Principles of Counseling and Psychotherapy

Learning the Essential Domains and Nonlinear Thinking of Master Practitioners

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While the past two decades have seen considerable research on the processes and efficacy of psychotherapy and counseling, the preparation of new therapists (students) has lagged far behind the advances in understanding what actually works and why. Practitioners-in-training continue to be shown what to do and are educated in a way that asks them to mimic what they read and see - to act like the master therapists and experienced practitioners they see, rather than how to think like a master therapist.

This text presents a novel approach to teaching and learning the fundamental skills and techniques of counseling and psychotherapy, based on a "non-linear" process of thinking that more accurately reflects the reality of mental health practice. At the core of this text lies the idea that to best prepare students for practice with real clients, they have to learn how to think in a new way, the way that research has shown the most effective practitioners think. This non-linear approach to therapy is based on the authoritative research of Tom Skovholt and colleagues, who have studied "master therapists" in action for years, from which these authors have drawn seven core competencies of effective practice. These competencies also line up with a three-level model of counselor experience developed and researched by Cal Stoltenberg. The result is a paradigm shift in how to teach and learn basic counseling skills, which separates this text from the competition and brings training up to speed with current practice.

Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction. Part II: The Level I Practitioner Profile. The Basic Skills of Psychotherapy: A New Look. The Domain of Connecting with and Engaging the Client, Part I: Listening. The Domain of Connecting with and Engaging the Client, Part II: Responding. The Domain of Assessment, Part I: Clients’ Symptoms, Stages of Change, Needs, Strengths, and Resources. The Domain of Assessment, Part II: The Theme Behind a Client’s Narrative, Therapeutic Goals, and Client Input about Goal Achievement. The Domain of Establishing and Maintaining the Therapeutic Relationship and the Therapeutic Alliance, Part I: Relationship Building. The Domain of Establishing and Maintaining the Therapeutic Relationship and the Therapeutic Alliance, Part II: The Care and Feeding of the Therapeutic Alliance. Part III: The Level II Practitioner: Supervisory and Developmental Considerations. The Domain of Understanding Clients’ Cognitive Schemas, Part I: Foundations. The Domain of Understanding Clients’ Cognitive Schemas, Part II: Assessment and Clinical Conceptualization. The Domain of Addressing and Managing Clients’ Emotional States, Part I: Basic Understandings. The Domain of Addressing and Managing Clients’ Emotional States, Part II: Managing Common Negative Emotions in Therapy. The Domain of Addressing and Resolving Ambivalence, Part I: Understanding and Identifying Client Ambivalence. The Domain of Addressing and Resolving Ambivalence, Part II: Working with and Resolving Client Ambivalence. Part IV: The Level III Practitioner Profile. The Domain of Paradoxical Interventions, Part I: Definition and Neutralizers. The Domain of Paradoxical Interventions, Part II: Tranquilizers. The Domain of Paradoxical Interventions, Part III: The Energizers. The Domain of Paradoxical Interventions, Part IV: Challengers. Ethically and Effectively Helping the Client to Disengage: How and Why Nonlinear Thinking and Paradoxical Interventions Contribute to the Making of a Master Therapist.

Reviews

"If you are looking for a textbook which itemizes the hows and the whys of therapeutic interventions, and which contains some clearly laid-out clinical exercises and case studies, together with a rather handy Biopsychosocial Assessment, then this book might be for you." - Gillian Bridge, Addiction Today, Vol. 21, No. 120