMC, NCPG, CRCC, or any state or governmental agency responsible for licensure.
Hi there, you future therapist. Welcome to our licensed for exam podcast. I'm Dr. Linton Hutchinson, and today we're going to go over the part two of reflections of meaning, reflections of feelings, and reflections of content in counseling. Okay, so let's go through a really short narrative that illustrates uh these three differences. We'll call our client Samantha. You know, any Samantha that's 34 years old?
SPEAKER_01:I know a lovely Samantha.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, well, Samantha's coming into our office today for a session.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, all right. Well, this is all purely, you know, hypothetical scenarios here. This is not based on any real life Samantha's. All right, so Samantha slams herself into the chair in your office and immediately launches in and says, Are you kidding me? Those idiots passed me over again. This makes it the third time in two years. And you know what? Got it? The boss's precious little princess, who's been here for what, like half the time I have. It's just so wrong.
SPEAKER_00:It's wrong.
SPEAKER_01:I've been killing myself. I've been killing myself working weekends, staying till midnight, taking on everyone else's crap that they don't want to do. Look, I literally canceled my vacation last month to save his butt on that board presentation. My vacation, and this is what I get.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Well, my husband says I should just walk out, but oh, it's perfect timing since we just signed our lives away on a mortgage. And to top it off, my mom calls me again yesterday asking if I'm coming to my nephew's birthday party. When I told her I'm working again, she goes dead silent, like I'm the worst person in the world. Seriously, like I have a choice. This whole thing just blows.
SPEAKER_00:Really? No, no, as you're listening to Samantha, you're processing what she said on multiple levels, right? As a therapist. So let's break it down how you might respond with each type of reflection. Okay. You might say something like this: Samantha, you've been passed over for your promotion three times in two years, despite working weekends and staying late. The position went to someone with a lot less sonority. You canceled your vacation for work, and now you're missing your nephew's birthday party. Your husband thinks you should quit, but you're concerned about finances with your new home. Is that right? So, what type of reflection is this, Stacy?
SPEAKER_01:Sounds a little bit like you're talking about who, what, where, you know, basic stuff. So I'd say reflection of content.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, yeah, right. It's basically you're organizing and reflecting back the concrete information she's just shared to you. This at least helps Samantha know that you heard her clearly and you understand and probably sympathize with her situation.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. Yep, exactly. And now if you're picking up on those emotional undertones, and there are plenty of them in this scenario, you might use reflection of feelings. We're gonna go just a little bit deeper. So you're feeling frustrated and maybe even betrayed that your hard work isn't being recognized. There's anxiety about the financial pressure, and I'm sensing maybe some pain about the family moments that you're missing. So do you see how that's a little bit different? You're not talking about just the events themselves, just the facts, ma'am, uh-huh. Um, but about her emotional experience of those events. And this can be really powerful because sometimes clients don't even realize how much emotion they're carrying until you take that time to reflect it back to them.
SPEAKER_00:That makes sense. And now for the reflection of meaning, and this is where it gets really to the heart of things. You might say something like this Samantha, this situation seems to be challenging your fundamental beliefs about fairness and how hard work should be rewarded as opposed to what actually happened. It sounds like you're caught between two important values. One is being dedicated to your profession, and two, being present for your family relationships that really gives your life meaning. Your mom's silence on the phone, and a lot of us can relate to that. That might have hit home particularly hard because it represents something deeper about the kind of daughter and aunt that you really want to be. See how that goes beyond the facts and the feelings to get to the core values and identity of her issues? You know that's going to open her right up. So the reflection of meaning, and when you nail it, client often has a powerful moment of recognition.
SPEAKER_01:So, how do you know in the moment which type of reflection to use? Let's just kind of go over that process maybe a little bit deeper now.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. There are some practical strategies that can help you differentiate of when you use a reflection. First, sequential assessment. Start by identifying the content, what happened, then move to the feelings. What was the emotional response? And finally, if appropriate, explore the meaning. What does that matter at a deep level? It's like it's like peeling back layers of an onion. Every layer reveals something quite deeper.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. Yep. And language cues are really helpful too. So when clients are content focused, they use more nouns and descriptive language, like the meeting was at 3 p.m. There were six people there, the agenda included, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00:When you're in touch with their feelings, you hear more adjectives and emotional descriptors. Like it was overwhelming. It was suffer suffocating. It was maddening.
SPEAKER_01:And when they're trying to make sense of it all and work through what something means to them, so like, why is all this going on? The language starts to become a little bit more abstract. Well, really, it's about integrity, or this isn't who I am, or I need to figure out what really matters. Depth indicators are another way that you can think about it. Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Kind of like we've been talking about. Content stays at the surface level, right? It's the newspaper report of what happened.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And feelings go a little deeper into the personal emotive experience, and it's how those events impacted them internally. And then meaning reaches the deepest level of core beliefs and identity. It's about who they are as a person and really what they stand for.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm. And here's something that you can use can actually gauge whether you've chosen the right type of reflection by how the client responds. When you accurately reflect content, a client typically nods and continues their story. It's like, yeah, yeah, that happened, and then blah, blah, blah. And with the reflection of feelings, if you've nailed that accurately, the clients will often just pause. They maybe start to become emotional. You hear things like, yeah, yeah, that's exactly how I'm feeling. But when you accurately reflect meaning, that's when you get those aha moments. Clients might say things like, gosh, you know, I've never thought of it that way, or, Oh yeah, I get it. That's it. That's exactly Stacy what I was thinking about. So sometimes they even go quiet for a moment where they're processing new new understanding about themselves.
SPEAKER_01:So those are in those situations where, you know, it's it's working. And then what happens if you are not on the right track? Like maybe you didn't quite get what was going on or what they were trying to tell you.
SPEAKER_00:Uh that's when you wish you had decided to become a bartender instead of a counselor. So yeah, so that's sort of when you hit those therapeutic speed bumps. It's when you reflect content when they needed emotional validation, you may hear, yeah, yeah, but that's not the point. Or they'll just keep repeating the same story over and over and over and trying to tell you that there's something deeper that you missed. Yeah. So if you reflect feelings when they're actually wrestling with meaning, they may say something like, Yeah, I'm sad, but it's more than that. Or that's not really what I'm getting at. They're letting you know that you're in the right neighborhood, but you're not quite at the right house yet.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's I like the way you put that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then if you jump straight to meaning, when they really just need to hear you, you know, that you're listening and maybe you wanted to validate their emotions first. Well, in that case, you're probably gonna get a look of confusion or uh huh, I don't really know what you're talking about. It's gonna seem like you're speaking a different language, like you're an alien here, and they're just not ready for that level of depth yet.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. There's something else called timing. And timing's really important here, and it's something that isn't always emphasized enough in any textbooks. Content reflections, those are safe throughout the session. You can use them from minute to minute. They're non-threatening, they bill report and they show that you're listening.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And feeling reflections require some rapport, but you can usually start using them relatively early in a session or even in a first session if the client is open emotionally. The key is really reading the room. So some clients are ready to explore feelings right away, others need some more time to feel safe. And some clients just really have are just clueless about their feelings. So you need a little bit of foundation there before you start that work.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, sometimes it takes years.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Meaning reflections, though, these typically require a strong therapeutic alliance. So you have to really be where your client is. They tend to emerge more naturally in middle to later sessions, or at least after you've built significant trust. If you jump to meaning too quickly, it can feel invasive and presumptuous. It's like, imagine someone you just met trying to tell you what your core values are. It's like, I've known you for five seconds and you're gonna tell me who I am and what I think. I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you're definitely gonna get that first line of defense shoot up. So that's probably why people get scared when you tell them you're a therapist, Linton. They think you can see directly directly into your soul or something. Like you're gonna start analyzing their childhood trauma based on how they order their sushi from public.
SPEAKER_00:That's true. Yeah. In fact, I know a lot of people, once you tell them they're a therapist, they will not look you in the eye.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. What's that all about, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, I hate to break it to you, Stacey, but loading up on extra rusabi definitely suggests some masochistic tendencies and probably some unresolved anger issues. But I'll try to keep my chopsticks out of other people's therapy.
SPEAKER_01:And let's not get started on people who order decaf coffee, Linton.
SPEAKER_00:Or someone who drinks eight to ten cups of leaded coffee a day. Sound familiar?
SPEAKER_01:Uh no, I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, let's get back to Sam Mantha again. Let's get back to Samantha for a minute. In a first session, you might stick primarily with content reflection, maybe dipping into feelings if she seems open to it. But that reflection about her fundamental beliefs, about fairness and her identity as a professional versus family member, that's something you might want to hold off to session three or four, or after you've built a good therapeutic foundation with her.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a great example. And another mistake is confusing feeling and meaning. So remember, feeling is about emotion, sad, angry, anxious, that kind of thing. And meaning is about values, identity, purpose. So you're feeling conflicted is a reflection of feeling. But this conflict represents a clash between your value of loyalty and your need for self-preservation. That's meaning.
SPEAKER_00:Here's the other thing you need to think about. Sometimes as therapists, we project our own meanings onto a client's experience. Like if you had strong feelings about work, life balance, you might be tempted to reflect meanings about that onto Samantha's situation. When maybe for her, it's just really about something else entirely. So you gotta stay curious and let the client's meaning emerge, not impose your own on it.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Keep those biases in check. And the thing is, well, skilled therapists don't just pick one type of reflection and stick with it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, right. Well, yeah, that's true. As Beck would say, it's like a dance. You're fluidly moving between all three types, choosing the most therapeutic response based on what your client's need is at the moment.
SPEAKER_01:And sometimes you might even combine them. So it sounds a little crazy here. Um with Samantha, you might say something like, So you've been passed over three times despite your dedication, working weekends, canceling vacations. And that part of the response is content.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And then you continue and you say you're frustrated and hurt. That part addresses the feelings.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And this is really challenging your sense of what hard work should mean in your life. And that's that reflection of meaning, right, Linton?
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm. Yeah, right. Well, that's quite a bit, but it's three items that you need to know and understand. And as we wrap it up here, I want you to remember that developing skills in these three types of reflection, it's it's not just about you passing a licensing exam, although obviously that is important. This is about becoming the kind of therapist who can meet clients where they are and help them go deeper when they're ready. So each type of reflection is valuable. Sometimes clients need to help them organize their thoughts, and that would basically be content reflection. Sometimes they need to feel their emotions, they need to be validated. And sometimes, just sometimes, they need to have help with you understanding the deeper significance of their experiences through meaningful reflection.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Yep. So the ability to differentiate between these and apply them appropriately, that's really what separates good therapists from great ones. And here's the thing you're gonna get better at this with practice. I know right now this seems like you know, a lot of information, and how am I ever going to pull this off without sounding like a weird robot or something with clients? But every session is an opportunity to refine these skills and to notice the subtle clues that can tell you what type of reflection would be most helpful.
SPEAKER_00:And for your exam, remember those behavioral indicators we talked about. Remember the physical cues, remember how timing matters, and remember that clients' responses tell you if you're on track. These aren't just some kind of abstract concepts that were coming up. These are the practical tools that you'll use every single day in your practice.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, exactly. So keep practicing, keep observing, trust yourself, you've got this. And thanks for joining us in this episode on Reflections and Therapy. And we'll catch you next week when we explore another topic.
SPEAKER_00:Try to remember. It's in there.
