Authors: Irvin Yalom
ISBN-13: 9780061719615, ISBN-10: 0061719617
Format: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: May 2009
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Irvin D. Yalom, M.D., is the author of Love's Executioner, Momma and the Meaning of Life, Lying on the Couch, The Schopenhauer Cure, When Nietzsche Wept, as well as several classic textbooks on psychotherapy, including The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, considered the foremost work on group therapy. The Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Stanford University, he divides his practice between Palo Alto, where he lives, and San Francisco, California.
Anyone interested in psychotherapy or personal growth will rejoice at The Gift of Therapy, a masterwork from one of the most accomplished psychological thinkers of our day. As an award-winning author of both nonfiction and fiction, and a psychiatrist in practice for 35 years, Yalom imparts his unique wisdom in this remarkable guidebook for successful therapy.
At once startlingly profound and irresistibly practical, Yalom's insightslet the patient matter to you; create a n ew kind of therapy for each patient; how and how not to use self-disclosurewill help enrich the therapeutic process for both patient and counselor.
If the future of psychotherapy lies in psychopharmaceuticals and the short-term therapies stipulated by HMOs, argues Yalom, then the profession is in trouble. Yalom, the recipient of both major awards given by the American Psychiatric Association, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford and the author of both fiction and nonfiction volumes about psychotherapy, writes this book in response to that crisis. Based on knowledge gained from his 35 years of practice, the resulting book of tips (a "gift" for the next generation of therapists) is an enlightening refutation of "brief, superficial, and insubstantial" forms of therapy. Yalom, who references Rilke and Nietzsche as well as Freud's protege Karen Horney and the founder of client-centered therapy, Carl Rogers, describes therapy as "a genuine encounter with another person." He suggests that therapists avoid making DSM IV diagnoses (except for insurance purposes), since these "threaten the human, the spontaneous, the creative and uncertain nature of the therapeutic venture." He also encourages psychotherapists to use dream analysis, group therapy and, when appropriate, wholly inventive forms of treatment. Traditionalists will probably squirm at some of his suggestions (particularly "Revealing the Therapist's Personal Life" and "Don't Be Afraid of Touching Your Patient"). Other tips, though, such as "Never Be Sexual with Patients" are no-brainers. Although the book dies somewhat in the second half, and not much here is new, the wise ideas are perfectly accessible. (Jan.) Forecast: Yalom has explored many of these ideas before. His followers will certainly be charmed, and newcomers patients as much as therapists may be won over by his openness and tender tone. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Introduction | ||
Acknowledgments | ||
Ch. 1 | Remove the Obstacles to Growth | 1 |
Ch. 2 | Avoid Diagnosis (Except for Insurance Companies) | 4 |
Ch. 3 | Therapist and Patient as "Fellow Travelers," | 6 |
Ch. 4 | Engage the Patient | 11 |
Ch. 5 | Be Supportive | 13 |
Ch. 6 | Empathy: Looking Out the Patient's Window | 17 |
Ch. 7 | Teach Empathy | 23 |
Ch. 8 | Let the Patient Matter to You | 26 |
Ch. 9 | Acknowledge Your Errors | 30 |
Ch. 10 | Create a New Therapy for Each Patient | 33 |
Ch. 11 | The Therapeutic Act, Not the Therapeutic Word | 37 |
Ch. 12 | Engage in Personal Therapy | 40 |
Ch. 13 | The Therapist Has Many Patients; The Patient, One Therapist | 44 |
Ch. 14 | The Here-and-Now - Use It, Use It, Use It | 46 |
Ch. 15 | Why Use the Here-and-Now? | 47 |
Ch. 16 | Using the Here-and-Now - Grow Rabbit Ears | 49 |
Ch. 17 | Search for Here-and-Now Equivalents | 52 |
Ch. 18 | Working Through Issues in the Here-and-Now | 58 |
Ch. 19 | The Here-and-Now Energizes Therapy | 62 |
Ch. 20 | Use Your Own Feelings as Data | 65 |
Ch. 21 | Frame Here-and-Now Comments Carefully | 68 |
Ch. 22 | All Is Grist for the Here-and-Now Mill | 70 |
Ch. 23 | Check into the Here-and-Now Each Hour | 72 |
Ch. 24 | What Lies Have You Told Me? | 74 |
Ch. 25 | Blank Screen? Forget It! Be Real | 75 |
Ch. 26 | Three Kinds of Therapist Self-Disclosure | 83 |
Ch. 27 | The Mechanism of Therapy - Be Transparent | 84 |
Ch. 28 | Revealing Here-and-Now Feelings - Use Discretion | 87 |
Ch. 29 | Revealing the Therapist's Personal Life - Use Caution | 90 |
Ch. 30 | Revealing Your Personal Life - Caveats | 94 |
Ch. 31 | Therapist Transparency and Universality | 97 |
Ch. 32 | Patients Will Resist Your Disclosure | 99 |
Ch. 33 | Avoid the Crooked Cure | 102 |
Ch. 34 | On Taking Patients Further Than You Have Gone | 104 |
Ch. 35 | On Being Helped by Your Patient | 106 |
Ch. 36 | Encourage Patient Self-Disclosure | 109 |
Ch. 37 | Feedback in Psychotherapy | 112 |
Ch. 38 | Provide Feedback Effectively and Gently | 115 |
Ch. 39 | Increase Receptiveness to Feedback by Using "Parts," | 119 |
Ch. 40 | Feedback: Strike When the Iron Is Cold | 121 |
Ch. 41 | Talk About Death | 124 |
Ch. 42 | Death and Life Enhancement | 126 |
Ch. 43 | How to Talk About Death | 129 |
Ch. 44 | Talk About Life Meaning | 133 |
Ch. 45 | Freedom | 137 |
Ch. 46 | Helping Patients Assume Responsibility | 139 |
Ch. 47 | Never (Almost Never) Make Decisions for the Patient | 142 |
Ch. 48 | Decisions: A Via Regia into Existential Bedrock | 146 |
Ch. 49 | Focus on Resistance to Decision | 148 |
Ch. 50 | Facilitating Awareness by Advice Giving | 150 |
Ch. 51 | Facilitating Decisions - Other Devices | 155 |
Ch. 52 | Conduct Therapy as a Continuous Session | 158 |
Ch. 53 | Take Notes of Each Session | 160 |
Ch. 54 | Encourage Self-Monitoring | 162 |
Ch. 55 | When Your Patient Weeps | 164 |
Ch. 56 | Give Yourself Time Between Patients | 166 |
Ch. 57 | Express Your Dilemmas Openly | 168 |
Ch. 58 | Do Home Visits | 171 |
Ch. 59 | Don't Take Explanation Too Seriously | 174 |
Ch. 60 | Therapy-Accelerating Devices | 179 |
Ch. 61 | Therapy as a Dress Rehearsal for Life | 182 |
Ch. 62 | Use the Initial Complaint as Leverage | 184 |
Ch. 63 | Don't Be Afraid of Touching Your Patient | 187 |
Ch. 64 | Never Be Sexual with Patients | 191 |
Ch. 65 | Look for Anniversary and Life-Stage Issues | 195 |
Ch. 66 | Never Ignore "Therapy Anxiety," | 197 |
Ch. 67 | Doctor, Take Away My Anxiety | 200 |
Ch. 68 | On Being Love's Executioner | 201 |
Ch. 69 | Taking a History | 206 |
Ch. 70 | A History of the Patient's Daily Schedule | 208 |
Ch. 71 | How Is the Patient's Life Peopled? | 210 |
Ch. 72 | Interview the Significant Other | 211 |
Ch. 73 | Explore Previous Therapy | 213 |
Ch. 74 | Sharing the Shade of the Shadow | 215 |
Ch. 75 | Freud Was Not Always Wrong | 217 |
Ch. 76 | CBT Is Not What It's Cracked Up to Be ... Or, Don't Be Afraid of the EVT Boogeyman | 222 |
Ch. 77 | Dreams - Use Them, Use Them, Use Them | 225 |
Ch. 78 | Full Interpretation of a Dream? Forget It! | 227 |
Ch. 79 | Use Dreams Pragmatically: Pillage and Loot | 228 |
Ch. 80 | Master Some Dream Navigational Skills | 235 |
Ch. 81 | Learn About the Patients's Life from Dreams | 238 |
Ch. 82 | Pay Attention to the First Dream | 243 |
Ch. 83 | Attend Carefully to Dreams About the Therapist | 246 |
Ch. 84 | Beware the Occupational Hazards | 251 |
Ch. 85 | Cherish the Occupational Privileges | 256 |
Notes | 261 |