About Therapy Compass
A clinical field guide — not a textbook, not a manual. Built for the moment between sessions when you need a usable answer, not a history lesson.
What it is
Therapy Compass is a working reference for therapists navigating orientation choice. Each framework gets the mechanism of change, the client signals it engages, the mismatches where it backfires, the in-session moves, and the questions that open them up — laid out so you can act on it in the room, not just admire it from a seminar.
What it isn't
- A diagnostic tool. The Client Match gives a tactical starting point, not a verdict.
- A substitute for training, supervision, or your own judgment in the room.
- An exhaustive academic review. It's the field-guide version — enough to orient you, then you go read the source.
How to use it
Start from the client (Client Match) or from the presentation (Presenting Problems), land on the orientations that tend to engage, then read the orientation profile for the moves and the caveats. Use Compare when you're torn between two. Use Session Phases when your brain blanks mid-session. The cross-cutting pages — Endings, Rupture, Traps, Self, Culture — apply to every orientation.
A note on honesty
Every orientation here lists what it's bad at, not only what it's good at. The mismatches and contraindications are the point — an orientation you can only see the strengths of is an orientation you'll misuse. Read the limitations as carefully as the mechanism.
Who it's for & who builds it
Therapy Compass is built for therapists, counselors, trainees, and supervisors — anyone who has to choose a framework and act on it inside the constraints of a real session. It is made and maintained by a single person: a graduate student in the final semester of internship. It started because every time a therapist at my practicum site mentioned something I wasn't very familiar with, I'd end up going down a Google rabbit hole to learn what it was and how to apply it. I wanted a tool that gives the whole picture I'd have gotten from that hole — without the hole. The content is drawn from the published literature and the references listed on each orientation page, then condensed into the field-guide format you see here. It is independent and not affiliated with any training institute. If something here is wrong or missing, the Contact page is the way in.