This book presents some uncommon lines of clinical observation and thought that hopefully will shed new light on the work and thinking of the full range of helping professionals. It provides the insights and techniques that characterize the empowered form of psychotherapy.

For women in Western society, there is no straightforward path of development to autonomous adulthood. The double-bind of female authority--that a women cannot be both a healthy adult and an ideal woman-- is the context in which a woman must construct her self in this culture. Whether she sees herself as "too needy" or "too controlling," "too insecure" or "too self-reliant," she is gathering evidence to support a theory of personal inadequacy. The traditional perspectives of psychodynamics and psychopathology reinforce women's sense of inferiority. How then does a woman claim her own authority-- the validity of her own truth, beauty, goodness, originating in her own experience. Young-Eisendrath and Wiedemann break with the tradition of "deficit thinking," the examination of what is absent, wrong, or deficient. Recognizing this as a fundamental barrier to the empowerment of women, they work instead from an understanding of what is already strong and satisfying in the lives of women and girls in a patriarchal society. This volume unravels the paradox of female authority through the examination of its sociocultural, symbolic, and personal dimensions. Chapters 1 through 4 present a re-visioning of the female self, using the psychologies of C. G. Jung and Jane Loevinger as major theoretical frameworks. The authors argue for a modification of Jung's concept of "animus' --the repressed masculine in the girl or woman--and in chapters 5 through 8 present a detailed model of psychotherapy based on five stages of animus development. Using a wealth of clinical material from their own practices --including two extended case presentations in chapters 9 through 11-- the authors skillfully illustrate their own efforts to help women assume greater personal authority. The book's concluding chapter presents New Texts and Contexts for Female Development. Unique in its combination of feminist theory, social psychology, and Jungian psychology, Female authority offers a fresh approach to the analysis of gender concerns in identity. The book will be of great value to practitioners and theoreticians in the human services. The discussion of women's self-esteem and personal authority, and the probing of conflicts inherent in female identity in our society, place this book among the major recent contributions to the development of a psychology of women.

Couples can make significant progress toward resolving their own problems when they receive appropriate guidance from a caring person. This book outlines five tasks focused on identity, agency, and meaning that spiritual caregivers can use to empower couples for significant change in just three to five conversations. This form of "empowering guidance" is a dimension of pastoral conversation rather than formal counseling. Critically integrating desert spiritual theology with empirical data about successful marriages, Bidwell advocates for mutuality and partnership within covenanted relationships, which allows partners to create an alliance strong enough to resist the forces that threaten relationships--especially the negative influences of criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and withdrawal.

Help your clients gain access to the transformative grace of God through Christ! All too often, psychology and spirituality are kept in separate boxes, lessening the power of each to work effective changes. Christ-Centered Therapy: Empowering the Self brings together Christian faith with the Internal Family System (IFS) model. This widely accepted paradigm facilitates psychological healing by showing how the self can become the change agent for the dysfunctional internal system. Christ-centered IFS (CCIFS) combines the power of internal system therapy with the healing power of God for lasting change. Therapists with Christian clients, faith-based clients, or clients who need foundational grounding will benefit from the psychological and spiritual dimensions of Christ-Centered Therapy: Empowering the Self. This powerful therapeutic model posits a self surrounded by subpersonalities who carry anger, fear, distrust, and other negative responses. When the client’s self takes the leadership role, the self becomes the channel for Christ’s grace for all the subpersonalities. One by one they become empowered, center around self and God, and contribute their resources to the functioning of the whole personality. Christ-Centered Therapy: Empowering the Self provides exercises and visual aids to help both client and counselor, including: four tools to teach the self to lead effectively worksheets to serve as a structural and visual guide to understanding, developing, and using each tool a parts map for client and counselor to use collaboratively cartoons, structural diagrams, and dialogues to illustrate new concepts and procedures Each chapter of Christ-Centered Therapy: Empowering the Self provides specific help for the counselor, including: case studies showing step-by-step clinical interventions a content summary a clinical outline listing the interventions in sequence an exercise to help counselors discover their own inner and spiritual dynamics Christ-Centered Therapy: Empowering the Self brings together the diagnostic and restorative power of IFS with the transforming power of Christian spirituality. It is essential for Christian counselors and for non-Christian counselors who are seeking more effective ways to treat Christian clients.

"Dr. Jill Schwarz' Counseling Women Across the Lifespan is tailor made for gender-specific counseling courses. This text is highly accessible and comprehensive, and includes specific learning objectives, state-of-the-art research, and questions for student reflection and discussion. Importantly, each chapter is a Call to Action for all counselors to be advocates for change in a world that desperately needs empowering approaches for counseling girls and woman." - Mark Woodford "Within the pages of Counseling Women Across the Lifespan lay the seeds of professional and personal transformation. The text provides a comprehensive review of the issues that today's women face, while providing practical ideas for intervention and advocacy. With thought-provoking reflection questions at the end of each chapter, testimonials from graduate students who have been transformed as a result of this work, and actionable steps that you can take on behalf of women's rights, you cannot be but changed after engaging with this compelling text." - Corinne Zupko This book, the first comprehensive text to focus specifically on counseling women and girls, provides a sweeping overview of female life span development and issues and offers a unique integration of prevention, advocacy, and interventions. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in diverse fields, it provides information, resources, and practical suggestions that counselors can use to help empower individual women and girls to live as their authentic selves, and to engage as effective collaborators in addressing societal inequities. With a strong focus on empowerment and adherence to a social justice framework, the book highlights the value of mental health practitioners employing strengths-based approaches and advocating for systemic change. Based on a foundation of understanding females' diverse holistic development, the text explores the major theoretical approaches relevant to counseling and psychotherapy with women and girls. It then discusses the key issues faced by females at different developmental stages and describes appropriate counseling strategies for each, focusing on prevention as well as intervention. Specific concerns and strategies for women in different contexts, such as education, physical health and body image concerns, and violence, are emphasized. Unique to the text is coverage of how men specifically can serve as allies and advocates in creating healthier and safer societies for women and girls. Replete with supporting features such as learning objectives, self-reflection prompts, personal narratives, discussion questions, abundant resources, and strategies for how professionals can serve as advocates and change agents, this book is an ideal core text for courses on counseling women or gender issues in counseling, social work, psychology, marriage and family therapy, and women's studies programs, as well as a useful resource for mental health practitioners. Key Features: Uniquely covers life span development and counseling issues, needs, and application for females across the life span Emphasizes advocacy, prevention, and practical intervention strategies Examines the contextual elements that affect the female experience, including the oppressive structures in which they live Addresses global perspectives, diverse women, a social justice framework, and empowerment Includes learning objectives, first-person accounts, "Calls to Action" and self-reflection and discussion questions A sample course calendar and syllabus are available to instructors to aid in course development

This controversial book argues that 20th century psychotherapy has been fundamentally characterized by serious disagreement on views of human nature, treatment rationales and goals. Focusing on the differences rather than the commonalities in therapy, eight eminent practitioners demonstrate the diversities in therapies and why, for the most part, it is not possible to tolerate or integrate with other approaches. The book awakened me to understanding more about how a core belief or orientation can result in polarised attitudes towards the person. At the same time, in some cases, there is fundamental common ground which could potentially lead to genuine integration' - "[ac]Eisteach, The Journal of the Irish Association for Counselling and Therapy "Eight distinguished practitioners address twelve different questions, aimed at identifying the distinctive qualities of their own approach and demonstrating how it has been arrived at. The result is a book that will allow both experienced practitioners and trainees to become familiar with and compare the current thinking of these well-known people... the very passion of these opposing and sometimes exclusive convictions may be the well-spring for the efficacy and achievements of these eminent practitioners and trainers' -"Self & Society " Each therapist highlights the distinctive properties of his or her orientation, and discusses questions such as: why and how they came to found, adapt or choose the approach they currently practise; what criticisms of the approach they consider to be valid; which approaches they consider to be ineffective, misleading or dangerous, and, conversely, more promising or effective; why their approach is more effective or comprehensive, and why it may be more suited to certain clients or client problems; and how they account for research which suggests that no one approach seems more effective than any other.

`This book issues a challenge to anyone in the field of psychotherapy who is resigned to seeing psychotherapy as solely a service activity or an art or craft. Instead, Langs invites us to see that psychotherapy, clinical technique and practice may have intricate and fundamental conditions to the scientific laws of nature and the universe. This work will also be of value to those psychotherapists who are interested in asking research questions about the process and technique of psychotherapy. It is also a refreshing read in a postmodern era where the pursuit of validity and fundamental laws seems to have gone out of fashion′ - New Therapist