Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery


Catherine Gildiner - 2020
    Among them: a successful, first generation Chinese immigrant musician suffering sexual dysfunction; a young woman whose father abandoned her at age nine with her younger siblings in an isolated cottage in the depth of winter; and a glamorous workaholic whose narcissistic, negligent mother greeted her each morning of her childhood with Good morning, Monster.Each patient presents a mystery, one that will only be unpacked over years. They seek Gildiner's help to overcome an immediate challenge in their lives, but discover that the source of their suffering has been long buried.As in such recent classics as The Glass Castle and Educated, each patient embodies self-reflection, stoicism, perseverance, and forgiveness as they work unflinchingly to face the truth. Gildiner's account of her journeys with them is moving, insightful, and sometimes very funny. Good Morning Monster offers an almost novelistic, behind-the-scenes look into the therapist's office, illustrating how the process can heal even the most unimaginable wounds.

The Moon is Broken


Eleanor Craig - 1992
     At home and in school, she is a child that any mother would be proud of — and Eleanor Craig was immensely proud of her oldest daughter. But just as Ann is about to graduate with honors from an Ivy League university, Eleanor receives a phone call that sends her world crashing down. Ann has suffered a mental breakdown. Anxious to help her daughter, Eleanor encourages Ann to be admitted to a prestigious psychiatric hospital, hoping that this will help her daughter find her former self. For a while, it seems like Ann is improving — finally recovered, she is released from hospital and seems ready to resume her old life that was so full of promise. Briefly full of hope, Eleanor is devastated when Ann suffers a relapse — only the first of many illusions to be shattered as Ann’s life becomes a downward spiral of anorexia and drug addiction. As time goes on Eleanor can’t help but feel that Ann is slipping further and further away, into a place where not even the people who love her most can reach her. For Eleanor, a famed therapist-teacher who specialises in working with emotionally impaired young people, Ann’s troubled life is a heartbreaking irony. In The Moon Is Broken, Eleanor Craig speaks to the heart of every parent who has ever loved — and lost — a child. It is a heart-wrenching story about one’s mother’s unwavering courage and commitment to her child. Praise for Eleanor Craig “Poignant. Tender. Heartbreaking. I wish I had Eleanor Craig’s courage. A book every mother should read. It will break your heart — and put it back together again.” — Mary MacCracken, author of A Circle of Children “A poignant account of a young person’s struggle to grow up in our complex and dangerous society. This important, compelling book should be read by mothers and daughters everywhere.” — Lesley Koplow, author of Where Rag Dolls Hide Their Faces: A Story of Troubled Children Eleanor Craig, a therapist and teacher, has chronicled her work with children in P.S. Your Not Listening; One, Two, Three: The Story of Matt, A Feral Child; and If We Could Hear the Grass Grow. She lives and works in Connecticut, where she has a private therapy practice.

Between Therapist and Client: The New Relationship


Michael Kahn - 1991
    For years, two major schools of thought have strongly disagreed about what the nature of that relationship should be. The humanists emphasized warmth and empathy. The psychoanalysts kept a neutral, cool distance. Recently, however, the beginnings of a reconciliation between these traditions have opened new possibilities for the way therapists relate to clients.In Between Therapist and Client, Michael Kahn shows why this new consensus is promising. Beginning with Freud's discovery of transference, Kahn traces the history of the clinical relationship from Carl Rogers' introduction of humanistic concerns through Merton Gill's theory and technique of transference analysis, to the pioneering work of Heinz Kohut, who has most successfully brought together psychoanalytic and humanistic thought. Using vivid examples from his own practice, Kahn shows how a coherent synthesis of these various approaches leads to the most successful clinical relationships.Completely updated with greater discussion of ethics and countertransference, the new edition of Between Therapist and Client is essential reading for those in psychotherapy both therapist and client.

You Can Thrive After Narcissistic Abuse: The #1 System for Recovering from Toxic Relationships


Melanie Tonia Evans - 2018
    

Mindfulness and Psychotherapy


Christopher K. Germer - 2005
    The authors, who have been practicing both mindfulness and psychotherapy for decades, present a range of clear-cut procedures for implementing mindfulness techniques and teaching them to patients experiencing depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and other problems. Also addressed are ways that mindfulness practices can increase acceptance and empathy in the therapeutic relationship. The book reviews the philosophical underpinnings of mindfulness and presents compelling empirical findings. User-friendly features include illustrative case examples, practice exercises, and resource listings.

The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment


Babette Rothschild - 2000
    That memory is often expressed in the symptomatology of posttraumatic stress disorder-nightmares, flashbacks, startle responses, and dissociative behaviors. In essence, the body of the traumatized individual refuses to be ignored.While reducing the chasm between scientific theory and clinical practice and bridging the gap between talk therapy and body therapy, Rothschild presents principles and non-touch techniques for giving the body its due. With an eye to its relevance for clinicians, she consolidates current knowledge about the psychobiology of the stress response both in normally challenging situations and during extreme and prolonged trauma. This gives clinicians from all disciplines a foundation for speculating about the origins of their clients' symptoms and incorporating regard for the body into their practice. The somatic techniques are chosen with an eye to making trauma therapy safer while increasing mind-body integration.Packed with engaging case studies, The Body Remembers integrates body and mind in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. It will appeal to clinicians, researchers, students, and general readers.

Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills [With Infotrac]


Dean H. Hepworth - 1982
    Many of the case examples are drawn from social work practitioners as well as the authors' own practice situations. Long praised for its appropriate level of rigor, the book integrates the major theories and skills that direct social work practitioners need to understand and master--thus giving the book its reputation as the classic source for helping students learn direct practice skills. Consisting of four parts, the book begins by identifying the mission of social work, its values, and knowledge base. The authors then differentiate generalist from direct practice and explore roles of direct practitioners. Common elements amongst diverse theorists are then examined while key intervention strategies and various client population and practice settings are presented. Specifically, Part One provides the foundational/values and knowledge base material; Part Two is devoted to the beginning phase of the helping process; Part Three addresses the middle phase (goal attainment strategies), discussing four intervention approaches; and Part Four clarifies the termination phase of direct practice.

Families and Family Therapy


Salvador Minuchin - 1974
    The views and strategies of a master clinician are presented here in such clear and precise form that readers can proceed directly from the book with comparisons and modifications to suit their own styles and working situations.Salvador Minuchin presents six chapter-length transcripts of actual family sessions--two devoted to ordinary families who are meeting their problems with relative success; four concerned with families seeking help. Accompanying each transcript is the author's running interpretation of what is taking place, laying particular stress on the therapist's tactics and maneuvers.These lively sessions are interpreted in a brilliant theoretical analysis of why families develop problems and what it takes to set them right. The author constructs a model of an effectively functioning family and defines the boundaries around its different subsystems, whether parental, spouse, or sibling. He discusses ways in which families adapt to stress from within and without, as they seek to survive and grow.Dr. Minuchin describes methods of diagnosing or "mapping" problems of the troubled family and determining appropriate therapeutic goals and strategies. Different situations, such as the extended family, the family with a parental child, and the family in transition through death or divorce, are examined. Finally, the author explores the dynamics of change, examining the variety of restructuring operations that can be employed to challenge a family and to change its basic patterns.

Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders (Adults): An Evidence-Based Guide


Christine A. Courtois - 2009
    Contributors review the research that supports the conceptualization of complex traumatic stress as distinct from PTSD. They explore the pathways by which chronic trauma can affect psychological development, attachment security, and adult relationships. Chapters describe evidence-based assessment tools and an array of treatment models for individuals, couples, families, and groups.See also Drs. Courtois and Ford's authored book, Treatment of Complex Trauma, which presents their own therapeutic approach for adult clients in depth, and their edited volume Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Children and Adolescents.

A Door Set Open: Grounding Change In Mission And Hope


Peter L. Steinke - 2010
    So argues longtime congregational consultant Peter Steinke in his fourth book, A Door Set Open, as he explores the relationship between the challenges of change and our own responses to new ideas and experiences. Steinke builds on a seldom-explored principle posited by the late Rabbi Edwin Friedman: the 'hostility of the environment' is proportionate to the 'response of the organism.' The key, Steinke says, is not the number or strength of the stressors in the system--anxiety, poor conditions, deteriorating values--but the response of the individual or organization to 'what is there.' Drawing on Bowen system theory and a theology of hope, as well as his experience working with more than two hundred congregations, Steinke makes the case that the church has entered an era of great opportunity. Theologian and sociologist Ernst Troeltsch said the church had closed down the office of eschatology. Steinke reopens it and draws our attention to God's future, to a vision of hope for the people of God. The door is set open for exploration and new creation.

One Good Reason: A Memoir of Addiction and Recovery, Music and Love


Séan McCann - 2020
    Detailing, in powerful and lyrical prose, a childhood in Newfoundland indoctrinated in strict Catholic faith, the creation of the wildly successful Great Big Sea, his courtship and early marriage with Aragon, and the battle with alcoholism that nearly cost him everything, McCann offers readers a love story, a memoir of addiction and recovery, of young love and a strained marriage, of reaching international fame and rock bottom. But most of all, an honest, raw, and inspiring tribute to embracing that we are all worth saving. At the heart of this insightful coming-of-recovery is McCann's exploration of the root cause of his alcoholism, a secret he kept until 2014 when he came out as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Aragon's parallel narrative offers a rare and intimate spousal perspective, making the memoir a nuanced and complex portrait of the effects of addiction on family. Featuring lyrics from McCann's celebrated solo career and photographs of his life and career, as well as original line drawings from singer-songwriter and visual artist Meaghan Smith, One Good Reason is a rallying cry for holding on to the ones you love, helping yourself, and turning music into medicine.

The Broken Cord


Michael Dorris - 1989
    Winner of the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award.

The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction: A Guide to Coping with the Grief, Stress and Anger that Trigger Addictive Behaviors


Rebecca E. Williams - 2012
    By turning to drugs and alcohol, people who have suffered a loss can numb their grief. In the process, they postpone their healing and can drive themselves further into addiction.The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction offers readers an effective program for working through their addiction and grief with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Created by a psychologist who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs and a marriage and family therapist who works for Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital, this mindfulness training workbook is effective for treating the emotion dysregulation, stress, depression, and grief that lie at the heart of addiction. No matter the loss, the mindfulness skills in this workbook help readers process their grief, determine the function their addiction is serving, and replace the addiction with healthy coping behaviors.

Let Me Finish


Udo Grashoff - 2004
    Udo Grashoff has discovered forty-five suicide letters that offer us unique insight into this phenomenon. The authors of each letter differ in age, sex, and class, but all cite strikingly universal reasons for their decision -- unrequited love, mounting debts, the loss of a spouse, a frustrating domestic situation. These are problems that we may all encounter. So why is it that only some of us see suicide as the solution? A truly remarkable and thought-provoking anthology, Let Me Finish marks the beginning of a more widespread frankness about suicide and take us closer to answering the seemingly unanswerable question: "Why?"

Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders


Aaron T. Beck - 1986
    Now Aaron T. Beck and his distinguished colleagues present an extensively rewritten and updated second edition, incorporating over a decade's worth of significant theoretical, clinical, and empirical gains. In one volume, the authors offer both a comprehensive overview of scientific knowledge and a detailed guide to individualized intervention. Practitioners gain essential tools for effectively managing their most complex, challenging cases - and providing real help to patients who once might have been considered untreatable. Timely and authoritative, this indispensable volume belongs on the desks of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, counselors, and other mental health practitioners, as well as students and residents in these fields. It will serve as a core text in advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level courses and in psychiatric residency programs.