The Art Of Counselling And Psychotherapy

Counselling and psychotherapy are effective to the extent that they promote the creativity of clients and patients. Creativity is both a lifestyle and a health resource. A creative lifestyle implies learning to be the authors of our own lives and a creative approach to our inner lives and our social environment gives us coherence and authenticity. This book derives creative principles for counselling and psychotherapy from practical modern approaches in these fields, as well as from psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, and new concepts of creativity itself. The creative attitude central to this represents an integrative basis for the differential application of various counselling and treatment techniques. Creative counselling serves to assist in coping with distress and clearly defined conflicts, and encourages personal and professional development. Creative psychotherapy is an aspect of dynamic, analytic and integrative psychotherapy. The hermeneutic principles – memory, narrative shaping, interactional experience – are activated with a view to ridding patients of psychopathological symptoms. In the modern world with all its challenges, creative counselling and psychotherapy are of outstanding importance. The book outlines a readily understandable, vital, and creative approach to the practice of counselling and psychotherapy in the service of the development of personal and social creativity.

At some point, the therapeutic relationship takes on a certain shape that invites clients to speak their story with all of its pain, hope and angst, and for therapists to become containers of this emotional world of patient. In this light, psychotherapy is the art of emotional engagement or the art of feeling. This book contains nine chapters, with a common binding thread that documents clinical case work. Chapter One is an excellent chapter for those readers who would never think about the door to the therapy room in such a way. From now on, the door will always be viewed as symbolic of the inside and outside, and what that means for the patient. Chapter Two is a fresh viewpoint to the autistoid personality organization, and the therapeutic encounter and treatment of such a character. Readers interested in how to manage difficult cases that concern this type of personality organization will find this chapter informative and educational. Chapter Three is an unusual topic and would appeal to all readers interested in this theme and its conceptualisation within Jungian psychotherapy. Chapter Four is an excellent read and gives the reader a chance to re-think issues about object, method and technique in psychoanalysis. Chapter Five is a worthwhile read and gives a new perspective on the psychology of the child and the process of therapeutically working with children in the context of being separate from, and yet a part of, the family dynamics. Chapter Six is valuable in that it brings into focus the processes of becoming a psychotherapist, and if it is agreed that psychotherapy is a relational practice, the story of becoming a psychotherapist becomes important. Chapter Seven will appeal to those readers who wish to understand that the art of psychotherapy is not always easy, straightforward and without disruptions. Chapter Eight is a comprehensive documentation of the case study of child sexual abuse and the therapeutic process with the child survivor. Readers interested in working with abused children will find this chapter fascinating and informative. Chapter Nine focuses on therapeutically treating sexually abused women, would appeal to readers who have had to encounter similar cases of gender-based violence in their therapy room, and gives a clear indication as to how this integrated model of therapy used can assist such traumatised people.

Psychotherapy, like most other areas of health care, is a synthesis of scientific technique and artistic expression. The practice, like any other, is grounded in a series of standardized principles, theories, and techniques. Individual practitioners define themselves within the field by using these basic tools to achieve their therapeutic goals in novel ways, applying these rudimentary skills and guiding principles to each situation. However, a toolbox full of treatment approaches, no matter how comprehensive, is not enough to effectively reach your patients. Effective work can only be accomplished through a synthesis of the fundamental scientific methods and the creative application of these techniques, approaches, and strategies. The Art and Science of Psychotherapy offers invaluable insight into the creative side of psychotherapy. The book addresses the fundamental split between researchers and scholars who use scientific methods to develop disorder-specific treatment techniques and those more clinically inclined therapists who emphasize the individual, interpersonal aspects of the therapeutic process. With contributions from leading therapists, the editors have compiled a practical handbook for clinical psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and mental health professionals.

As the world changes rapidly, there exists a challenge to develop new conceptualizations, paradigms, definitions and strategies for surviving in an intensely competitive global community. In response to these changes, helping professionals must expand their knowledge of therapeutic approaches and re-evaluate their philosophies and objectives in order to interact effectively with diverse populations.; Enabling therapists and educators an opportunity to embrace two modalities at once, this text applies a combined approach to individual, family and group counselling situations. The authors contend that the use of artistic expression as an element of the counselling prescription transcends age, race, culture and gender in its effectiveness. Hence, art therapy, blended with and enhanced by traditional psychotherapy, lends itself naturally to the multifaceted clientele of the 21st century.; Presented first in this resource is a theoretical framework for art therapy and psychotherapy, and a thorough review of the existing literature. The authors then discuss integration of theory into practice through case studies complete with original client artwork. The final chapters focus on other important issues, including ethical and legal considerations, multicultural concerns, career development, and further implications for the field.

Anthony Storr's accessible and humane account of the art of psychotherapy has been widely read by practitioners in training and others in the helping professions, as well as many general readers. The second edition includes a thoroughly revised account of the obsessional personality, and a new chapter that draws on the author's recent work on the importance of the processes of healing that take place within the isolated individual.

THE ART OF THERAPY Offers a practical approach to the therapist’s task, from the perspective of a 35-year veteran of private practice. This book debunks some of the most traditional rituals and hidebound conventions of the consulting-room, for example the myth of confidentiality, the master-slave relationship of therapist to client, and the tendency of therapy to continue until the client runs out of money to pay for it. New techniques and intervention strategies are presented, drawn from the Mental Research Institute’s international view of problem causation and solution-oriented methods of change. Psychotherapy is an art. Good therapy is good art. Great therapy is everlasting art, like the Mona Lisa.

Arguing that the profession of art therapy has its roots in the studio environment, Catherine Moon proposes that it is now time to reclaim these roots, and make art once again central to art therapy. She suggests that there has been a tendency for art therapy not merely to interact with and be enriched by other perspectives - psychological, social, anthropological and transpersonal - but to be subsumed by them. For this reason she makes a clear distinction between using art in one's practice of therapy, and working from an art-based model. This book presents a model of art therapy where the products and processes of art constitute the core of the model, rather than serving as the impetus for adaptations of other theories of counselling or therapy. It addresses how an arts-based approach can inform the therapist in all aspects of practice, from the conception of the work and the attempt to understand client needs to interacting with clients and communicating with others about the profession of art therapy. Integrated into the book are stories about the work of art therapists, art therapy students and those who seek help in art therapy, presenting the theory behind studio art therapy and bringing it to life. Moon believes that the arts have something unique to offer to the therapeutic process which distinguish the arts therapies from other therapeutic professions. This book is a comprehensive and engaging exploration of the possibilities inherent in the therapeutic use of the arts.