This book argues that the client is the main protagonist in psychotherapy. It focuses on the client's perspectives and contributions to treatment.

You’re faced with a difficult health condition. You have exhausted medicine’s answers. What do you do? Susannah Meadows tells the real-life stories of seven families who persisted when traditional medicine alone wasn’t enough. Their adventures take us to the outer frontiers of medical science and cutting-edge complementary therapies, as Meadows explores research into the mind’s potential to heal the body, the possible role food may play in reversing disease, the power of agency, perseverance, and hope—and more. When journalist Susannah Meadows noticed her three-year-old son, Shepherd, shying away from soccer practice, she had no idea it was the first sign of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. The diagnosis was the first step of a long journey, physically painful for Shepherd and emotionally wrenching for Susannah and her family. But they pressed on, and using a combination of traditional and complementary medicine they beat the disease, and the odds. Meadows chronicles her own story, and takes you into the lives of other remarkable people, exploring their heartbreaks and triumphs. One boy who has severe food allergies undergoes an unconventional therapy and is soon eating everything. An organic farmer in Washington State tries to solve the puzzle of her daughter’s epileptic seizures. A physician with MS creates her own combination of treatments and goes from a wheelchair to riding a bike again. A child diagnosed with ADHD refuses to take medication and instead improves his life, and the life of his family, after changing his diet. Other families take on rheumatoid arthritis and autistic behaviors. Meadows includes new information about traditional and nontraditional medicine and the latest science on how the health of our gut bacteria is connected to wellness—and how the right foods play a key role in helping this microscopic population thrive. She also talks with scientists who study the traits and circumstances that may make some people keep going when others feel helpless. These researchers are illuminating the psychology of healing—how the mind, and asserting control over your body and health, can play a part in recovery. Fascinating, moving, and profoundly inspiring, The Other Side of Impossible gives us people driven by love, desperation, and astonishing resolve—a community of the defiant who share an extraordinary talent for hope and for fighting the battle for healing in today’s world and tomorrow’s.

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.

Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy explores the dark sides of psychology, the science that penetrates almost every area of our lives. It must be read by everyone who has an interest in psychology, by all those who are studying or intend to study psychology, and by present and potential clients of psychotherapists. This book will tell you which parts of psychology are supported by scientific evidence, and which parts are simply castles built on sand. This is the first book which comprehensively covers all mistakes, frauds and abuses of academic psychology, psychotherapy, and psycho-business.

and knowledge, and as a possible way to illuminate change processes in psychotherapy. Today, developmental researchers and neuroscientists increasingly locate keys to psychological health and development in the earliest interactions between mother and infant." "This book, which consists of significant papers by the BCPSG, traces the group's contributions to psychoanalytic topics of note, including; the location of the implicit, the creation of meaning, the moment-by-moment clinical process, and the subjective experience of the therapist. The book also includes new introductions to selected chapters, which provide background on the original intent and reception of each article." --Book Jacket.

Psychiatry has ignored the normal. The focus on defining abnormal behavior has obscured what turns out to be a more fundamental question—how does the biology of the brain give rise to the mind, which in turn gives rise to everything we care about: thoughts, feelings, desires, and relationships? In The Other Side of Normal, Harvard psychiatrist Jordan Smoller shows us that understanding what the mind was designed to do in the first place demystifies mental illness and builds a new foundation for defining psychiatric disorders—from autism to depression. Smoller argues there are no bright lines between normal and abnormal. Psychiatric disorders are variations of the same brain systems that evolved to help us solve the challenges of everyday life. How do we become who we are? Smoller explains where our personalities come from, and how the temperaments we had as infants actually stay with us into adulthood. Why do we choose to date, love, and marry the people we do? Why do some of us form healthy relationships while others form unstable ones? Our relationships are shaped by the biology that drives two imperatives: maternal-child bonding and child-parent attachment. Along the way, Smoller tackles an even greater question—what do we mean by "normal"?—as he explores the puzzles behind the epidemics of multiple personalities and koro, the shocking phobia that one's penis is shrinking. He also looks at the controversial history of psychiatric classification and the explosive debates over how much early experiences influence our minds and to what degree genetics affect our temperaments, personalities, and emotional lives. Throughout this examination, Smoller explores the hidden sides of such questions as: How are trust and love rooted in biology? How much does sexual attraction stem from biology rather than culture? And what can the scientific study of normal behavior tell us about what it means to be human? Based on the author's groundbreaking research and personal experiences treating psychological disorders, The Other Side of Normal changes the way we think about the human condition.

Twenty years ago, a therapist could hang up a shingle, make some networking calls, and begin to create a steady stream of referrals. Since then, private practice has changed dramatically. Now therapists everywhere are struggling just to keep their practices going. The need has never been greater for sound business tools for building and marketing a therapy practice. How to Build a Thriving Fee-for-Service Practice is essential reading for newly licensed therapists, seasoned professionals, and others wanting to prepare practitioners for success. How to Build a Thriving Fee-for-Service Practice guides you from your ideal practice vision through the "how-to" steps to succeed. You will learn that a private practice is, in effect, a small business. Chapters contain solid training to help you not only to survive, but also to thrive in a highly competitive market place. Examples, worksheets, business forms, flow charts, paper and pen exercises, and even assignments in the "real world," expose you to essential materials and ideas. Coverage includes surveying the needs of one's community, capitalizing on unusual market niches, marketing ideas to build one's practice, creating brochures, widening one's scope and expertise through public speaking, seminars, workshops, and writing, analyzing financial data and projections, tracking client information, and more. Learn solid training to not only survive, but thrive, in private practice today Go from your ideal practice vision through the "how-to" steps to succeed. Mobilize yourself into action! Market your clinical specialty to attract more cash clients Learn how to set realistic practice goals, and track your progress Regain your autonomy, income and career satisfaction Lean how to communicate the value of your services to the public Learn how to give powerful workshops and speaking engagements and write effective community articles Turn your specialty into a market niche Use the media as a vehicle to give psychology away and gain visibility Learn the skills that have never been taught in graduate school--until now Lay the foundation for your practice that builds momentum Attract new clients through seminars, speaking engagements and published articles Build a dynamic referral base Re-ignite the passion for your career and love what you do for a living Make your practice adaptive, challenging and enjoyable for the rest of your career

Before he became a counterculture hero, Alan Watts was known as an incisive scholar of Eastern and Western psychology and philosophy. In this 1961 classic, Watts demonstrates his deep understanding of both Western psychotherapy and the Eastern spiritual philosophies of Buddhism, Taoism, Vedanta, and Yoga. He examined the problem of humans in a seemingly hostile universe in ways that questioned the social norms and illusions that bind and constrict modern humans. Marking a groundbreaking synthesis, Watts asserted that the powerful insights of Freud and Jung, which had, indeed, brought psychiatry close to the edge of liberation, could, if melded with the hitherto secret wisdom of the Eastern traditions, free people from their battles with the self. When psychotherapy merely helps us adjust to social norms, Watts argued, it falls short of true liberation, while Eastern philosophy seeks our natural relation to the cosmos.

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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Acknowledgments. About the Contributors. Introduction. 1 The Strange Case of the Missing Spirit. 2 The Challenge of Evolution and the Place of Sympathy. 3 Have "objects" got faces? 4 The Spiritual Dimension in Psychotherapeutic Practice. 5 The Use of Theological Concepts in Psychoanalytic Understanding. 6 A New Anatomy of Spirituality. 7 The Role of Projective Identification in the Formation of Weltanschauung. 8 A Personal Journey through Psychotherapy and Religion. 9 What Happens Between People. 10 What Is Religion? Index.