Think Like the Test 5 - Safety First

[Content advisory: This episode includes discussion of sexual assault. Listener discretion advised.]

Crisis management questions will often include multiple answers that are good things to do in the situation described. But there's often a key word in the question that can help you know which of those good options is the right answer.

And speaking of safety, Ben starts asking whether clinical licensing exams actually do the thing they're supposed to do -- assess for safety in independent practice. 

This question comes from the current BBS handbook for the California MFT Clinical Exam. 

A 36-year-old client initiates therapy and reports that the previous night she went on a date with a man she had met online. After dinner he raped her and then dropped her off at home as if nothing happened. She tells the therapist that she spent the night in the emergency room, and is afraid to go home because her assaulter knows where she lives. Which of the following actions should the therapist initially take in this crisis situation?

1. Re-establish the client’s feelings of control to reduce her sense of victimization
2. Evaluate the client’s support systems to identify a safe place for the client to stay
3. Develop the client’s trauma narrative of the event to desensitize emotional impact
4. Encourage the client to file a police report to protect other women from the perpetrator

Intro/outro music: "Swampy Lands" by Adam Saban, licensed via Soundstripe.