About

Concerning the Author:
I am a clinical social worker who has worked in an agency setting, in the Midwest United States, providing mental health services, since 2004. I came to this career after over 20 years as an educator, returning to graduate school in my late 40s. I believe my work as a clinician has been informed greatly by my experiences as an educator, a parent, a spouse, and by my own treatment. I have considerable expertise with anxiety disorders, depression, substance and process addictions, and family relationships (couples and parenting). I have worked both in therapy and in a psychosocial rehab program with clients with severe mental illness. I have collaborated with child protective services, the Justice system, school personnel, primary care physicians, and psychiatrists in my work with clients. One of my areas of expertise as a teacher is gifted children; I bring to my clinical work an awareness of the implications of intellectual and academic giftedness for children and adults’ mental health and relationships.

My name is Anita DeLuna Bechtold.  My academic credentials are a BS in Education from the University of Dayton, and M.Ed. from Miami University of Ohio, and an LSW from Loyola of Chicago.  I held an LISW for a number of years, but let it lapse when I retired in 2018.  During the years of my active practice, I worked with clients in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.  If you wish to contact me, send me an email at adelunab@fuse.net.

Concerning this Blog:
Over the course of my clinical social work career, it became clear to me how powerful analogies can be in clinical work. Often when I speak with a client at termination about what was most helpful for them in their treatment, they mention specific analogies that they found especially useful. While many analogies emerged in response to a specific individual, there were some I found myself returning to over and over. In 2012 I decided to create this blog to share analogies which were effective in my work, and to allow other clinicians to do the same. Many of the best analogies I use came from another clinician. Perhaps I can use this blog to return the favor, and to allow clinician-readers to do the same.

All analogies fall apart at some point, and not all analogies – no matter how brilliant they may be – work for every client. Obviously all of these analogies are to be used advisedly, based on knowledge of the client and the current context of the work.

As this blog grows, it will become more difficult to sort through the analogies entered. I plan to use multiple tags so that readers can find analogies they are looking for. Readers are welcome to suggest additional tags.

Please go to the entry “How to Contribute” (in the sidebar on the right on the Home page) if you have an analogy you would like to share with fellow clinicians through this blog.