Handbook of the Brief Psychotherapies (Nato Science Series B:)
Books / Hardcover
Books › Psychology › Clinical Psychology
ISBN: 0306432706 / Publisher: Springer, January 1990
A critical questioning of the theoretical and cost effectiveness of non-directive, open-ended, and global therapies has led to an increased interest in action-oriented problem-focused, time-limited therapies. This volume examines approaches to therapy and theoretical orientations which can be adapted to a brief-oriented philosophy, emphasizing a pragmatic view of time, action, and structure in life as well as in therapy. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
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The last two decades have seen unprecedented increases in health care costs and, at the same time, encouraging progress in psychotherapy research. On the one hand, accountability, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency have now become commonplace terms for providers of mental health services whereas, on the other hand, an increasingly voluminous literature has emerged supporting the effectiveness of a number of types of psychotherapies. There now exists the possibility for the design and delivery of mental health services that-drawing upon this literature-more closely approximate empirically established data concerning the appropriateness and effectiveness of psychotherapy. The Handbook of the Brief Psychotherapies is intended to capture one major thrust of this movement: the development of a group of empirically grounded, time-limited therapies all sharing a common interest in the clinical utilization of a structured focus and an emphasis on time and action. For many years, professional self-interest, competing theoretical para digms, and the vagaries of practice, wisdom, and clinical myth have influenced the practice of psychotherapy. A critical questioning of the resulting, predomi nantly nondirective, open-ended, and global therapies has led to a growing emphasis on action-oriented, problem-focused, time-limited therapies. Yet, ironically, this interest in the brief psychotherapies has not so much involved a radical departure from traditional therapeutic modalities as it has emphasized a new pragmatism about how time, action, and structure operate in life as well as in therapy.
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