Main description:

Presenting a pragmatic, evidence-based approach to conducting psychodynamic therapy, this engaging guide is firmly grounded in contemporary clinical practice and research. The book reflects an openness to new influences on dynamic technique, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and positive psychology. It offers a fresh understanding of the most common problems for which patients seek help--depression, obsessionality, low self-esteem, fear of abandonment, panic, and trauma--and shows how to organize and deliver effective psychodynamic interventions. Special topics include ways to integrate individual treatment with psychopharmacology and with couple or family work.

See also Practicing Psychodynamic Therapy: A Casebook, edited by Summers and Barber, which features 12 in-depth cases that explicitly illustrate the approach in this book.

Contents:

Introduction
I. Context
1. Why Dynamic Psychotherapy?
2. Pragmatic Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Conceptual Model and Techniques
3. The Other Psychotherapies
II. Opening Phase
4. The Therapeutic Alliance: Goal, Task, and Bond
5. Core Psychodynamic Problems, Part I
6. Core Psychodynamic Problems, Part II
7. Psychodynamic Formulation
8. Defining a Focus and Setting Goals
III. Middle Phase
9. The Narrative: Building a Personal Story
10. Change
11. Moments in Psychotherapy
12. Therapist Strengths, or Managing Your Countertransference
IV. Combining Treatments
13. Psychopharmacology and Psychotherapy
14. The Patient Is Part of a Family, with Ellen Berman
V. Ending
15. Goals and Termination