An excellent way to study for your clinical exam is to create or join a study group. Your group can be anywhere from 2 to 8 in size. Larger groups don’t give individuals enough time to practice their skills.
Groups can be face-to-face or virtual. Virtual groups can meet using streaming video or bridge lines. Here are some free resources.
Free bridge lines are available from www.mrconference.com.
Free streaming video is available from Skype.
You can also have documents, cases or treatment plans online so everyone can work on them by using Google Documents. Everyone needs to be registered with Google and one person would need to set it up and include everyone as users. Go to Google.com and click on "other" at the top of the page. The menu shows "Documents," click there and the menu will instruct you how to set up a document and add users.
Our PTI Suggested study process is:
1 - Identify a clinical case to discuss. Use one of the case books recommended below.
Each member reads the case on their own and when the group meets, use the Eleven Phase Case Development Model as outlined in the Clinical Mental Health Counselor Handbook and Study Guide (www.Psychotherapiststraininginst.com)
2 - Here is our PTI list of Questions & Steps to follow:
- 1. Are there any Red Flags? – Danger to self or others, acute organic, abuse.
2. Appropriateness for individual outpatient therapy?
3. Where do you develop a connection?
4. Make your Initial Assessment – Mental Status
5. Screen and rank/select problems. Choose the problem that is the most significant in terms of its impact on their quality of life. (after safety concerns, which come first).
6. Make an Initial DSM diagnosis
7. Verify and exclude diagnostic impressions – what is or is not important in relation to the problems and diagnosis you are going to work on.
8. Complete your assessment database. What behaviors/symptoms are you going to measure?
9. Outline your Treatment plan for the main problem/diagnosis.
10. What Treatment modalities and approaches are to be used?
11. Termination, prognosis and maintenance. How would they know if they could benefit from therapy again?
Use the following resources and chapters in your Study Guide:
- Assessment
- Mental Status
- Diagnosis
- Treatment Planning
- Counseling Theories
- Special Treatment Issues
- Substance Abuse
- Psychopharmacology
- Professional Practice
Also look at the ACA and NBCC Ethical Standards in the back of the book.
Other Resources
Case Books
- DSM-IV-TR Case Book (American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.)
- ACA Ethical Standards Casebook (American Counseling Association)
Treatment Planners
- All the Practice Planners published by Wiley & Sons. Inc.
- Treatment Companion to the DSM-IV TR Casebook (APA)
Repeat the process of reading a case and going through the steps listed above OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Eventually it will become a dance you can do automatically so that when you're taking the exam you'll automatically have a sense of case development for each simulation.
