Clinical Strategies for Becoming a Master Psychotherapist

Psychotherapy is both an art and a science. Understanding the contribution of both of these elements and achieving a proper balance is essential to optimize therapeutic success. Yet too often books focus on one or the other dimension or incompletely address the factors that affect the therapeutic outcome.Clinical Strategies for Becoming a Master Therapistfocuses on the key skills in which therapists must excel to optimize therapeutic success. Each chapter is concisely written by experienced practicing clinicians and identifies the skill needed and how to practice that skill in the face of an evolving interaction between client and therapist. Each chapter breaks down a broad skills (such as establishing and maintaining a therapeutic alliance) into its separate components (e.g. empathy, positive regard, instilling hope, appropriate feedback etc) and then gives practical advice for applying the skill in practice. Knowing when to use a skill, for how long, and in what manner is the art that goes along with the science of knowing the skills. The skills cover the spectrum from the beginning, middle, and end of psychotherapy, across different kinds of clients, and different forms of psychotherapy. The book will be of use to all clinicians whatever their specialty, offering practical, proven tips to becoming a master psychotherapist.Cummings, Nicholas A. is the author of 'Clinical Strategies for Becoming a Master Psychotherapist ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780120884162 and ISBN 012088416X.