By James M. Donovan, Kristin Osborn, & Susan Rice

The universe of dynamic psychotherapy has undergone slow, but ultimately dramatic change, since the 1970s. Now a new psychotherapist has taken up residence in the office. This book tells the story of what we found when we studied that new therapist directly, by watching her work, on videotape or through extended case excerpts. Here we learn that today’s counselor’s thoughts, words and behaviors sharply set her in contrast to her counterparts of just twenty-five years earlier.

The videotape, for the first time, reveals to us the verbatim spoken exchanges, but also the bodily messages: the tones of voice – the facial expressions – the gestures of patient and therapist as they choreograph their interaction. When we begin to examine the therapy participants as embodied speakers, at this moment we find ourselves on the outskirts of mostly untrodden territory. We sense an evolutionary advance perhaps about to take place on the screen, because we can now choose to study all the extra-verbal information, as well as the verbal, in the therapy interchange.

Read further excerpt from this upcoming book by James M. Donovan, Kristin Osborn & Susan Rice

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By Allen Eppel

This book is an easy-to-use guide to short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for early career practitioners and students of mental health. Written by an expert psychiatric educator, this book is meticulously designed to emphasize clarity and succinctness to facilitate quality training and practice. Developed in a reader-friendly voice, the text begins by introducing the theoretical underpinnings of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Topics include the principles of attachment theory, the dual system theory of emotion processing, decision theory, choice point analysis and a critical review of the research literature. The book then shifts its focus to a description in a manualized format of the objectives and tasks of each phase of therapy within the framework of the engagement, emotion-processing and termination phases. The book concludes with a chapter on psychodynamically informed clinical practice for non-psychotherapists.

Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is the ultimate tool for the education of students, residents, trainees, and fellows in psychiatry, psychology, counseling, social work, and all other clinical mental health professions.

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By Jeffrey A. Kottler, Ph. D., Jon Carlson, Psy.D., Ed.D.

Although the impact that clients can have on therapists is well-known, most work on the subject consists of dire warnings: mental health professionals are taught early on to be on their guard for burnout, compassion fatigue, and countertransference. However, while these professional hazards are very real, the scholarly focus on the negative potential of the client-counselor relationship often implies that no good can come of allowing oneself to get too close to a client’s issues. This sentiment obscures what every therapist knows to be true: that the client-counselor relationship can also effect powerful positive transformations in a therapist’s own life.

The Client Who Changed Me is Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson’s testimony to the significant and often life-changing ways in which therapists have been changed by their patients. Kottler and Carlson draw not only upon their own extensive experience – between them, they have more than fifty years in the field – but also upon lengthy interviews with dozens of the country’s foremost therapists and theorists. This novel work presents readers with a truly unique perspective on the business of therapy: not merely how it appears externally, but how practitioners experience it internally. Although these stories paint a complex and multi-layered portrait of the client-counselor relationship, they all demonstrate the profound and unexpected rewards that the profession has to offer.

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Författare: Leif Havnesköld, Birgitta Elmquist

Denna bok handlar om psykoterapi. Den skiljer sig dock från många andra metodböcker i ämnet genom att den inte utgår från en specifik inriktning, metod eller skolbildning. I stället beskrivs sex empiriskt grundade kärnkompetenser som, oavsett inriktning, är gemensamma för det goda kliniska arbetet. Boken presenterar dessa kärnkompetenser och hur de kan utvecklas under hela den psykoterapeutiska karriären. De handlar om:• att kunna tillämpa en teoretiskt övergripande, sammanhållen förklaringsmodell för personlighetsutveckling • och psykopatologi• att kunna skapa och bevara en god terapeutisk relation• att ha en modell för klinisk bedömning och konceptualisering • att genomföra själva behandlingen och att använda strategier och interventioner• att kunna avsluta och evaluera behandlingen• att vara medveten om intersektionalitet samt kulturella och etiska aspekters påverkan i psykoterapi.Psykoterapi – de sex grundläggande kompetenserna riktar sig till blivande psykoterapeuter under olika faser av sin utbildning i psykoterapi, blivande psykologer samt till kliniskt verksamma psykologer och psykoterapeuter. Den kan också fungera som stöd och inspiration för lärare och handledare i psykoterapi.

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By Dr. Quin Dam, written in Dutch 

Feelings give energy and color to our lives. They help us make wise  choices, be close to others and set limits. However feelings can also be frightening.  If we are afraid of what we feel we can develop an affect phobia. We retreat, no longer dare to be vulnerable and suffer from stress, anxiety or vague physical complaints.

If clients suffer in this way, they may find it helpful to explore whether or not they have an affect phobia. APT was developed by Dr. Leigh McCullough. APT integrates psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral therapy and experiential techniques to help patients learn how to unlearn an affect phobia. Research shows that people with anxiety, depression avoidant and dependent personality disorders benefit from this form of treatment. 

In this book, you’ll find an overview of the model to help you learn how to do a core conflict formulation, restructure a defense, affect restructuring and self and other restructuring. All theoretical concepts are illustrated with insightful patient-therapist dialogues. 

Testimonials:

“A clearly written workbook about APT, a proven effective psychodynamic form of treatment. The book is written in an easy to understand way so psychotherapists can focus on “doing” treatment. Concepts such as affect, resistance and transmission are well explained using practical examples and manageable. A “must” for every psychotherapist. ”

Thijs de Wolf, psychotherapist / clinical psychologist, master trainer psychotherapy

‘Affect Phobia Therapy (APT) has been developed from the practice of psychotherapy: how can patients face their feelings? Leigh McCullough integrated ideas and methods derived from different psychotherapeutic traditions.  Quin Dam has made this therapy available to the Dutch language in a readable, practical book. It will find its way in many psychotherapy trainings. ”

Sjoerd Colijn, psychotherapist / clinical psychologist, psychotherapist head trainer

This book is ideal for both psychologists, clinical psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists in training, as well as for those working in the clinical practice.

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Dr. Quin Dam is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, supervisor NVP, NPaV and NVPP, and works in private practice in Leiden. He has over 20 years lecturer at RINO Amsterdam and supervises the peer of GPs with the Balint.

by Peter Lilliengren, Patrick Lindert, Linda Hellquist, Kristoffer Pettersson, Lasse Almeb¨åck, Katja Bergsten

This is the first Swedish book about the affective-focused psychodynamic therapy. Our affect theory guides our attention and prepares us for action. They tell us what is important and helps us communicate it to others.

How we manage our emotions depends largely on the relational experience we have. An affective-focused psychotherapy gives the possibility of a close and trusting relationship recognize and approach their emotions in depth so that a ominlärning and integration can take place. To get more in touch with their genuine feelings and needs of the patient needs to be helped to see and let the defense that is not adaptive, to replace them with more balanced ways to regulate emotions and anxiety. Therefore, the therapist is active and focused as close as possible experience.

The book gives a good understanding of both theory and research, practical application. The authors addressed, including affect theory and attachment theory related to psychotherapy. With the help of many cases vignettes and dialogues illustrated different interventions for working with defense, control of anxiety and shame and deepening of emotions.

The book is written for students in psychotherapy and psychotherapists active – and for anyone who wants to know more about affective focused work in psychotherapy.

The authors work as therapists, tutors, trainers and researchers in the affective-focused psychodynamic therapy.

Note: This book is only available in Swedish.

by Leigh McCullough Vaillant

The mechanism of emotional change is central to the field of mental health. Emotional change is necessary for healing the long-standing pain of character pathology, yet is the least studied and most misunderstood area in psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy.

Changing Character at its heart is about emotion—how to draw it out, recognize it and make it conscious, follow its lead and, equally important, use cognition to guide, control, and direct our emotional lives.

This treatment manual teaches therapists time-efficient techniques for changing character and helping their patients live mindfully with themselves and others through adaptive responses to conflictual experiences.

Leigh McCullough Vaillant, a nationally recognized expert on short-term dynamic psychotherapy, shows therapists how to identify and remove obstacles in one’s character (ego defenses) that block emotional experience. She then illustrates how the therapist can delve into that experience and harness the tremendous adaptive power provided by emotions.

The result? She shows us how to have emotions without emotions “having” their way with us. Vaillant’s integrative psychodynamic model holds that the source of psychopathology is the impairment of human emotional experience and expression, which includes impairment in drives and beliefs but is seen fundamentally as the impairment of affects.

In this short-term approach, psychotherapists are shown how to combine behavioral, cognitive, and relational theories to make psychodynamic treatment briefer and more effective. Vaillant illustrates how affect bridges the gap between intrapsychic and interpersonal approaches to psychotherapy. Affect, she argues, has the power to make or break relational bonds. Through the regulation of anxieties associated with affects in relation to self and others, therapists can help their patients undergo meaningful character change.

A holistic focus on affects and attachment has not been adequately addressed in either traditional psychodynamic theory or cognitive theory. Clearly and masterfully, Vaillant shows therapists how to integrate the powers of cognition and emotion within a dynamic short-term therapy approach.

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by Leigh McCullough, Nat Kuhn, Stuart Andrews, Amelia Kaplan, Jonathan Wolf, Cara Lanza Hurley.

This hands-on manual from Leigh McCullough and associates teaches the nuts and bolts of practicing short-term dynamic psychotherapy, the research-supported model first presented in Changing Character, McCullough’s foundational text.

Reflecting the ongoing evolution of the approach, the manual emphasizes “affect phobia,” or conflict about feelings. It shows how such proven behavioral techniques as systemic desensitization can be applied effectively within a psychodynamic framework, and offers clear guidelines for when and how to intervene.

Demonstrated are procedures for assessing patients, formulating core conflicts, and restructuring defenses, affects, and relationship to the self and others. In an easy-to-use, large-size format, the book features a wealth of case examples and write-in exercises for building key clinical skills. The companion website (www.affectphobiatherapy.com) offers useful supplemental resources, including Psychotherapy Assessment Checklist (PAC) forms and instructions.

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