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Tiny Trainings For Therapists - Foundations Collection

The Therapist You Bring to the Room - Self-Awareness, Use of Self, and Staying Whole in Clinical Practice

by Candice Hamilton-Miller, RP

Every therapist brings a self into the room. The question is not whether that self is present — it always is — but whether you know enough about it to choose what to do with it. Drawing from real supervision group conversations, this volume covers trigger identification, countertransference as clinical data, deliberate use of personal experience, scope-of-practice as self-protection, and what genuine self-care looks like for working clinicians. Honest, grounded, and supervision-informed throughout.

About The Book

Every therapist brings a self into the room. The question is not whether that self is present — it always is — but whether you know enough about it to make it useful rather than intrusive.

This Tiny Training draws directly from real supervision group discussions about self-care, countertransference, and safe and effective use of self. It covers the kind of self-knowledge that clinical training rarely fully develops and solo practice alone rarely fully provides.

What this volume covers:
- How to identify your own clinical triggers and understand where they come from
- Countertransference as diagnostic information, not just interference to manage
- When and how to use personal experience deliberately in the clinical space
- How scope-of-practice functions as both an ethical and a self-protective tool
- What genuine self-care looks like for clinicians — as opposed to the wellness industry version most therapists find inadequate
- Reflective supervision as a developmental practice across all career stages

The material came from supervision conversations that were honest in the way that good supervision groups are honest: someone admitted their face gives too much away, someone worked through whether they were actually letting go at the end of the day or just performing the letting go. Nobody had all the answers. The learning happened in the asking.

This is not a self-help book. It is a clinical self-awareness guide for therapists who want to understand what they are working with when they are working with themselves — and why that understanding is essential to good clinical practice.

The Tiny Trainings series is a collection of focused, practice-based learning guides designed for therapists, clinical trainees, and mental health professionals who want deeper clinical reasoning, stronger intervention skills, and more confidence in real-world therapeutic decision-making. Rather than functioning as academic textbooks, the books are written in a supervision-informed style that explores what therapy actually looks like in session, including conceptualization, pacing, alliance considerations, intervention timing, and common clinical pitfalls. Each collection within the series focuses on a different aspect of practice, including Foundations, Conceptualization, Neurodivergence, Modalities & Techniques, Populations, Process Challenges, Interventions, and Professional Practice.

The full print edition includes the Continuing Education Training Pack at the back of the book. This section contains guided reflection prompts, applied clinical decision-making exercises, implementation planning questions, and CE completion pages designed to help readers translate conceptual understanding into practical clinical application. These materials are intended to support independent professional development and reflective practice for clinicians who wish to engage with the material at a deeper level.

CHM Publishing

CHM Publishing

From insight to intention to change.

Candice is a seasoned psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and educator with nearly three decades of experience supporting clients across the lifespan—from young children to older adults navigating complex life transitions. Her work has spanned schools, hospitals, community settings, and private practice, giving her a deeply integrated and practical understanding of mental health care. Known for her grounded, human approach to therapy, Candice blends clinical expertise with lived experience, emphasizing presence, curiosity, and authentic connection over rigid adherence to any single modality. Her work is rooted in ethical, client-centered care and an intentionally eclectic framework that adapts to the unique needs of each individual. In addition to her clinical work, Candice has spent years supervising and mentoring therapists at all stages of their careers. Through this work, she recognized a gap between what therapists are taught in formal training and what they actually need in the therapy room. This insight became the foundation for her writing. Candice is the author of The Tiny Training for Therapists Series, along with a growing collection of clinical training resources designed to support therapists in building practical, ethical, and confident practices. She also writes a wide range of accessible mental health resources for clients of all ages, translating therapeutic concepts into language that is clear, relatable, and usable in everyday life. Her work is not intended to prescribe one “right” way to practice, but to offer a flexible, experience-based toolbox—bridging the gap between theory and real-world clinical work. Through her practice, CHM Therapy Services, as well as her online platform for clients, called Mindful Humans Studio, and clinical online platform, The Therapist Circle, Candice continues to work closely with both clients and therapists, with a focus on developing skilled, self-aware practitioners and creating resources that make therapy more accessible, human, and effective for everyone.

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