Daily inspiration in the form of hand-written notes on emotions, emotional intelligence and relationships, from therapist Allyson Dinneen, who has over 340k followers on her hit Instagram account @notesfromyourtherapist For anyone in need of a daily dose of affirmation and empathy, therapist and mental health counsellor Allyson Dinneen shares this collection of artful and beautifully photographed hand-written insights, based on her popular Instagram account. This beautifully presented hardcover book contains one simple and practical handwritten insight per page, making Allyson's deeply human words easy to come back to again and again. These bite-sized words of wisdom cover everything from setting boundaries and navigating relationships to how to take good care of yourself. As she does in her practice, through these notes Allyson seeks to cultivate emotional well-being, recognize the struggle of being human, and offer a nurturing, compassionate perspective.
Lessons from the personal experience and reflections of a therapist. The difficulty and cost of training psychotherapists properly is well known. It is far easier to provide a series of classes while ignoring the more challenging personal components of training. Despite the fact that the therapist's self-insight, emotional maturity, and calm centeredness are critical for successful psychotherapy, rote knowledge and technical skills are the focus of most training programs. As a result, the therapist's personal growth is either marginalized or ignored. The Making of a Therapist counters this trend by offering graduate students and beginning therapists a personal account of this important inner journey. Cozolino provides a unique look inside the mind and heart of an experienced therapist. Readers will find an exciting and privileged window into the experience of the therapist who, like themselves, is just starting out. In addition, The Making of a Therapist contains the practical advice, common-sense wisdom, and self-disclosure that practicing professionals have found to be the most helpful during their own training.The first part of the book, 'Getting Through Your First Sessions,' takes readers through the often-perilous days and weeks of conducting initial sessions with real clients. Cozolino addresses such basic concerns as: Do I need to be completely healthy myself before I can help others? What do I do if someone comes to me with an issue or problem I can't handle? What should I do if I have trouble listening to my clients? What if a client scares me?The second section of the book, 'Getting to Know Your Clients,' delves into the routine of therapy and the subsequent stages in which you continue to work with clients and help them. In this context, Cozolino presents the notion of the 'good enough' therapist, one who can surrender to his or her own imperfections while still guiding the therapeutic relationship to a positive outcome. The final section, 'Getting to Know Yourself,' goes to the core of the therapist's relation to him- or herself, addressing such issues as: How to turn your weaknesses into strengths, and how to deal with the complicated issues of pathological caretaking, countertransference, and self-care.Both an excellent introduction to the field as well as a valuable refresher for the experienced clinician, The Making of a Therapist offers readers the tools and insight that make the journey of becoming a therapist a rich and rewarding experience.
In the spirit of Mikhail Bulgakov's A Young Doctor's Notebook and Sandeep Jauhar's Intern, this is a deeply honest, searching examination of psychotherapy based on the experiences of a young sceptical trainee in New York City meeting his first patients. "Why is psychotherapy different from talking to a friend?" Hazanov asks. "Because generations of self-interested therapists told us so?" Through ten linked stories, we follow Hazanov as he navigates the maze of psychological theories he's been taught, facing the alarming dissonance between them and the tragic reality of his patients' lives. "How does psychotherapy work? And why do people not get any better?" Frustrated by fancy jargon and unrealistic depictions, Hazanov is on a quest to dispel the myths of psychotherapy and discover its essence. In The Fear of Doing Nothing he illuminates the intimacy, vulnerability and messiness of the therapeutic encounter, providing his answer to the question of what psychotherapy is.
Tackling relationships, career, and family issues, John Kim, LMFT, thinks of himself as a life-styledesigner, not a therapist. His radical new approach, that he sometimes calls “self-help in a shot glass” is easy, real, and to the point. He helps people make changes to their lives so that personal growth happens organically, just by living. Let’s face it, therapy is a luxury. Few of us have the time or money to devote to going to an office every week. With anecdotes illustrating principles in action (in relatable and sometimes irreverent fashion) and stand-alone practices and exercises, Kim gives readers the tools and directions to focus on what's right with them instead of what's wrong. When John Kim was going through the end of a relationship, he began blogging as The Angry Therapist, documenting his personal journey post-divorce. Traditional therapists avoid transparency, but Kim preferred the language of "me too" as opposed to "you should." He blogged about his own shortcomings, revelations, views on relationships, and the world. He spoke a different therapeutic language —open, raw, and at times subversive — and people responded. The Angry Therapist blog, that inspired this book, has been featured in The Atlantic Monthly and on NPR.
"I'm a therapist, and I work with the most dangerous patients. I've seen it all... A boy who planned to be the next school shooter. A patient with OCD whose loved ones really did suffer every time he missed a ritual. A choir boy who claimed he was being molested -- not by a priest -- but by God Himself. A patient with PTSD who gave me nightmares. A husband and wife who accused each other of abuse, and only one of them was telling the truth. A woman who kept her ex locked up as a sex slave. A pedo-ring conspiracy theorist who was actually onto something. And how could I ever forget, Patient #220. The problem is, my patients have a habit of dying. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the common denominator. Or maybe that's just the cost of taking on exceptionally broken clients. Either way, I'll never stop trying to help."--Page 4 of cover.
NOTEBOOK FOR THERAPISTS & COUNSELLORS: FOR SESSION NOTES, SUPERVISION THEMES AND MORE This notebook is ideal to keep all your client notes in one place, as well as jot down themes to take to supervision, client resources needed for the next session, and your thoughts on theories to research raised by the session. It
Psychotherapy is a treatment that most people know of, but few understand. This is because the inner workings of the therapy process are primarily discussed by professionals in scholarly journals and conferences. The general public is typically left out of the conversation. As a result, a treatment that has healed millions of patients remains shrouded in mystery and misconception. In this short volume, Dr. Drew Permut, a clinical psychologist with over 30 years of psychotherapy experience explains how the process works. Drawing on over a dozen case histories, he takes the reader into the mind of the therapist in the complex process of working with patients. He dispels the notion that therapy is about analyzing the patient in an objective fashion. Instead, he shows how intensive training teaches the therapist how to enter into the patient's actual subjective experience. The properly-trained therapist can both think and feel what the patient experiences. This awareness, combined with academic preparation, clinical experience, personal therapy, and intuitive talent then enables the psychotherapist to communicate with both the conscious and unconscious aspects of the the patient's mind. The result is an enormously powerful process that not only heals deep wounds, but transforms patients' lives.
In this collection of powerfully illuminating and often poignant essays, contributors candidly discuss the impact of central life crises and identity concerns on their work as therapists. With chapters focusing on identity concerns associated with the body-self (body size, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age), urgent life crises, and defining life circumstances, The Therapist as a Person exemplifies the myriad ways in which the therapist's subjectivity shapes his or her interaction with patients. Included in the collection are life events rarely if ever dealt with in the literature: the death of family members, late pregnancy loss, divorce, the failure of the therapist's own therapy, infertility and childlessness, the decision to adopt a child, and the parenting of a profoundly deaf child.
Kathy was an overachiever-an economist, technical writer, and classical singer married 27 years to her college sweetheart. It looked like Kathy was fine. But deep within her hid a pain from infancy so severe that a cascade of adult life crises finally triggered it. And once it exploded, the pain was unbearable. Kathy was suffering attachment disorder, a psychological condition potentially affecting almost half the US population. Caused by traumatic stress in the first three years of life, attachment disorder correlates with the nation's 50 percent divorce rate and widespread mental health issues. Yet no one talks about its prevalence, so many sufferers go untreated, forced to live with their pain in silence-without a hint of its cause. This was certainly true for Kathy. But when her initial forays into psychiatric help failed, Kathy decided to treat herself. It was a mistake that almost cost her life. Told with candor and quirky, ironic humor, Don't Try This Alone will resonate with anyone suffering attachment damage. It knows no boundaries; it strikes those who believe they had wonderful childhoods as well as the obviously abused. Yet there's hope! Kathy's story also shows: help and healing are out there.
