Negotiating the Therapeutic Alliance: A Relational Treatment Guide - Hardcover

"While clinical research has demonstrated the efficacy of a variety of psychotherapeutic procedures, what is often overlooked is the critical role played by the 'common factors' of psychotherapy. This important book details procedures for optimizing the therapeutic alliance and maximizing treatment effectiveness. It should be read by all clinicians."--David H. Barlow, PhD, Professor and Director Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University

"This is a brilliant book. Informed by the authors' internationally recognized research program on ruptures in the therapeutic alliance, the book is enlightening in two major ways. First, its focus on ruptures opens a route to understanding the nature and utility of the therapeutic alliance. Second, the authors show how to negotiate ruptures, offering a veritable guide to moving from rupture to healing. Focusing on an important and neglected area of clinical training, this is an invaluable text for beginning and advanced psychotherapy courses."--Lester Luborsky, PhD

"An unparalleled achievement....Among the few comprehensive texts that truly integrates ongoing empirical research with cutting-edge developments in clinical psychoanalysis, as well as elements of other therapeutic modalities....This book will be used both as a classroom text and as a sourcebook for working clinicians, researchers, and theorists."--Lewis Aron, PhD

A half-century of psychotherapy research has shown that the quality of the therapeutic alliance is the most robust predictor of treatment success. This unique book provides a systematic framework for negotiating ruptures and strains in the therapeutic alliance and transforming them into therapeutic breakthroughs. Cutting-edge developments in psychoanalysis and other modalities are synthesized with original research and clinical wisdom gleaned from years of work in the field. The result is a practical and highly sophisticated guide that spells out clear principles of intervention while at the same time inspiring therapists toward greater creativity.