Maximizing Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy

The best therapists embody the changes they are attempting to facilitate in their patients. In other words, they practice what they preach. Maximizing Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy shows therapists why and how to develop the personal needs and qualities that they need to be as effective as they can be. Both psychotherapy process research and recent findings on the way the brain works suggest that very specific factors are responsible for brain change and positive outcome in psychotherapy. These factors—and strategies for developing them—are front and center in the book and are illustrated with detailed, verbatim case transcripts. The relatively neglected factor of the person of the therapist are also be highlighted, with special emphasis placed on latest research on the qualities of "super-shrinks"—the top 20% who get better and more consistent results than the rest. Therapists of every stripe can incorporate the skills presented in Maximizing Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy into their practice in order to both broader and deepen their skillsets, and they’ll come away from the book with a wide variety of research-based strategies that they can use to increase their effectiveness.

Patricia Coughin (Della Selva), PhD, is a clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience as a psychodynamic therapist, international teacher/trainer and author. She has been a clinical professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University School of Medicine, Albany Medical College, and Jefferson Medical College. Currently, she is visiting scholar at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Her book Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy is considered a classic in the field.