The Therapist Writer: Helping Mental Health Professionals Get Published

The

THERAPIST

Writer

Helping Mental Health

Professionals Get Published

Sylvia Cary, LMFT

Timberlake Press, Woodland Hills, California

www.SylviaCary.com

sylviacary@gmail.com

Copyright © 2013 by Sylvia Cary

Second Printing 2018

2019 Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

For information contact:

www.sylviacary.com

sylviacary@gmail.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is available in print at online booksellers.

Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9828847-9-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018913154

Cover Design: Dotti Albertine

Cover Image: Getty Images/Thinkstock

Proofreading: Flo Selfman

Author Photo: GGProPhoto, Glendale, California

Also by Sylvia Cary

It Must Be Five O'Clock Somewhere, Jolted Sober,

The Alcoholic Man, and Women and Long-Term Sobriety.

Dedication

For my wonderful late husband, Lance Henrik Wolstrup (I wish you were here for this), and for Jessica, Claudia, Roy,

Lily, and Lyle

CONTENTS

Foreword: INCITING A WRITER by Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D.,

Author of THE INTROVERT ADVANTAGE

PART I: GEARING UP

Chapter 1― Getting Published Is Good For Business

Chapter 2― The Therapist Writer

Chapter 3― What Therapists Need to Know About Publishing

Chapter 4―Special Issues for Therapist Writers

Chapter 5―Legal Issues for Therapist Writers

Chapter 6―Beginning Platforms for Therapist Writers

PART II: WRITING IT DOWN

Chapter 7―What Should I Write About?

Chapter 8―Nailing Your Niche

Chapter 9―Who is Your Audience?

Chapter 10―My Kingdom for an Angle

Chapter 11―Why Book Proposals Are Good for You

Chapter 12―Offbeat Writing Hints and Tips

PART III: GETTING IT OUT

Chapter 13―Fork in the Road

Chapter 14―Tell Me Where You’ve Met Me, the Agent Said

Chapter 15―Writing for Your Inner Circle

Chapter 16 & 17―The A-Z Book Marketing Cheat Sheet

Chapter 18 ― On Making French Toast

About The Author

Acknowledgments: You Can Do That?

What Others Are Saying About. . .

FOREWORD: INCITING A WRITER

Breathing is the rhythmic prototype of taking in and giving out.

― Dr. Majorie F. E. Brierley, psychoanalyst

Writing a book is inciting to riot. The writing journey is meant to shake up and revamp our internal and external worlds. The adventure begins when we gulp a breath of air and decide to write a book. Like therapy, it requires a certain amount of trust in ourselves and in the process. Departing, we drive out of our comfort zone onto an unfamiliar highway. We can’t imagine the road ahead. But I assure you there will be potholes, detours, dead ends, forks in the road, tangy scents, surprising sights, and rhythmic sounds. Our horizons expand and we learn life lessons as we travel toward our destination, a completed book. It is essential to invite a wise muse to accompany you on your book writing adventure. Preferably, someone who knows the journey going in and is more than willing to share their comprehensive and up-to-date writing map.

I remember meeting my wise muse, Sylvia Cary, in her cozy Woodland Hills, California, office. She was a good listener and I began to breathe easier, since she didn’t immediately break into gales of hysterical laughter when I explained my book idea to her. I was embarrassed to show her my file of unformulated chapters. She employed her muse abilities and gave me the impression that the crumpled pages I was clutching to my chest, like a pink security blanket, could become a book.

I contacted Sylvia because my PsyD. dissertation advisor encouraged me to write a book based on my graduate paper. The premise of my dissertation was that, contrary to popular notions, introverts are not failed extroverts or loners who live in the woods fiddling with bombs. Everyone is born with a temperament based on a set point along the introvert/extrovert continuum. Innies and Outies both have their strengths and weaknesses. My advisor felt that my physiological research might help reduce the shame and insecurity most introverts develop because they grow up in a culture that undervalues innies and overvalues outies. I hoped innies could appreciate their unique advantages.

Sylvia helped me organize and develop a professional book proposal. I sent out thirty letters to agents, asking them to read my proposal. I was prepared to send out one hundred agent inquiries but to my surprise six agents called to ask to read my proposal. In the end, I selected my agent because she was an introvert and she had good credentials. She later told me that she knew I could deliver a book when she saw my professional proposal. I accepted one of several publishing offers. That’s when the real fun began. I was faced with the reality of writing the book.

Over the next six months, Sylvia and I collaborated to birth my book. With patience and humor, she improved my writing and preserved my voice. I’ve found that that talent, in writing coaches, is in short supply.

If you can’t work with Sylvia in person or online, her book, The Therapist Writer, is the next best resource. You can breathe, relax, and enjoy the inciting journey because she is a supportive and experienced guide. Sylvia has written a clear, detailed map to lead you through the maze of book creating, publishing, and marketing. She shows you the paths you can choose from, in order to travel through today’s publishing world. At the end of your journey you will have inspired your own book, made a contribution to others, and incited a little creative riot. ― Marti Olsen Laney, PsyD., LMFT, author of The Introvert Advantage

PART I

GEARING UP

Chapter 1

Getting Published is Good for Business

We are what we are and we are what we do.

―Abraham Maslow

We in the U.S. mental health profession make up a fairly large bunch, some 700,000 strong and growing, according to the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics. This number refers to those practicing in the U.S. today whose main function is the treatment and/or diagnosis of mental health or substance abuse concerns. Huddling together under the same mental health umbrella are licensed psychotherapists, marriage and family counselors, social workers, psychoanalysts, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, pastoral counselors, school counselors, industrial counselors, employee assistance counselors, and more. There are also about 10,000 life coaches. Even though unlicensed and unmonitored, they cover much of the same ground that we cover. They’re nipping at our heels.

The Talking Cure

Our profession wasn’t really invented. It kind of grew organically from a naturally occurring phenomenon: Talking. Once our ancestors developed the art of language, a remarkable achievement in itself, they discovered that talking not only facilitated communication but also made people feel better. It’s no wonder that talking experiences have found their way into most cultures — gatherings around the village fire, storytelling, dream-sharing, the confessional, speech-giving, twelve-step meetings, and the psychotherapy session.

Has the Mental Health Profession Lost its Mojo?

When the psychotherapy business was new, there was a certain mystique about it. It stirred up awe. Mental health professionals were seen as having magical powers and it was assumed they could even read your mind. If you met a shrink at a dinner party, you were a little uncomfortable. Therapists haven’t been called witch doctors for nothing.

People who went into therapy in the early days often did so secretly. When my grandfather took the commuter train into Manhattan from Westport, Connecticut for his four-times-a-week psychoanalysis appointments, his family and friends thought he was being avant-garde and the neighbors thought he was going to the dentist.

Today, therapy is everywhere. It’s ubiquitous. We’re no longer the only game in town. There are dozens of competing and alternative therapies, from meditation to yoga to twelve-step groups. And the recovery rates from all these various treatments spread over many decades have remained roughly the same. That’s a book in itself.

Since the field of clinical psychology has become commonplace, therapists have lost some of their earlier glamour and mystique. We are even occasionally stereotyped as foolish. Think of the cartoons showing psychoanalysts snoozing or reading magazines behind their patients who is lying on the couch.

Mental health professionals are no longer seen as the sole proprietors of the kind of secret mental health information that regular people aren’t privy to. Today, if you’ve got a question about how people tick, or what a certain symptom means, all you have to do is go online and ask Dr. Google or hop on YouTube for an educational video. It’s free.

In a phone conversation I once had with an acquisitions editor at a Midwestern publisher, I mentioned that I’d been working as a book doctor for psychotherapists who want to get published. Without missing a beat, the editor shot back, You should really try to discourage those people. Apparently, her publishing house had had its fill of book proposals from therapists written in tongues.

While I agree that psychobabble isn’t good, I don’t think therapists should be discouraged from writing. An editor can always help them tidy up the phrasing. The important thing is to trap the ideas on paper and take it from there.

Pep Talk to Therapist Writers

I do not want to discourage those people from writing books. I want to encourage mental health professionals to write because they have a lot to say that the world needs to hear. We need their insights, experiences, and expertise. We need their tips on coping. It would be a loss and a shame if they didn’t share what they know with the rest of us.

With so many mental health professionals walking around with deep thoughts in their heads, you’d think more of them would be hitting up agents, publishers, editors, and even self-publishing experts to learn how to get published, but they’re not. Sure, some are getting their books out, but not as many as could be, considering their credentials and knowledge.

Sometimes I find myself nagging therapists to publish before it’s too late, before they get hit by a bus. The oft-quoted observation that Most people die with their music still in them (attributed to former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.) resonates with some of the procrastinators and gets them going at last.

Then, too, there are therapists who have a little elitist thing happening and look down their noses at mainstream publishing, viewing it as pop psychology. They’ll write articles for journals that are read by only a handful of their peers, but they refuse to write commercially and be read by thousands. Go figure. Fortunately, there’s room in the writing world for everybody and you get to pick which part of that world you feel most comfortable inhabiting. Learn the facts; make your choice.

No matter what your specialty or interest, I encourage you to write about it. You know too much not to. There’s always someone who wants the content you are offering. Give your readers your unique take on issues that matter to them. Even a brand new therapist can write a book. How about, Tips on Getting Through Grad School, or, How to Find Internships that Pay, or, Passing Your Licensing Exam the First Time with Ease? See, that’s three book or ebook ideas right there!

Ten Perks of Getting Published for Therapists

Getting a book published is the quickest way for a mental health professional to become known as an expert, which can be translated into more attention, more referrals, more business, and more money. While the idea of writing a book might seem daunting, it is doable. I did it. Other therapists have done it. You can do it.

Think of all the years you’ve spent honing your skills. Instead of sharing your knowledge with only a few hundred people over the course of your career, you could be helping thousands by putting what you know in print. Don’t keep it a secret. Don’t give up your day job. You can do that later. For now, start working on a book by stealing an hour or two from your day (the way author John Grisham did; he got up an hour earlier). Write between appointments. Take advantage of cancellations. Stay up an hour later. Use a weekend day.

Let’s look at some of the perks of getting published:

1. Qualifies You as an Expert