Top products from r/psychotherapy

I promise I'll give some specific recommendations at the end.

So, actually being able to do DBT and call it DBT is involved and fairly difficult. DBT folks (at least the bigwigs) are really big on treatment fidelity, which means faithfully reproducing what has been shown to work in their outcome research, which means a lot of resources. I'm not sure where you work and what resources you have available, but Linehan herself states that if you're not running skill groups in addition to individual therapy, along with having a treatment team for consultation, then you're not actually doing DBT. I've noticed that without all of these components present they prefer to call it "DBT-informed CBT." Just putting all of that out there for informational purposes.

That being said, you can most certainly integrate DBT concepts and techniques into your individual work, if that's what you do. It's just that there are a TON of specific skills and worksheets to choose from. It's a really involved therapy. There are many books available, but here are the ones that I've personally found useful in individual therapy and they seem to generally get favorable reviews:

DBT® Skills Training Manual, Second Edition is straight from the source. Tons of information and reproducible handouts...almost overwhelming.

DBT Made Simple is a really good, simple (obviously) primer on basic DBT philosophies and techniques to get you started in individual work.

Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Practical Guide is really good. More in-depth than the Made Simple book and really gives a solid understanding of what to do in session.

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook is a solid DBT-based self-help workbook. I have recommended it to several clients and it's usually connected each time. It's a handy way for the client to think about concepts in-between sessions without it feeling like "homework" and it helps as a roadmap for therapy. Kind of acts as a little skill trainer in place of the group (I know, still not the same) since there's not enough time to focus on all of the skills in individual therapy alone. It actually works well for emotionally dysregulated clients in general, regardless of what the primary diagnosis is.

There's also a video of Marsha Linehan demonstrating DBT in session on psychotherapy.net that you may find useful. It offers CE credits as well.

No problem and thank you for the compliment. Overall, I love experiential and psychodynamic theories but I try to approach any theory as a means to an end. Any clinician that becomes too dogmatic risks missing the point (that is, helping the client and not serving your own ends). I like playing between affect and behavior with clients and attachment theory is behind it all for me.

In any case, why don't you ask an easier question? Haha. There is so much material out there for each modality that I could recommend plenty.

Strengths-focused

• 1001 Solution-Focused Questions by Fredrike Bannink
  
  
• Positive CBT by Fredrike Bannink
  
  
• Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman
  
  Experiential
  
  
• Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy by Robert Elliott
  
  
• Emotion-Focused Therapy, 2nd ed. by Les Greenberg
  
  
• Focusing in Clinical Practice by Ann Cornell
  
  Attachment
  
  
• Attachment in Psychotherapy by David Wallin
  
  
• Affect Regulation Theory by Daniel Hill
  
  
• The Healing Power of Emotion by Diana Fosha, Daniel Siegel, & Martin Solomon, ed.
  
  Psychodynamic
  
  
• The Transforming Power of Affect by Diana Fosha
  
  
• Treating Affect Phobia by Leigh McCullough
  
  
• Psychodynamic Therapy: A Guide to Evidence-Based Practice by Richard Summers and Jacques Barber
  
  
• Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy by Hanna Levenson
  
  
• Negotiating the Therapeutic Alliance by Jeremy Safran
  
  Hope that helps! Feel free to PM me too. I wonder if /u/evilqueenoftherealm would have any suggestions too.

Hi -- I just came across your post.

You've gotten some good replies on here. To add to them, I'd just like to point out that many people who go into a psychology field for their master's degree have a different undergrad degree.

From what I understand, most schools will require you to get a certain score on either the GRE or the MAT, demonstrate that you have decent writing skills, and have a few people recommend you. Also, interviews are common. Typical interview questions often try to get a sense of your maturity, your motivations for wanting to be in the field, possibly some degree of cultural competency, and how well you can present as professional and articulate.

It sounds like you're on the right track to being an appealing candidate, especially signing up for the hotline. I'd recommend, if you haven't already, doing some reading about what the counseling process is like. This will help give you a better sense of what to expect and allow you to speak more fluently about the topic. There are a few good books on the topic to check out.

Also, if you're looking for a master's program with a more clinical focus, it might be a good idea to look at counseling programs as opposed to social work programs.

Best of luck!

It sounds like you are looking for a direction here.

This is a great thing to talk about with your clinical supervisor.

However, if you are willing to take a leap of faith: One thing I have found really helpful for high functioning clients is to take a leaf from positive psychotherapy -- (The book is basically a clinical manual. It's hard to find in libraries, though, unfortunately!) https://www.amazon.com/Positive-Psychotherapy-Clinician-Tayyab-Rashid/dp/0195325389/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=positive+psychotherapy&qid=1568808796&s=gateway&sr=8-1 I actually do a fair number of positive psychotherapy interventions with clients who are struggling a fair bit, as well, and they are usually received quite positively by folks with a pretty significant range of clinical presentations.

I've also found that some clients need to start somewhere more like this and then will move into a more process-oriented place later on.

Is this your first adolescent client? How did you get set up working with this client if you don't do family therapy...? kind of comes with the territory...Just a bit concerned, because these are typical issues that are to be expected working with this age group (the parent issues, need for family counseling sessions, the teen's response to you, not trusting you, etc.)

To start:

1. let go of using the words "resistant client". not helpful for anyone.
   
2. no where in this description did I hear anything about what the client might want. You have the referral info and plenty of information about mom. The client may sense that you are also preoccupied by mom, probably like they are quite used to. Focus on building trust and rapport with your client, even if mom isn't thrilled.
   
3. Motivational Interviewing IS KEY. I use it with substance use , juvenile justice , and court-mandated populations. Roll with the resistance don't fight it. Use the client's own language to clarify or amplify a statement. "I don't want to be here" "You would rather be anywhere else in the world but here" "Well know I didn't say that" "Oh, what did you mean?" Now you are talking to each other :D
   
4. You are the professional here. You can set the rules if its conducive the best care for the client - such as doing individual sessions without mom present, then building towards a family therapy session. Having mom in the room for a 14 year old coming out of a hospitalization is just not going to work.
   
5. Although it appears you client does not want to be there - make no mistake. Their history and suicide attempt is incredibly serious and this is a child that does want and need help - no one wants to suffer. The key is trust. Right now there is not trust. Establish confidentiality to be between you and the client, and clarify what the exceptions with be for you to tell mom.
   
6. seek supervision and consultation, if this is your first time working with this age group and doing family therapy. Brush up on adolescent development and counseling skills, along with family counseling. I think this sub has a good resource list for books. I learned mostly in the field but I liked this book. It's not too big, a quick read.
   
   Hope your next sessions feels a bit more progressive for everyone :) Good luck!

The two modalities I use nowadays are ACT and AEDP:

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP): The Healing Power of Emotion by Diana Fosha, Daniel Siegel, and Marion Solomon: I seem to be recommending this one a lot on here recently. It's because I've really found AEDP to have transformed my psychotherapeutic practice and filled in the deficits of ACT's radical behaviorism. I've witnessed this approach radically change my patients for the better. I think Fosha and her colleagues are really onto something important and vital in their work that will be corroborated by the experience of many relationally-focused therapists. This attachment-based approach is especially useful for people with long-standing psychological issues, particularly those who have a history of abuse, trauma, neglect, or social alienation.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Process and Practice of Mindful Change (Second Edition) by Steven C. Hayes, Kelly Wilson, and Kirk Strosahl: ACT has been the overarching therapy I "present" to my patients for many years. Although, my sessions nowadays look much more like dynamic therapy towards the middle, ACT is where I begin therapy with a patient and ultimately where I "arrive" with my patients after doing some depth work. Put another way, ACT helps me conceptualize the ultimate goal of therapy (to help the patient live a valued life), followed by AEDP-type work if I find they need it, then ultimately back to ACT for behavior change. Hayes is brilliant and I think ACT offer a life-affirming and rich take on behavior therapy. This book is probably the most detailed in the underlying philosophy that informs ACT.

Therapist here ... and as a therapist I list various specialties on my website ... but am very competent and capable in treating many conditions while using the appropriate treatment modalities. We can't "specialize" in everything. Your therapist might be great ... and just not list trauma as one of the many things he treats.

Specifically for trauma, EMDR, in my opinion, is the most effective trauma treatment, although there are may other good treatments. However, if you are just talking, you're not treating the trauma. This book may be helpful to you: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. I wish you well on your healing journey.

Hi there, chemical dependency is my area of specialization. Glad to share the field of battle with you. I'm extremely biased in that much of my work with clients is trauma-focused and attachment-based. These are the readings I recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Realm-Hungry-Ghosts-Encounters-Addiction/dp/155643880X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1538166177&sr=8-3&keywords=gabor+mate

https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Raised-Psychiatrists-Notebook-What/dp/0465094457/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538166073&sr=8-1&keywords=boy+that+was+raised+as+a+dog

Day-by-day might look different compared to settings. However, the places that I've worked consistently involved doing biopsychosocials, basic case management, referrals to appropriate levels of care, group counseling, and individual counseling.

I typically utilize psychoeducation, basic relapse prevention strategies, leveraging community support, and fundamentally just work on creating a container in the therapy space where they can feel comfortable to unpack emotions in a safe relationship.

https://store.samhsa.gov/ has plenty of free clinician and client handbooks too.

Treatment planner: https://www.amazon.com/Addiction-Treatment-Planner-DSM-5-Updates/dp/1118414756/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538166623&sr=8-2&keywords=addiction+planner

I'm a psychotherapist who has zero training in DBT and who will soon be starting a job at a residential program for teens where DBT is one of the primary treatment modalities. I'll obviously be trained when I get there, but in the meantime I'd like to get as up-to-date as I can so that I don't have to start from scratch.

So, I'd like to buy some books. Specifically, I want books that focus on the practice and theory of DBT, so obviously not self-help books aimed at clients. I've found a few so far and I'll link them below (I'm happy to buy any or all of these books, and obviously any others that people recommend):

1. Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Practice: Applications across Disorders and Settings
   
   
2. Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Practical Guide (Guides to Individualized Evidence-Based Treatment)
   
   
3. Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder
   
   
4. DBT® Skills Training Manual, Second Edition
   
   Thanks!

Recommending the second edition of The Heart & Soul of Change which takes a look at the common factors which seem to underlie therapeutic change and growth. I'm still in the process of reading but it's already changed my perspective on what's most important in our work. Some of the common factors they identify as important and universal to successful psychotherapy are the therapeutic-alliance/relationship, the therapist's continual elicitation of client feedback, and the therapist's genuineness - their argument is intuitive to me and they are sure to sight research backing their claims.

​

In terms of who I find influential, my first thoughts are of Carl Rogers and Karen Horney!

You can buy Family Therapy Techniques for a penny on Amazon. It's classic/canon, and still holds up today. The rest of the advice in this thread sounds good. I would also add that when working with teens and their parents, it can be challenging and helpful to model respect for the teen while challenging the parents to accept what is probably pretty understandable teenage behavior. And that can be hard, since you're holding a lot of anxiety.

One of my professors insists that "All learning occurs in relationships," and that this is especially true for kids. During my first practicum, I started a play therapy program for children who had anxiety symptoms. I found this book to be really helpful.
Imaginary play can be really helpful for the 5-12 age group.

EDIT: I think this video is one of the first ones we were shown during that course. It's kind of like staying one step behind the child, letting them lead the way, instead of guiding them. You're narrating their story and allowing them to naturally play out what's in their head without too much adult interference. They're told what to do basically all the time and then during session with you they can show you some of what's going on.

Feeling Good by David Burns is one of the classic CBT books written for the layperson. The language can be a little dated, but it's a pretty good resource. If you're seriously thinking of using CBT with clients, however, I'd recommend biting the bullet and paying for a real treatment manual. Professional resources are expensive, but you want to make sure that you have a complete understanding of the material before you use it on clients.

Have a look at positive psychotherapy:

Clinicians Manual

Learned Optimism
VIA Character strengths

That should be a good start.

I would suggest picking up Gary Landreth's book on play therapy. It is amazing and some amazing things can happen with the use of play therapy.

https://www.amazon.com/Play-Therapy-Relationship-Garry-Landreth/dp/0415886813

Like most have posted already, existentialism wont be a brief experience. You mentioned that clients are seeing the world as meaningless. I would suggest looking at Motivational Interviewing. This would be a brief form of therapy that you can incorporate some existential teachings. I describe existentialism as my cornerstone to therapy but I use CBT/MI as my main voice. There are some good books that will give you some specific means of existential therapy. I have used these:
Skills in Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy: Van Deurzen,
Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy in Practice: Van Deurzen,
and dont forget Yalom

There are a lot of existential philosophers that wrote novels like camus and sartre (my favorite) that will help with your understanding of existentialism.

Not Kohut himself, but a good place to start and a beautiful book.\

https://www.amazon.com/Between-Therapist-Client-New-Relationship/dp/0805071008

I have a copy of Motivational Interviewing, Third Edition: Helping People Change (Applications of Motivational Interviewing) and would recommend it as a first read. Motivational Interviewing in the Treatment of Psychological Problems, Second Edition (Applications of Motivational Interviewing) is also pretty good. Also, as a person-centred psychotherapist, I'm bound to recommend 'Client-centered Therapy' by Carl Rogers. His non-directive, phenomenological approach to therapy was a supposedly a key influence behind MI.

​

​

Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change by Miller and Rollnick. Motivational interviewing is relevant to pretty much any sort of problem, and is pretty much the only effective way to engage a client who comes to therapy under duress.

If that is what the user means I would **Highly*** suggest reading The heart and soul of change https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Soul-Change-Delivering-Therapy/dp/1433807092
It will challenge the widely held idea that a specific intervention or therapy is better for a specific disorder. It once again highlights the importance of the relationship. Check it out!

On Being A Therapist is a great one that helped me decide on this profession. Good luck!

https://www.amazon.com/Motivational-Interviewing-Helping-People-Applications/dp/1609182278/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497318185&sr=8-1&keywords=motivational+interviewing

That's one of my favorite resources for MI. For CBT, this is the best:

http://file.zums.ac.ir/ebook/082-Cognitive%20Behavior%20Therapy,%20Second%20Edition%20-%20Basics%20and%20Beyond-Judith%20S.%20Beck%20Phd%20Aaron%20T.%20Be.pdf

Three references for you:

Smith, Mary Lee; Glass, Gene V; & Miller, Thomas I. (1980). The Benefits of Psychotherapy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

The Great Psychotherapy Debate

Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change

Linda Seligman wrote a book on effective treatments not positive psych to which I'm referring. [Selecting Effective Treatments: A Comprehensive, Systematic Guide to Treating Mental Disorders] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470889004/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_wn5Ztb0P10V9P)

I am not an expert on this question. But Bergin and Garfield's Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change, 6th Ed. suggests humanistic-experiential and psychodynamic psychotherapies, as well as some behavior therapies, have much more research in this realm. I suspect it's partly because they can never win the fight on the realm of number of studies establishing their efficacy (every study that therapy X does to establish that it is at least as effective as CBT contributes to the CBT literature, so therapy X will always be behind). Also it's hard to get funding for that anymore (since we already have a "well-established" therapy). Furthermore, client-centered approaches lead to client-centered research, so a bulk of their research is about how clients change. Similarly, psychodynamic therapies have wonderful deeply examined case studies that facilitate understanding at a sequential causal level how that particular person changed. Yes that's not generalizable to the population at large, but when your n=1 studies are in the hundreds (probably thousands), you have learned a lot about how people change.

Book recommendation: http://www.amazon.com/The-Body-Keeps-Score-Healing/dp/0670785938

If she wants to try medical cannabis, I would only recommend it if you're in a state where she can access high CBD, low THC medicine. THC can increase anxiety, and can be dependence forming. CBD doesn't create a high, but is effective for anxiety.

ETA: Be careful with Benadryl as others are suggesting. It can be habit forming when taken for anxiety/sleep, and is also linked to an increased dementia risk: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/common-anticholinergic-drugs-like-benadryl-linked-increased-dementia-risk-201501287667

I've talked to a number of people at work who have failed the NCE. Some several times. The only thing I can recommend is to not let it get you down or reflect on you negatively as a test taker. After all, you made it through college so you can't be bad at standardized tests.

I used a book called The Counseling Encyclopedia, and passed on my first try.

https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Counseling-Examination-Preparation-Comprehensive/dp/1138942650/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504890202&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=counseling+bible+nce#

You might also want to look into strategies for multiple choice exams. Like how to think through questions and eliminate answers so, even if you don't know the right choice you increase your odds of guessing right.

Association for Play Therapy: https://www.a4pt.org/

The books we used in my intro play therapy class:

• Kottman
  
• Landreth

>https://www.amazon.com/Addiction-Treatment-Planner-DSM-5-Updates/dp/1118414756/ref=sr\_1\_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538166623&sr=8-2&keywords=addiction+planner

I am also an addictions counselor and that treatment planner book is a lifesaver. I second that recommendation.

Excellent family therapy book on Carl Whitaker's experiential approach. Here's a link

Excellent book about Kohut, Gill and Rogers.

https://www.amazon.com/Between-Therapist-Client-New-Relationship/dp/0805071008/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492665846&sr=1-1&keywords=between+therapist+and+client

I think The Family Crucible gives a really good perspective on working with families.

When I was studying for the licensure exam I used "Selecting Effective Treatments" by Seligman.

http://www.amazon.com/Selecting-Effective-Treatments-Comprehensive-Systematic/dp/0470889004

Miller and Rollnick’s book on motivational interviewing was required reading at a previous job, I highly recommend it: https://www.amazon.com/Motivational-Interviewing-Helping-People-Applications/dp/1609182278

Additionally:

Family Therapy Techniques https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674294106/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_kF7DDb45T12SS

On Being a Therapist

https://www.amazon.com/Being-Therapist-4th-Jeffrey-Kottler/dp/0470565470

Here are some books that helped me starting out:

https://www.amazon.com/Therapy-101-Modern-Psychotherapy-Techniques/dp/1572245689/ref=nodl_


https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Counseling-Techniques-Beginning-Therapists/dp/1403383278


https://www.amazon.com/Techniques-Every-Counselor-Should-Know/dp/0134694899/ref=pd_aw_sbs_14_2/140-3603070-6736458?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0134694899&pd_rd_r=6244c735-a8ca-477d-b6da-c7479d997978&pd_rd_w=ApuBS&pd_rd_wg=P7EIR&pf_rd_p=1c5a26b5-ed76-40f7-b20c-b5d5bd4bc6be&pf_rd_r=CB0QXMR53WBGJ8149ZZ5&psc=1&refRID=CB0QXMR53WBGJ8149ZZ5


https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Therapy-Generation-Therapists-Patients/dp/0061719617/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_3/140-3603070-6736458_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0061719617&pd_rd_r=87c54203-1b24-4fc2-a300-c79a7561e18c&pd_rd_w=F5pJ4&pd_rd_wg=m066p&pf_rd_p=6e6afc8a-fbbd-4649-97cf-4e08f5113612&pf_rd_r=DXCB9181CMTWCT0EEPTM&psc=1&refRID=DXCB9181CMTWCT0EEPTM

http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-The-Mood-Therapy/dp/0380810336

This is by far the most used, and in my opinion best, book on CBT. It covers all of the techniques and gives a lot of case studies. It gives examples for depression, anxiety, and anger.

You might be able to connect it to existential theories. Yalom discusses people (and especially adolescents) "tempting" death as a means to defend against our innate fear of it (most commonly through things like daredevil behavior or other risky behavior). Prank calls to suicide hotlines might be in that same line of thought. Humor as a defense of existential tension?