Many of us, including myself, sometimes roll our eyes at the idea of small talk. Maybe it’s because of the disingenuous pleasantries, the trivial topics, or the triteness of the whole affair. Or maybe it’s having to answer ‘pretty good’ when someone asks about your day, even if you feel like pulling your hair out. Or maybe it’s because talk is cheap, as they say. But what if there is more to it than all that? Below are some of the unspoken messages that potentially can underlie small talk.

One might think that math is the last place we can find parallels for the work we do as mental health professionals. After all, math can be a very sterile, cold, and a mechanical beast. But there are various concepts that can apply to the world of human service.

“To err is human.” And yet, there appears to be a certain “elephant in the room” when it comes to our mental health profession. This is the false assumption that “thinking errors” are strictly a client concern, and we providers are somehow immune to the effects of such cognitive distortion or bias. However, in our profession, such oversights can be as destructive as a bull in a China shop (or an elephant as the case may be). Being aware of one’s biases is an important skill to hone in our work, and below appears several of the common thinking errors we providers sometimes stumble into, without even realizing it.