1st Edition

Core Processes in Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Advancing Effective Practice

Edited By Denise P. Charman Copyright 2004

    Many students enter graduate programs with little or no experience of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Efforts to impart clinical skills have often been less than systematic and beginning psychotherapists have not always been encouraged to think about what they are doing and why they are doing it from a scientific standpoint.

    Thoughtfully building on current debates over efficacy and effectiveness, this book outlines a promising approach to training in which the work of therapy is divided into tasks patterned after Luborsky's influential delineation of "curative factors"--significant developments in the course of the therapy that are crucial for effective change. Each task step for the therapist-cognitive, behavioral, affective, or a combination--is analyzed, taught separately, and then put in sequence with the other task steps. Curative factors have been extensively studied in recent years and the approach rests on a solid empirical base.

    In a climate of increased accountability, clinicians must demonstrate that they are responding to providers' requests to conduct evidence-based practices. Core Processes in Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy will be an invaluable resource not only for students and trainees, but for established therapists who find themselves asked to justify their work.

    Contents: Preface. Part I: Initiating and Assessing Suitability for Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. D.P. Charman, Effective Psychotherapy and Effective Psychotherapists. M.J. Lambert, R.D. Hunt, D.A. Vermeersch, Optimizing Outcome Through Prediction and Measurement of Psychological Functioning. B.A. Rudolph, The First Interview. A.S. Joyce, M. McCallum, Assessing Patient Capacities for Therapy: Psychological-Mindedness and Quality of Object Relations. Part II: Determining and Maintaining a Focus. S.B. Messer, A.H. Kaplan, Outcomes and Factors Related to Efficacy of Brief Psychodynamic Therapy. T.D. Eells, K.G. Lombart, Case Formulation: Determining the Focus in Brief Dynamic Psychotherapy. M.B.C. Gibbons, P. Crits-Christoph, P. Apostol, Constructing Interpretations and Assessing Their Accuracy. J. Ogrodniczuk, W. Piper, The Evidence: Transference Interpretations and Patient Outcomes--A Comparison of "Types" of Patients. Part III: Keeping an Eye on the Relationship. L.W. Samstag, J.C. Muran, J.D. Safran, Defining and Identifying Alliance Ruptures. R. Langs, The Power of Ground Rules. C.J. Gelso, Countertransference and Its Management in Brief Dynamic Therapy. D. Bennett, G. Parry, Maintaining the Therapeutic Alliance: Resolving Alliance-Threatening Interactions Related to the Transference. Part IV: Ending and Evaluating. D.P. Charman, A.C. Graham, Ending Therapy: Processes and Outcomes. E.G. Arnold, B.A. Farber, J.D. Geller, Termination, Posttermination, and Internalization of Therapy and the Therapist: Internal Representation and Psychotherapy Outcome. M.J. Lambert, T.P. Asay, Measuring Clinically Significant Change. Part V: Special Issues. S.A. Neufeldt, Critical Factors in Supervision: The Patient, the Therapist, and the Supervisor. E.R. Welfel, The Ethical Challenges of Brief Therapy. M. Duffy, Curative Factors in Work With Older Adults. Appendix: J. Fosbury, The Case Study: The Therapy, the Patient, and the Therapist.

    Biography

    Denise P. Charman