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How Well Do You Read Emotions? A Test to Improve Therapist Effectiveness

It blows me away that there are tests that can measure therapist effectiveness. For instance, the JeFEE is a test of how well you're able to read emotions, and in general, better scores on this test are linked to better clinical outcomes.


How Reading Emotions Boosts Therapist Effectiveness

According to one study, higher scores on the JeFEE were related to several positive outcomes on a host of different metrics:

  • Graph showing a decrease in target complaints over sessions with lines labeled Emotion Recognition. Title: Severity of presenting problem goes down.
    Graph showing "Working alliance goes up" in bold orange text. Lines indicate positive correlation between session number and working alliance.
    Graph showing alliance ruptures decreasing over sessions. Solid and dashed lines represent emotion recognition. Text: "Alliance ruptures go down."
    Graph showing secure attachment increasing with sessions. Two lines represent emotion recognition: solid for +1 SD, dashed for -1 SD. Text: Client’s secure attachment goes up.
    Graph showing secure attachment scores increasing with session number. Solid and dashed lines represent emotion recognition variances. Bold red text reads "Client's secure attachment goes up."
    Graph showing a decrease in emotion regulation (DERS) over sessions. Title: Client’s inability to regulate emotions goes down.
    Graph showing decline in clients' non-acceptance of emotions over sessions. Bold orange text states "Client’s non-acceptance of emotions goes down."
    Graph showing a decline in "Avoidant-Fearful" attachment over 15 sessions. Text in bold orange: "Client’s insecure attachment goes down."
    Graph showing a decline in client's emotional lack of clarity over sessions. Blue lines indicate different emotion recognition levels. Title in bold orange.

Simply put, the better you are at reading emotions, the better you understand your clients, the fewer ruptures you have, and the better you can help clients understand themselves. All of these outcomes are correlated with how well you do on a simple test, highlighting a key component of therapist effectiveness.


If you’d like to take the test, you can find it here:



A word of caution, though: don't take this test merely to find out if you’re a “good therapist” or not. The real value is using it to find your weaknesses so you can improve. For instance, if you get a poor score, look at which emotions you struggled to identify. Maybe you confused disgust and anger, or surprise and fear. Great, now you know which emotions to research and learn more about.


Use the test to help guide your learning, not to evaluate yourself as a person.


If you'd like more training on this after taking the test, October 24th and October 31st we're giving a training on reading emotions and other processes in therapy. We only have 5 spots left.

Here's what others say about our training:



If that training doesn't work for your schedule, you can also check out these resources:


I hope this serves you.


Best,


Jordan (the counselor)

 

 Jordan Harris and Paul Peterson are co-founders of Private Practice Incubator, a consulting firm dedicated to:

  1. Helping clinicians earn more money.

  2. Helping clinicians help more clients.

 

If you'd like to learn more about launching your practice, visit us here. 

 Jordan Harris

Jordan Harris, Ph.D., LMFT-S, LPC-S, received his Doctor of Philosophy in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Louisiana Monroe. He is a licensed professional counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist in the state of Arkansas, USA. In his clinical work, he enjoys working with couples. He also runs a blog on deliberate practice for therapists and counselors at Jordanthecounselor.com


Paul Peterson

Paul Peterson is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in the state of Arkansas. He has certification and/or training in EFT, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness as well as adult psychological development models. He's been in the mental health field since 2015 and in 2019 worked with a team of authors to publish a content analysis in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. The content analysis reviewed almost 1,000 research articles and tracked trends in publishing and clinical effectiveness research. He has also published a book on a Wholeness-oriented approach to contemporary Christian faith. He gives regular training on clinical skills, hypnotherapy, and business skills for solo practice therapists.

 
 
 

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