Very Brief Psychotherapy

ISBN-13: 9780415950589 / Angielski / Twarda / 2005 / 228 str.

James P. Gustafson

Opis

As the fields of psychiatry and clinical psychology are increasingly driven by the economics of the HMO or Mental Health Center, practitioners in any setting, whether it be private practice or university clinic, are now forced to develop more concrete procedures and models in order to practice more efficiently. This book presents a set of procedures for brief therapy that are based entirely on the four common dynamics of psychiatry. By following the model set forth in this book, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, and mental health workers will be able to build an entire brief therapy program based upon the initial conditions for each patient.
The first of the four procedures is to block and contain either the eruption of anxiety or collapse of depression in a patient, usually through pharmacological intervention. Once the anxiety and/or depression has been temporarily contained, the patient will be able to function through the rest of the therapeutic process. The second procedure is to identify and isolate the step that leads up to the eruption of anxiety or collapse of depression, thus allowing the patient to avoid walking into similar situations that lead to catastrophe. Thirdly, the practitioner works with the patient to help her realize that there is always a step in the opposite direction from the old step, one that used to be suppressed by the oncoming anxiety or depression. The identity of this new step will release the patient from the traps of the old patterns, and will free her to enter into a new trajectory. The fourth procedure is to notice that the old step had locked the patient into a (seemingly) inescapable trap, but that any newstep(s) taken will also carry with them the potential for further anxiety and depression. The completion of this final procedure should allow the patient to see that mental health comes from the combined ability to avoid the pitfalls of old steps, while accepting the inherent risks in taking new steps. The success of this brief therapy model is fully realized when a recovered patient begins to fall into a new trap, and can duplicate this process on her own.

Recenzje

'Very Brief Psychotherapy is engagingly written, clinically astute, and theoretically brilliant. Jim Gustafson shows how, with one step - the right step - patients can do something different to break out of their painful, reiterating traps. Highly recommended.' - Michael F. Hoyt, Ph.D., Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, USA

Spis treści

Preface. Part I: Containment. Anxiety as a Signal of Danger. Depression as a Signal of Defeat. The Compensations for Unbearable Anxiety and Depression. Part II: Selective Inattention Revised. Schooling Against False Claims. Backing Up the History From Disaster. Walking Forward to Read the Exchanges in Work and Love. Part III: The Opposing Current Navigated. The Opposing Current to Receptiveness. The Opposing Current to Pushing. The Opposing Current to Guilt. Part IV: Impasse Surmounted. The Relationship or Marital Impasse. The Work Impasse. The Developmental Impasse. Part V: Background. Scientific Evidence and Very Brief Psychotherapy. Follow-up Judgments by Patients Described in the Text. Drawings and Letters. The Defense of the Doctor / Psychotherapist. Dreaming the Theory. A Theoretical Note on the Scaffolding of this Book. References. Index.

O autorze

James P. Gustafson, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Chief of the Brief Psychotherapy Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, Wisconsin.