Read complete books and articles on: Brief Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy - treatment of mental and emotional disorders using psychological methods. Psychotherapy, thus, does not include physiological interventions, such as drug therapy or electroconvulsive therapy, although it may be used in combination with such methods. This type of treatment has been used in one form or another through the ages in many societies, but it was not until the late 19th cent. that it received scientific impetus, primarily under the leadership of Sigmund Freud. Although Freud's theoretical formulations have come sharply into question, his treatment method involving individualized client-psychologist sessions has been used in modified forms for years (see psychoanalysis).

Behavior therapy aims to help the patient eliminate undesirable habits or irrational fears through conditioning. Techniques include systematic desensitization, particularly for the treatment of clients with irrational anxieties or fears, and aversive conditioning, which uses negative stimuli to end bad habits. Humanistic therapy tends to be more optimistic, basing its treatment on the theory that individuals have a natural inclination to strive toward self-fulfillment. Therapists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow used a highly interactive client-therapist relationship, compelling clients to realize exactly what they are saying or how they are behaving, in order to foster a sense of self-awareness. Cognitive therapies try to show the client that certain, usually negative, thoughts are irrational, with the goal of restructuring such thoughts into positive, constructive ideas. Such methods include Albert Ellis's rational-emotive therapy, where the therapist argues with the client about his negative ideas; and Aaron Beck's cognitive restructuring therapy, in which the therapist works with the client to set attainable goals. Other forms of therapy stress helping patients to examine their own ideas about themselves.

Psychotherapy may be brief, lasting just a few sessions, or it may extend over many years. More than one client may be involved, as in marriage or family counseling, or a number of individuals, as in group psychotherapy.

See S. L. Garfield and A. E. Bergin, ed., Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (4th ed. 1993); A. Roth et al., What Works for Whom?: A Critical Review of Psychotherapy Research (1996); W. Gaylin, Talk Is Not Enough: How Psychotherapy Really Works (2000).

Show Excerpt Only

6 of the Best Books and Articles on: Brief Psychotherapy

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Doing Brief Psychotherapy » Read Now
by Michael Franz Basch. 224 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library
2.

Personality, Styles and Brief Psychotherapy » Read Now
by Mardi Horowitz, Nancy Kaltreider., Janice Krupnick, Charles Marmar, Robert Wallerstein, Nancy Wilner. 349 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library
3.

A Question of Time: Essentials of Brief Dynamic Psychotherapy » Read Now
by Angela Molnos. 160 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

Describes and explains the bias against brief psychotherapy, whilst stressing the importance of actively challenging resistance and working through the transference. Also covers the positive use of anger - even from the first session.
4.

Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy: A Guide to Clinical Practice » Read Now
by Hanna Levenson. 308 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

Ten years ago, Hans Strupp and Jeffrey Binder's Psychotherapy in a New Key introduced a powerful, empirically tested model of brief psychotherapy that has proven highly successful and changed the practice of psychotherapy forever. But until now, there has been no follow-up publication to make the...
Read More

Ten years ago, Hans Strupp and Jeffrey Binder's Psychotherapy in a New Key introduced a powerful, empirically tested model of brief psychotherapy that has proven highly successful and changed the practice of psychotherapy forever. But until now, there has been no follow-up publication to make the model come alive. With this book, Hanna Levenson draws on her extensive experience with time-limited dynamic psychotherapy to let readers see the therapy in action. Time-limited dynamic psychotherapy provides a state-of-the-art model of treatment that incorporates current developments in psychoanalytic, interpersonal, object-relations, and self psychology theories, as well as cognitive-behavioral and systems approaches. This flexible approach to brief therapy is designed to treat people with long-standing dysfunctional relationships. This book emphasizes identification of interpersonal difficulties and teaches a method of focusing therapy that is behaviorally based and explicit.
Show less
5.

Psychotherapy in a New Key: A Guide to Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy » Read Now
by Hans H. Strupp, Jeffrey L. Binder. 352 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

Clear, practical, and wise, this book- a codification of WLDP- offers an integrated model of therapy, close to clinical data, that is applicable to therapy regardless of length of treatment.
6.

Changing Character: Short-Term Anxiety-Regulating Psychotherapy for Restructuring Defenses, Affects, and Attachment » Read Now
by Leigh McCullough Vaillant. 532 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

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...
Read More

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.
Show less