Understanding Therapeutic S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Have you ever heard of the acronym S.M.A.R.T?

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and
Timely.

It’s an acronym used in vocational psychology to help career builders and job seekers set goals.

But for our purposes, I will be discussing using SMART goals in a therapeutic fashion.

Setting goals is often the easy part. Following and completing them is one of the most difficult things to do. Why? Because setting goals takes time, realistic expectations, follow up, and dedication. “Failing” at keeping your goals can lead to a host of mental health symptoms (depending on the type of goal you are striving to achieve).

For example, you may begin to experience depression and anxiety if you are trying to achieve the therapeutic goal of completing counseling but you tend to struggle with examining and discussing the traumatizing material.

Goals certainly need to be realistic and smart. The best way to ensure your goals are appropriate for where you are in your life is to use S.M.A.R.T. goals as an outline and a motivator.

S.M.A.R.T. Therapeutic Goals

In this video, I briefly walk you through S.M.A.R.T. and how to set goals. Towards the end of the video, I will talk a bit about what has failed in our mental health system to conclude our discussion on counseling and psychotherapy this week.

Note: This video also includes a brief discussion of aspects of counseling and psychotherapy that have failed. All last week we talked about the field of psychotherapy/counseling and things we should all be aware of. In order to end this topic, I discuss areas of the field that truly need to be improved.

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