A Guide To Assessment For Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists

Psychoanalytic psychotherapists and psychoanalysts inevitably find themselves doing assessment in their work, both in private practice and in a clinical setting such as the NHS. The authors felt a need for a book that covers this vital aspect of their work, which would be of benefit both to students in training and to practitioners. Amongst subjects covered are the nature of assessments, the setting, consultation, contraindications, and clinical examples. This title contains the distilled wisdom of over twenty years experience in the field.

This book sets out to address the complexities of psychoanalytic assessment. Comprises a comprehensive review of relevant literature and contributions from various psychotherapists on the different aspects of the assessment process.Contributors:Helen Alfiille, Judith Barnard, Ruth Berkowitz, Judy Cooper, Arna Davis, Philip Hewitt, Mira Malovic-Yeeles, Aslan Mordecai, Mary Rosalind Stumpfl, Anne Tyndale and Danuta Waydenfeld.

A valuable handbook for psychotherapists and counsellors. Distinguished practitioners representing a wide range of approaches describe their methods of appraisal and how these have developed.

In this edited book, expert assessors illustrate through case examples how they apply psychoanalytic theory to different clinical settings. These settings include private practice, neuropsychological, medical, forensic, personnel, custody, school, and psychiatric-residential. Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings allows the reader to track the assessor’s work from start to finish. Each chapter presents a description of the clinical setting in which the assessment occurred; a detailed review of the referral and patient history; test selection and test findings with supporting data drawn from self-report, and cognitive and personality performance-based measures; psychiatric and psychodynamic diagnoses; implications and recommendations; discussion of the feedback process; and assessor-self reflections on the case. Throughout the book, psychodynamic concepts are used to help understand the test data. The authors are experts in the psychodynamic assessment of clients in private practice, educational, medical, neuropsychological, and forensic settings. The findings are derived from methods particular to each setting, with supporting data highlighted and woven throughout the interpretive process. Students, educators, practitioners, and the professionals who collaborate with assessors will benefit from this book’s offerings.

There are various different psychological therapies but their shared aim is to help the sufferers of mental disorders. The role of assessment and the decisions following that are crucial in the treatment process. The first encounter between the patient and the assessor defines the problem and shapes the possible treatment model. However, formal training in assessment is non-existent. This volume attempts to offer guidelines for assessment and it also offers general information on assessment in a concise form, with the help of clinical vignettes and case examples. The purpose has been to keep the book as simple as possible so that it may be easily accessible to beginners as well as to provide an initial structure and overview for more experienced practitioners. We therefore hope that this work may serve as a useful guide for referrers, trainees and therapists practicing in a variety of psychotherapeutic settings, including those in the National Health Service and in private practice, and begin to foster further debate in this field.

A Clinical Guide to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy serves as an accessible and applied introduction to psychodynamic psychotherapy. The book is a resource for psychodynamic psychotherapy that gives helpful and practical guidelines around a range of patient presentations and clinical dilemmas. It focuses on contemporary issues facing psychodynamic psychotherapy practice, including issues around research, neuroscience, mentalising, working with diversity and difference, brief psychotherapy adaptations and the use of social media and technology. The book is underpinned by the psychodynamic competence framework that is implicit in best psychodynamic practice. The book includes a foreword by Prof. Peter Fonagy that outlines the unique features of psychodynamic psychotherapy that make it still so relevant to clinical practice today. The book will be beneficial for students, trainees and qualified clinicians in psychotherapy, psychology, counselling, psychiatry and other allied professions.

Using formal assessment instruments in counseling and psychotherapy is an efficient and systematic way to obtain information about clients and to subsequently tailor a counseling approach most likely to serve clients optimally. The more information a counselor obtains during the initial interview and first sessions, the more likely the client will be deeply understood by the counselor, which in turn increases the likelihood that an appropriate course of counseling will be taken, and ultimately leading to a more successful outcome. The Integral Intake is an idiographic, biographical, multidimensional assessment instrument based upon the Integral Psychology pioneered by Ken Wilber. From the perspective of Integral theory, comprehensive and holistic conceptualization of clients seeking counseling and psychotherapy includes knowledge of four distinct perspectives (quadrants) of each client: the client’s experience (the individual viewed subjectively/from within), the client’s behavior (the client viewed objectively/from without), the client’s culture (the client’s system viewed subjectively/from within), and the client’s social system (the client’s system viewed objectively/from without). The intake form is designed to provide the practitioner with a range of background information that can then be used to more quickly and effectively formulate a counseling/treatment approach. The assessment form and accompanying materials will be included on a downloadable resource, formatted to be printed and reproduced for use with each new client. The book will provide an overview of the Integral Psychology model, describe the development of the assessment form and its use, and provide general guidelines for the evaluation of responses and planning for an appropriate counseling approach. A series of case examples, based on actual completed intake forms, will provide insight into the use of the Integral Intake.

The world of psychotherapy training has changed dramatically since the First edition of this guide. There have been major organisational changes stimulated partly by the prospect of statutory registration for Psychotherapists, resulting in pressure for unity of standards, ethics and a common voice amongst the umbrella organisations. But there have also been moves towards new organisations that express the standards, values and commitment of partidcular aspect of the work of Psychotherapy. This is illustrated by the creation of the British Confederation of Psychotherapy (BCP), and in the proliferation of courses, each geared to a particular approach, method or patient groups.