How Master Therapists Work engages the reader in experiencing what really happens in therapy with master therapists: who they are, what they do, and how they bring about significant change in clients. It examines one master therapist’s actual six-session therapy (also available on DVD) that transformed a client’s life, resulting in changes that have been sustained for more than seven years. Session transcriptions directly involve the reader in every aspect of the therapeutic change process. This is followed by the commentary of a master therapist-psychotherapy researcher who explains how these changes were effected from a psychotherapy research perspective. Next, the master therapist who effected these changes explains what he was thinking and why he did what he did at key points in the therapy process. Then, the client shares her thoughts on this life changing therapeutic experience. This is a must have, one-of-a-kind book that will greatly enhance the therapeutic understanding and skills of both practicing therapists and therapists-in-training.

In this 10th Anniversary text, Thomas M. Skovholt and Len Jennings paint an elaborate portrait of expert or "master" therapists. The book contains extensive qualitative research from three doctoral dissertations and an additional research study conducted over a seven-year period on the same ten master therapists. This intensive research project on master therapists, those considered the "best of the best" by their colleagues, is the most extensive research on high-level functioning of mental health professionals ever done. Therapists and counselors can use the insights gained from this book as potential guidelines for use in their own professional development. Furthermore, training programs may adopt it in an effort to develop desirable characteristics in their trainees. Featuring a brand new Preface and Epilogue, this 10th Anniversary Edition of Master Therapists revisits a landmark text in the field of counseling and therapy.

Learn from master therapists and bring your skills to the next level Bringing a breath of fresh air to the therapy profession, this compelling and thoughtful resource urges readers to move from competency to full mastery in the mental health field. Combining the findings of hundreds of previous studies, interviews with a wide range of master therapists, own unique experiences and perspectives, Jeffery A. Kottler and Jon Carlson have devised a guide that takes therapists out of their comfort zones. Professionals in the fields of psychology, counseling, social work, and human services, as well as graduate students studying for these professions, will find a level of honesty and candor in this resource, which tackles a range of essential topics in a frank, personal tone, and closes with a meaningful discussion about the challenges of striving for mastery. Master therapists and authors Kottler and Carlson explore a range of hot-button topics, such as: Cultural misunderstandings Disliking your clients (or having clients dislike you) Receiving negative feedback from clients Injecting creativity into the therapeutic process Finding time for social justice and advocacy On Being a Master Therapist provides a much-needed look at a range of topics that aren't often given such genuine and insightful treatment, with the goal of helping you attain the attributes that truly distinguish excellence in clinical practice. Start on your journey toward mastery with this thoughtful resource.

Bad Therapy offers a rare glimpse into the hearts and mind's of the profession's most famous authors, thinkers, and leaders when things aren't going so well. Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson, who include their own therapy mishaps, interview twenty of the world's most famous practitioners who discuss their mistakes, misjudgements, and miscalculations on working with clients. Told through narratives, the failures are related with candor to expose the human side of leading therapists. Each therapist shares with regrets, what they learned from the experience, what others can learn from their mistakes, and the benefits of speaking openly about bad therapy.

Reflecting exciting new trends in psychiatric treatment, the authors present their model of IPT, short-term psychotherapy for treating clinical depression.

Compassionate Therapy explores the characteristics of difficult clients and the nature of client resistance. Arguing that conflict can be a constructive force, it shows how practitioners can use the struggle to examine their own abilities, deepen their compassion, and improve therapeutic flexibility and effectiveness. It offers proven approaches to working through therapeutic impasses with difficult clients and blAnds professional development with personal growth.

In Their Finest Hour, therapists, on the cutting edge of their profession, detail their most professionally rewarding cases and share what they learnt from them. These outstanding therapists define achievement in their field, describe how therapy really works and speak frankly about how their cases shaped their ideas. Each interview was recorded and then transcribed and written into narrative prose, including re-created dialogue that was based on case notes and recordings.