Doing Psychotherapy Effectively

Psychotherapy is a $2.5 billion business in the United States, but no one can answer the basic question of how therapy works. No watchdog groups rank therapists for potential consumers; no one school of thought has proven to be superior to another. And no method has emerged for determining what makes therapy successful for some but not for others. Doing Psychotherapy Effectively proposes much-needed answers to the puzzling questions of what therapists actually do when they are effective. Mona Sue Weissmark and Daniel A. Giacomo offer a unique mode of evaluation that focuses not on a particular school of therapy but on the relationship between therapist and patient. Their approach, the "Harvard Psychotherapy Coding Method," begins with the assumption that good therapeutic relationships are far from intuitive. Successful relationships follow a pattern of behaviors that can be identified and quantified, as the authors demonstrate through clinical research and videotaped sessions of expert therapists. Likewise, positive changes in the patient, observed through client feedback and case studies, can be described operationally; they involve the process of overcoming feelings of detachment, helplessness, and rigidity and becoming more involved, effective, and adaptable. Weissmark and Giacomo explain and ground these principles in the practice of psychotherapy, making Doing Psychotherapy Effectively an accessible and pragmatic work which will give readers a tool for measuring therapeutic effectiveness and further understanding human transformation. For the first time, successful therapy is described in a way that can be practiced and communicated.

What is it that makes some therapists so much more effective than others, even when they are delivering the same evidence-based treatment? This instructive book identifies specific interpersonal skills and attitudes--often overlooked in clinical training--that facilitate better client outcomes across a broad range of treatment methods and contexts. Reviewing 70 years of psychotherapy research, the preeminent authors show that empathy, acceptance, warmth, focus, and other characteristics of effective therapists are both measurable and teachable. Richly illustrated with annotated sample dialogues, the book gives practitioners and students a blueprint for learning, practicing, and self-monitoring these crucial clinical skills.

An in-depth look at a much misunderstood practice, offering a fresh viewpoint on how this science can be a universally effective route to our better selves.

The initial conceptualization of this book was much more narrow than the final product that has emerged. I started out believing that it would be enlightening to have a group of acknowledged rational-emotive therapy (RET) expert practitioners with well-established literary credentials write about how they approach the problem of modifying dient irrationality. Many RET practitioners of all levels of experience are, on the one hand, enamored of the economy, the precision, and the accuracy of psychological insight that RET theory offers, but they are, on the other hand, equally frustrated by their own inability to "persuade" or otherwise change some of the dients they work with more quickly or even at all. Indeed, dients themselves frequently express the view that RET is illuminating, yet they find themselves at the same time puzzled and perplexed by their inability to make the substantial changes that RET invites. It became dearer as I discussed the project with many of the contrib utors that to practice RET effectively requires more than just innovative and persistent assessment and intervention techniques. For example, Rus sell Grieger expressed the view that more prerequisite work needs to be done on the value and philosophical systems of dients-induding person al responsibility and the philosophy of happiness-before many dients can show significant shifts in their thinking. Susan Walen raised the gener al issues of how effective RET can be in the treatment of biologically driven affective disorders.

From the country’s leading couple therapist duo, a practical guide to what makes it all work. In 10 Principles for Doing Effective Couples Therapy, two of the world’s leading couple researchers and therapists give readers an inside tour of what goes on inside the consulting rooms of their practice. They have been doing couples work for decades and still find it challenging and full of learning experiences. This book distills the knowledge they've gained over their years of practice into ten principles at the core of good couples work. Each principle is illustrated with a clinically compiled case plus personal side-notes and storytelling. Topics addressed include: • You know that you need to “treat the relationship,” but how are you supposed to get at something as elusive as “a relationship”? • How do you empathize with both clients if they have opposite points of view? Later on, if they end up separating does that mean you’ve failed? Are you only successful if you keep couples together? • Compared to an individual client, a relationship is an entirely different animal. What should you do first? What should you look for? What questions should you ask? If clients give different answers, who should you believe? • What are you supposed to do with all the emotional and personal history that your clients stir up in you? • How can you make your work research-based? No one who works with couples will want to be without the insight, guidance, and strategies offered in this book.

A quick-reference, multi-media guide to practical psychotherapy skills that improve client outcomes. Rigorously field-tested by on-the-ground clinicians, these practical guidebooks—sold separately or as a set—provide easy-to-use, evidence-based summaries of five core therapy techniques. Filled with self-test questionnaires, case studies, diagrams, exercises and role play transcripts, they are ideal teaching and learning resources. Accompanying each guide is a DVD featuring an hour-long video of sample therapy sessions and clinical explications, as well as a handy pocket-reminder card that summarizes key information about the therapy technique. An on-the-go package of essential tools that busy clinicians won’t want to be without. The final book in the Psychotherapy Essentials to Go series, this hands-on guide, with accompanying DVD of sample therapy sessions, answers the question: What makes a therapist effective? Several evidence-based strategies are presented to improve outcomes. Maintaining a therapeutic alliance and reducing impasses by understanding relational dynamics, attachment, trauma, and countertransference are all emphasized as helpful aspects of a clinician’s repertoire in challenging treatment situations.

The best therapists embody the changes they attempt to facilitate in their patients. In other words, they practice what they preach and are an authentic and engaged, as well as highly skilled, presence. Maximizing Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy demonstrates how and why therapists can and must develop the specific skills and personal qualities required to produce consistently effective results. The six factors now associated with brain change and positive outcome in psychotherapy are front and center in this volume. Each factor is elucidated and illustrated with detailed, verbatim case transcripts. In addition, intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy, a method of treatment that incorporates all these key factors, is introduced to the reader. Therapists of every stripe will learn to develop and integrate the clinical skills presented in this book to improve their interventions, enhance effectiveness and, ultimately, help more patients in a deeper and more lasting fashion.

The best therapists embody the changes they attempt to facilitate in their patients. In other words, they practice what they preach and are an authentic and engaged, as well as highly skilled, presence. Maximizing Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy demonstrates how and why therapists can and must develop the specific skills and personal qualities required to produce consistently effective results. The six factors now associated with brain change and positive outcome in psychotherapy are front and center in this volume. Each factor is elucidated and illustrated with detailed, verbatim case transcripts. In addition, intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy, a method of treatment that incorporates all these key factors, is introduced to the reader. Therapists of every stripe will learn to develop and integrate the clinical skills presented in this book to improve their interventions, enhance effectiveness and, ultimately, help more patients in a deeper and more lasting fashion.