Oh my goodness, if you’re a mental health professional working in the family courts, I should NOT have to explain the pathology to you in order to have a professional-level discussion with you about your patient-client.
You should already know.
Do you know what that’s called? Competence. Basic competence.
If I have to educate you before I can discuss the pathology with you, you’re not even competent yet. Go learn about the pathology first before – before – before – you start to work with it.
Before.
Don’t be here working with pathology if you don’t even know what the pathology is. Nope, don’t do it. If you don’t know what you’re doing, do you know what that’s called?
Incompetent.
You’re not allowed to be incompetent. That hurts people a lot when you don’t know what you’re doing. There are even ethical Standards that say “don’t be incompetent” – they are the Boundaries of Competence Standards in every ethics code.
Don’t do it. Don’t be an unethical, ignorant, incompetent mental health person. It’s just going to get you into trouble. Learn what the pathology is – first – learn how to fix it – first – then come work with the pathology in the family courts.
If you’re a mental health professional and I have to educate you about the pathology in order to have a professional-level discussion with you about your patient – that’s just wrong, wrong, wrong. You should already know.
I’m not an expert, I’m just a clinical psychologist who is competent in the pathology I work with. I was trained at Children’s Hospital. Do you know what the standard for competence is there, the standard I was trained to?
Competence – basic competence – is to know everything there is to know about the pathology, and then read journals to remain current.
Everything. Not most things. Everything about the pathology.
Is that too much? Then go away, because that’s the standard. I’m not the ceiling, I’m the floor. If you don’t know as much as Dr. Childress about this pathology, why not?
Are you just lazy? Must be. I’m not lazy. This is child abuse pathology. Know where you are. Don’t be lazy or don’t be here. Because if you’re here, you need to know what you’re doing.
You need to know what the pathology is, and you need to know how to fix it.
The Age of Ignorance is over.
Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, CA PSY 18857
