Doing Psychotherapy Effectively

by Weissmark, Mona Sue; Giacomo, Daniel A.

• ISBN13: 9780226891675
• ISBN10: 0226891674
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-28
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Psychotherapy is a $2.5 billion business in the United States, but no one can answer the basic question of how therapy works. No watchdog groups rank therapists for potential consumers; no one school of thought has proven to be superior to another. And no method has emerged for determining what makes therapy successful for some but not for others. Doing Psychotherapy Effectively proposes much-needed answers to the puzzling questions of what therapists actually do when they are effective. Mona Sue Weissmark and Daniel A. Giacomo offer a unique mode of evaluation that focuses not on a particular school of therapy but on the relationship between therapist and patient. Their approach, the "Harvard Psychotherapy Coding Method," begins with the assumption that good therapeutic relationships are far from intuitive. Successful relationships follow a pattern of behaviors that can be identified and quantified, as the authors demonstrate through clinical research and videotaped sessions of expert therapists. Likewise, positive changes in the patient, observed through client feedback and case studies, can be described operationally; they involve the process of overcoming feelings of detachment, helplessness, and rigidity and becoming more involved, effective, and adaptable. Weissmark and Giacomo explain and ground these principles in the practice of psychotherapy, making Doing Psychotherapy Effectively an accessible and pragmatic work which will give readers a tool for measuring therapeutic effectiveness and further understanding human transformation. For the first time, successful therapy is described in a way that can be practiced and communicated.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(10)
1 A Brief History of Psychotherapy Research	11	(29)
The Role of the Case Study	11	(1)
Does Psychotherapy Work? The Role of the Controlled Study	12	(6)
Beyond Effectiveness: How Does Therapy Work?	18	(18)
Summing Up	36	(4)
2 Two Types of Knowledge	40	(21)
Theory and Practice	40	(11)
Two Ways of Thinking	51	(5)
Summing Up	56	(5)
3 Assessing Similarities	61	(15)
Two Types of Similarities	62	(12)
Summing Up	74	(2)
4 Assessment Styles	76	(23)
Assessing Relations: Three Crucial Dimensions	76	(7)
The Development of Relational Assessments	83	(3)
The Passive-Observant Profile and the Active-Participatory Profile	86	(10)
Summing Up	96	(3)
5 Measuring Therapeutic Interactions	99	(23)
What Does the Psychotherapist Do?	99	(3)
The Harvard Psychotherapy Coding Method	102	(12)
Discussion: Case Analysis	114	(6)
Summing Up	120	(2)
6 Clinical Applications	122	(25)
A Case Example: Cognitive, Supportive-Expressive, and Interpersonal Approaches	123	(14)
Case Review	137	(7)
Summing Up	144	(3)
7 Concluding Remarks	147	(8)
Appendix: List of Relationships	155	(4)
References	159	(12)
Index	171