ShrinkMatch: Like match.com but for psychotherapists and clients.

Dating websites have revolutionized dating. Sure, there’s some lying and deceptive photos but enough truth to enable people to find more and better matches than just with getting set up, singles dances, and bars.

It surprises me that the dating-website paradigm hasn’t been applied more broadly, for example, in pairing psychotherapist with client. After all, client success is so dependent on being well-matched.

I have some thoughts on how shrinkmatch.net might work. I describe them in my PsychologyToday.com article today in hopes that one or more readers decides to make it happen.

What Does Love Have to Do With Finding a Job?

Often, it’s irrational for an employer to hire a career changer. Why hire someone with no experience when a simple online ad can usually, for similar salary, yield someone experienced?

How can a career changer make an employer do the irrational? Make him or her fall in love with you. I’m not talking about romantic love (although that’s been known to work.)  I explain what I am talking about in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Gratifying Moment

I gotta say it felt pretty good to have a long line of folks wanting to buy and have me autograph my book, Careers for Dummies, after my talk in  a Stanford Distinguished Speaker Series.

What Would You Do? An Ethical Dilemma

Of all places to find a serious ethical dilemma, I wouldn't think it would be in a restaurant. But it was. It occurred yesterday. I describe it in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Changing Careers: Myths and Best Practices

I’m honored that I’ll be giving a Public Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley on the topic: Changing Careers: Myths and Best Practice. 

As my PsychologyToday.com article today, I share what I'm planning to say.

My New Book, Poems Practical is FREE for the Next 5 Days

For the next five days, my new book, Poems Practical: Clear, oft contrarian musings on love, work, life, Velveeta, etc. is free, in Kindle version. 

The print version is expensive ($53) because the book contains hundreds of full-color illustrations. So if you want the book in print, you might prefer the black-and-white version: $14.

How to be More Productive

I’ll admit it, I’m obsessed with being maximally productive. That’s because my definition of the life well-led is to make the biggest difference possible. Even if my abilities were severely limited, I believe I’d spend as many hours as possible being the best damn tree-hole digger, friend, and parent I could possibly be. 

I don’t expect you to be as committed to maximum productivity as I am but perhaps my lifetime obsession with that puts me in a position to suggest some ideas for you. Perhaps at least one of those I offer in my PsychologyToday.com article today will intrigue you enough to try.

My Favorite Recent Tweets on Work, Procrastination, Learning, and Emotions

Since 2009, I’ve posted 5,116 tweets, which archive my best ideas. Here on Psychology Today, I periodically post the best and most relevant to this blog’s title, How to Do Life. Here’s the best of the current crop.

Whjen Your Psychotherapy, Counseling, or Personal Coaching Client Has a Career Problem

Clients of helping professionals often have a career problem: Perhaps they’re unable to figure out what career to pursue, or can’t find a job—or keep one.

Before sending your client to a career counselor, you might try one or more of the tactics I offer in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Learner-Directed Tutoring: An under-considered way to learn

When deciding to learn something, most people take a course, get a certificate or degree, study on their own. They often overlook tutoring and its potent variant: learner-directed tutoring.  My PsychologyToday.com article today describes how it works and its advantages and drawbacks.

When Your Counseling Clients Don't Do Their Homework

Other career counselors consult with me about how to improve their practice. A common concern they raise is, “What should I do about clients who don’t do their homework?  My PsychologyToday.com article today describes what I tell them and I do with my clients.

Marty Nemko Speaks at U.C. Berkeley Extension: Changing Careers: Myths and Best Practices

UC Berkeley extension occasionally opens its doors to the public to hear a talk. I am honored that for the 3rd time, I've been chosen to give this public lecture. The topic: Changing Careers: Myths and Best Practices. Oct 30, 6:30 PM. It's free but you must register: HERE is the link.

Marketing Your Practice

Sometimes, a less competent practitioner gets more clients a more competent one. Often, the answer lies in marketing. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers tips that have helped my clients obtain more clients.

Alleviating Middle-Class Guilt and Shame

Middle-class people (and especially the wealthy) are subject to much guilt and shaming. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I make the case that it's undeserved.

When You Have a B.A. but Haven't Chosen a Career

My typical client has a bachelor’s degree but doesn’t know what career to pursue. Often, they’re interested in many things but no one career stands out. Or their abilities aren’t specific enough to suggest a career path. For example, they know they’re intelligent, sociable, detail-oriented, or artistic, but that doesn’t sufficiently narrow the options. Or their interests are shared by so many people—non-profit work, entertainment, the media, fashion, sports, or the arts—that it’s hard to find a decent-paying job in those.

Best practice would be to be thorough, per my book, Careers for Dummies. But I thought you might find it useful to know what such people end up doing. Most of them do one of five things. I describe them in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

The Ethical Counselor, Therapist, and Coach

Today, a fellow career coach asked me to troubleshoot her private practice. Our session revealed ethical concerns. While some of these are particular to career coaching/counseling, others are applicable to any helping professional in private practice. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I describe those ethical lapses and ways around them.

Undergraduate Education Reinvented

Undergraduate education is beyond fixing. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I make that case and propose an alternative for undergraduate education's reinvention.

'White Male" Shouldn't be an Epithet: A plea for fairness in the gender war.

We’ve come to a place where “white male” is usually used only derogatorily: “White males are the beneficiary of (unearned) privilege, oppressor of women and people of color, perpetrators of havoc, from Hitler to Kavanaugh.

My PsychologyToday.com article today asserts this is unjust and issues a plea for fairness.

Want to See My Talk at Stanford: Career Do's and Don'ts for Stanford Parents?

Tomorrow, Tuesday Oct 9 at 11 AM, I kick-off a Stanford Distinguished Speaker series. The title, "Career Dos and Don'ts for Stanford Parents." I've been given permission to invite some people. If you'd like to come, email me at mnemko@comcast.net. 

And as my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer the content I'm planning to present

why I Often Trust Common Sense Over Data

Many factors restrict the validity of many research findings. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I point those out and offer lots of examples of where I've prioritized common sense over the research findings du jour.

Come See Marty Nemko in His One-Man Show: Odd Man Out

Come see me in my one-man show, Odd Man Out, this Friday, Oct 5 at 8:30 PM at the Orinda Amphitheatre. Stories, life-lessons, music.  You'll nod, laugh, and maybe cry.

The reviews have been gratifying, for example,
https://napavalleyregister.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/marty-nemko-s-odd-man-out-hits-it-out-of/article_e5b93df2-e298-59ca-ba81-fcc51efd107a.html 

I'm doing this performance for free as a fundraiser for a wonderful all-volunteer community theatre: Orinda Starlight Village Players.

Discount tickets: www.goldstar.com/events/orinda-ca/marty-nemkos-odd-man-out-tickets

An Interview with CIsco's John Chambers: "America's Best Boss"

ABC’s 20-20 did a feature on  Cisco Systems’ CEO John Chambers called “The Best Boss in America.” And Chambers grew his company from 400 employees to 70,000 including 10,000 who became millionaires. In addition,  he’s been advisor to presidents Clinton and Bush and French President Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, and King Abdullah of Jordan and thus named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world.

He's written a new book: Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World.

I interviewed him on my KALW (NPR-San Francisco) radio program, Work with Marty Nemko. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers edited highlights:

Fired! What to do now.

Fired? Standard advice is to take some time to process it, grieve, reassess.  

My clients have found that poor advice. They’ve found that the longer they “process,” the harder it is to move forward. The bad thoughts stay top-of-mind because of the revisiting and revisiting the “unfairness” of it all.

My clients have found the advice I give in my PsychologyToday.com article today to be more helpful than extended time off to process.