The Making Of A Therapist: A Practical Guide For The Inner Journey [EPUB]

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E-Book Overview

The difficulty and cost of training psychotherapists properly is well known. It is far easier to provide a series of classes while ignoring the more challenging personal components of training. Despite the fact that the therapist's self-insight, emotional maturity, and calm centeredness are critical for successful psychotherapy, rote knowledge and technical skills are the focus of most training programs. As a result, the therapist's personal growth is either marginalized or ignored. The Making of a Therapist counters this trend by offering graduate students and beginning therapists a personal account of this important inner journey. Cozolino provides a unique look inside the mind and heart of an experienced therapist. Readers will find an exciting and privileged window into the experience of the therapist who, like themselves, is just starting out. In addition, The Making of a Therapist contains the practical advice, common-sense wisdom, and self-disclosure that practicing professionals have found to be the most helpful during their own training.The first part of the book, 'Getting Through Your First Sessions,' takes readers through the often-perilous days and weeks of conducting initial sessions with real clients. Cozolino addresses such basic concerns as: Do I need to be completely healthy myself before I can help others? What do I do if someone comes to me with an issue or problem I can't handle? What should I do if I have trouble listening to my clients? What if a client scares me?The second section of the book, 'Getting to Know Your Clients,' delves into the routine of therapy and the subsequent stages in which you continue to work with clients and help them. In this context, Cozolino presents the notion of the 'good enough' therapist, one who can surrender to his or her own imperfections while still guiding the therapeutic relationship to a positive outcome.

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E-Book Information

• Year: 2,004

• Pages: 240

• Language: English

• Topic: 198

• Identifier: 978-0-393-70898-1

• Org File Size: 225,010

• Extension: epub

• Toc: Acknowledgments Introduction Imagination and Reality Discovering and Taming the Unconscious The Goals of this Book PART ONE GETTING THROUGH YOUR FIRST SESSIONS 1. What Have I Gotten Myself Into? “I Don’t Know” Giving Yourself Permission to Not Know Desperately Seeking Systems Dreams of the Messiah 2. Getting Centered and Learning to Listen Take Time to Get Centered The Power of Listening Eye Contact Communication Styles in Psychotherapy 3. Now What Do I Do? Psychotherapy in a Nutshell What to Say, What to Do Case Conceptualizations Treatment Plans Case Notes The Catch-22 4. Survival Strategies Don’t Panic in the Face of the Pathology Expect the Unexpected Crisis as Communication Don’t Try to Reason with an Irrational Person Don’t Forget a Client’s Strengths 5. Beware of Assumptions Cultural and Religious Assumptions No One Is an Expert on Culture Prejudice Is Everywhere The Shame of the Accused PART TWO GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CLIENTS 6. Challenges and Strategies The Value of Confusion The Good-Enough Therapist Making Good Mistakes The Projective Hypothesis Silence as a Background for Communication 7. The Therapist’s Feelings: Anticipated and Unanticipated Impatience