The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 0061719617
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The culmination of master psychiatrist Dr. Irvin D. Yalom's more than thirty-five years in clinical practice, The Gift of Therapy is a remarkable and essential guidebook that illustrates through real case studies how patients and therapists alike can get the most out of therapy. The bestselling author of Love's Executioner shares his uniquely fresh approach and the valuable insights he has gained—presented as eighty-five personal and provocative "tips for beginner therapists," including:
- Let the patient matter to you
- Acknowledge your errors
- Create a new therapy for each patient
- Do home visits
- (Almost) never make decisions for the patient
- Freud was not always wrong
A book aimed at enriching the therapeutic process for a new generation of patients and counselors, Yalom's Gift of Therapy is an entertaining, informative, and insightful read for anyone with an interest in the subject.
Invitation to Psychology (5th Edition)
Social Cognition: Making Sense of People
Empirically Supported Cognitive Therapies: Current and Future Applications
John Bowlby: From Psychoanalysis to Ethology
A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers
angry, deeply demoralized woman who after several months developed enough trust in me to reveal the depth of her despair. Again and again I was so moved that I sought to offer her some comfort. But I never succeeded. Every time I tried I got bitten. But she was so brittle and so hypersensitive to perceived criticism that I waited for many weeks before I shared that observation. Everything—especially episodes containing heightened emotion—is grist for the mill. Many unexpected events or reactions
impressionistic summaries of each session. This format was also a challenging exercise in therapist transparency. The patient had so idealized me, had placed me on such an elevated pedestal, that a true meeting between us was not possible. Therefore, in my notes I deliberately attempted to reveal the very human feelings and experiences I had: my frustrations, my irritations, my insomnia, my vanity. This exercise, done early in my career, facilitated therapy and liberated me a good deal in
went further than simply undergoing repair and returning to their pre-bereavement level of functioning: between a fourth and a third of the subjects achieved a new level of maturity and wisdom. In addition to death and bereavement, there arise many other opportunities for death-related discourse during the course of every therapy. If such issues never emerge, I believe the patient is simply following the therapist’s covert instructions. Death and mortality form the horizon for all discussions
being and the growth of the other, and most clients will be sympathetic to this view. What, then, is the particular nature of their love? Are they infatuated with someone whom, at bottom, they do not really respect or someone who treats them badly? Unfortunately, of course, there are those whose love is intensified by not being treated well. If they wish you to help them to get out of the relationship, you might well remind them (and yourself) that release is arduous and slow. Occasionally an
assets—that’s why your writing is so powerful and that’s why others are drawn to you. But these very traits have a dark side—anxiety—they make it impossible for you to live through such circumstances with equanimity.” A lovely example of a reframed comment that provided much comfort to me occurred some time ago when I expressed my disappointment at a bad review of one of my books to a friend, William Blatty, the author of The Exorcist. He responded in a wonderfully supportive manner, which
