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.

About the Author

Patricia Coughlin (Della Selva), PhD, is a clinical psychologist with more than thirty years of experience as a psychodynamic therapist, international teacher/trainer, and author. She has been a clinical professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University School of Medicine, Albany Medical College, and Jefferson Medical College. Currently, she conducts a private psychotherapy practice in Albany, New York, and she is a visiting scholar at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Her book Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy is considered a classic in the field.

Reviews

"Patricia Coughlin's luminous and moving case studies advance the psychotherapy field threefold, by demonstrating how profoundly effective therapy can be, by identifying specific factors responsible for transformational change, and by linking that process of change to extensive clinical research and memory reconsolidation neuroscience. It's a treasure trove from one of the field's most gifted and passionate teachers."

Bruce Ecker, MA, LMFT, codirector, Coherence Psychology Institute and coauthor, Unlocking the Emotional Brain and the Coherence Therapy Practice Manual & Training Guide

"In this superb volume, Patricia Coughlin draws on insights from Davanloo's intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy and illustrates its techniques with admirable clarity in highly instructive clinical vignettes. The author has put her own creative stamp on how she practices this dynamic approach, importantly tying its process and outcome to empirical research findings. I highly recommend it to any and all psychodynamically oriented therapists."

Stanley B. Messer, PhD, dean and distinguished professor, graduate school of applied and professional psychology, Rutgers University

"Maximizing Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy is a clear, practical guide for using dynamic principles and putting them into effective action in therapy, demonstrating how theory and technique can be interwoven into a therapeutic stance that is both personal and dynamic. Coughlin proposes a model of therapy where the therapist's knowledge, technical skill, and relatedness are welded together in what she calls 'the therapist as person.' This book deserves careful study."

Jon Frederickson, MSW, faculty, Washington School of Psychiatry

"In this volume, master therapist Patricia Coughlin overviews, with the use of ample clinical vignettes, therapeutic factors and therapist processes leading to effective treatment with challenging populations. Although it emphasizes and highlights the methods of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy, this book speaks to all therapists with the goals of improving clarity in moment-to-moment intra- and interpersonal processes to help clients make in-depth change."

Allan Abbass, MD, FRCPC, professor at Dalhousie University and author of Reaching Through Resistance: Advanced Psychotherapy Skills

"This extraordinary book will engage the clinician reader on a deeply personal level. Integrating the most up to date research on the specific factors underlying effective psychotherapy, the author anchors these findings in a wealth of illustrative session transcripts drawn from her own practice. The focus, throughout, is on aspects of therapeutic stance that promote a healing relationship, characterized by emotional openness and honesty."

Tor Wennerberg, clinical psychologist, author of Vi ar vara relationer

"Patricia Coughlin presents an ambitious attempt both to illustrate and justify the practice of short-term dynamic therapy. Integrating research and technique, the volume instructs the reader in a number of clinical skills and presents the empirical evidence that supports their efficacy. As such, MEDP is a comprehensive guide to short-term dynamic therapy, teaching its readers both how and why it works."

Sebastian Petzolt, DPhil

Book Information
ISBN 9781138824973
Author Patricia Coughlin
Format Paperback
Page Count 246
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 362g