Overview
Supportive psychotherapy—the most widely practiced form of individual psychotherapy today—draws on a depth and breadth of skills to exercise the discipline effectively. Recognizing the importance of this therapy to the field, the Psychiatry Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) mandated that competence in supportive psychotherapy is required of all psychiatry residents.
One of five volumes in the groundbreaking Core Competencies in Psychotherapy series, this concise yet comprehensive work will be a trusted guide for learning how to do supportive psychotherapy. Offering a bedrock of knowledge from which to develop essential skills, the book provides extensively detailed clinical vignettes to show how to establish and maintain a positive therapeutic alliance, understand and formulate patients' problems, set realistic treatment goals with patients, and talk with patients. Concluding chapters discuss the efficacy of supportive psychotherapy, crisis intervention, special populations (e.g., patients with chronic mental illness), and the criteria used to determine competency in this therapy.
This practical volume, complete with index and references, will be immediately useful among an exceptionally wide audience: students in introductory courses, beginning therapists navigating the therapeutic relationship with psychotherapy patients, psychiatry residents who need to demonstrate competency in the field, and seasoned practitioners in psychiatry, psychology, social work, occupational and recreational therapy, and medicine.
Synopsis
Supportive psychotherapy—the most widely practiced form of individual psychotherapy today—draws on a depth and breadth of skills to exercise the discipline effectively. Recognizing the importance of this therapy to the field, the Psychiatry Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) mandated that competence in supportive psychotherapy is required of all psychiatry residents.
One of five volumes in the groundbreaking Core Competencies in Psychotherapy series, this remarkable clinical guide will be a trusted resource for how to do supportive psychotherapy. Extensively detailed clinical vignettes are woven into each aspect of supportive psychotherapy discussed in this concise yet comprehensive work.
In nine informative chapters, the authors cover the basic principles of supportive psychotherapy, clarifying the placement of supportive psychotherapy in a continuum of supportive to expressive psychotherapy that corresponds with the extent and level of a patient's psychopathology. They detail the general framework of supportive psychotherapy, including indications, phases of treatment, beginning and ending sessions, professional boundaries, therapeutic relationship issues (e.g., transference, countertransference, therapeutic alliance), and self-disclosure guidelines.
More specifically, the authors discuss four major areas:
• Establishing and maintaining a positive therapeutic alliance
• Understanding and formulating patients' problems (i.e., how to perform a thorough patient evaluation and case formulation)
• Setting realistic treatment goals with patients, helping them maintain or reestablish their best possible level of functioning given the limitations of their personality, native ability, and life circumstances
• Knowing what to say to patients (i.e., practical techniques that can be used right away)
The authors also present evidence for the efficacy of supportive psychotherapy, with a summary of a number of outcome trials. In concluding chapters, they discuss crisis intervention, special populations (e.g., patients with chronic mental illness and comorbid conditions), and the criteria used to determine competency in this field.
Although intended primarily for beginning therapists who need to learn the fundamentals of psychotherapy and in particular, how to talk with psychotherapy patients, this practical work—complete with index and references—will be immediately useful among a much wider audience: students in introductory courses in psychotherapy, supportive psychotherapy, treatment planning, and medicine; psychiatry residents who need to demonstrate competency in this form of psychotherapy; and seasoned practitioners in psychiatry, psychology, social work, occupational and recreational therapy, and medicine.
Doody Review Services
Reviewer:Stephanie R. Exum, MD(Rush University Medical Center)
Description:This book is a part of a series on the core competencies of psychotherapy for psychiatric training programs. It introduces supportive psychotherapy, which is one of the five competencies of psychotherapy. It is a first edition.
Purpose:The purpose of the book is to teach the beginning therapist the fundamentals of supportive psychotherapy. It also provides guidelines on how supportive therapy should be conducted. The authors meet these very worthy objectives. Every therapist, in training or not, should review the therapies in which they are expected to be competent.
Audience:This book is written for the beginning therapist, but can be used for any therapist who wants to review the core competencies. The authors are all established psychiatrists at teaching institutions.
Features:The book covers the basic principles of supportive psychotherapy, various psychotherapy interventions, evidence for the efficacy of the therapy, a framework for how to do the therapy and discussion about therapeutic relationship issues.
Assessment:This book provides a very comprehensive yet concise review of the core competency of supportive psychotherapy. This book is useful especially for the beginning therapist, but useful for the advanced therapist who needs a brief review of supportive psychotherapy.
Editorials
From The Critics
Reviewer: Stephanie R. Exum, MD(Rush University Medical Center)Description: This book is a part of a series on the core competencies of psychotherapy for psychiatric training programs. It introduces supportive psychotherapy, which is one of the five competencies of psychotherapy. It is a first edition.
Purpose: The purpose of the book is to teach the beginning therapist the fundamentals of supportive psychotherapy. It also provides guidelines on how supportive therapy should be conducted. The authors meet these very worthy objectives. Every therapist, in training or not, should review the therapies in which they are expected to be competent.
Audience: This book is written for the beginning therapist, but can be used for any therapist who wants to review the core competencies. The authors are all established psychiatrists at teaching institutions.
Features: The book covers the basic principles of supportive psychotherapy, various psychotherapy interventions, evidence for the efficacy of the therapy, a framework for how to do the therapy and discussion about therapeutic relationship issues.
Assessment: This book provides a very comprehensive yet concise review of the core competency of supportive psychotherapy. This book is useful especially for the beginning therapist, but useful for the advanced therapist who needs a brief review of supportive psychotherapy.
4 Stars! from Doody