This brief explores how the person of the therapist is developed when training and working in medical settings. It highlights important and often unspoken topics such as the personal, professional, cultural, ethical, and competency dilemmas new clinicians regularly face. The brief also addresses how personal experience with illness, death, cultural differences, and stigma may impact professionals in everyday practice.

Topics featured in this Brief include:

Helpful tips and tricks for new professionals entering a medical setting for the first time.Working with patients who suffer from chronic and terminal illnesses.Sociocultural norms and values that are often present in a medical setting.A new framework for identifying and treating professional burnout.How to handle ethical situations in medical organizations.

Self of the Therapist in Medical Settings is a must-have resource for clinicians, professionals, supervisors, and faculty working in medical settings.

Max Zubatsky, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Medical Family Therapy Program at Saint Louis University. He is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and state approved supervisor. Max completed his doctorate at the University of Minnesota in Family Social Science and his post-doctoral fellowship at the Chicago Center for Family Health. Maxs research interests include geriatrics, caregiving, integrated behavioral health, behavioral health skills of family medicine residents, and provider well-being. He currently directs The Memory Clinic, a specialty clinic in the Center for Counseling and Family Therapy which provides individual and group services to patients and families with memory loss. Max is the Coordinator of Integrated Behavioral Health in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and teaches courses to masters,doctoral, and medical students in several clinical and research areas. He has published over 20 chapters and articles on mental health and medical topics in the field.

Jackie Williams-Reade, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, CA where she trains and supervises students in integrated care, conducts and supervises research, and presents nationally on topics related to families and health. She completed her doctorate in Medical Family Therapy from East Carolina University and a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric palliative care at Johns Hopkins University. Jackies research interests include the application and advancement of Medical Family Therapy, pediatric illness, utilizing qualitative research to privilege patient and family voices in healthcare, meaning-making and spirituality, and self-of-therapist issues in medical settings. She has over 20 publications, has presented numerous times nationally and internationally on medical family therapy, is the Administrator of the 600+ member Medical Family Therapy Group on Facebook, and is currently the foundingchair of the Family Therapists in Healthcare Interest Network with American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Chapter 1: Navigating the Culture and Context of Medicine.- Chapter 2: Personal Illness and Family of Origin.- Chapter 3: Coping with Patients Death and Dying.- Chapter 4: Making Sense of Socio-Cultural Context of Medicine and Identity Development.- Chapter 5: Burnout and Fatigue.- Chapter 6. Practice Challenges and Ethical Decision Making.- Chapter 7: Professional Perspectives of the Self in Their Journey Through Medicine.