These powerful tools go far in helping clients connect with their values and give them the motivation needed to make a real, conscious commitment to change. Unfortunately, many of the metaphors that clinicians use have become stale and ineffective. That’s why you need fresh, new resources for your professional library.In this breakthrough book, two ACT researchers provide an essential A-Z resource guide that includes tons of new metaphors and experiential exercises to help promote client acceptance, defusion from troubling thoughts, and values-based action. The book also includes scripts tailored to different client populations, and special metaphors and exercises that address unique problems that may sometimes arise in your therapy sessions. Several ACT texts and workbooks have been published for the treatment of a variety of psychological problems. However, no one resource exists where you can find an exhaustive list of metaphors and experiential exercises geared toward the six core elements of ACT. Whether you are treating a client with anxiety, depression, trauma, or an eating disorder, this book will provide you with the skills needed to improve lives, one exercise at a time.With a special foreword by ACT cofounder Steven C. Hayes, PhD, this book is a must-have for any ACT Practitioner.

    Written by a psychotherapist specializing in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and featuring brand new exercises, The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens, Second Edition shows how mindfulness skills can help you relax, prioritize, and keep calm during stressful times.Your teenage years are some of the most stressful of your life. With pressure about grades at school, parents who just don’t seem to get it, dating, and friends who drive you crazy, it’s no wonder. But here's the good news! If you learn a few strategies for getting stress under control now, you’ll have the skills you need to deal with problems and difficult feelings that life sends your way—in high school and beyond.The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens is a collection of simple workbook activities that will teach you to reduce your worries using a technique called mindfulness. Mindfulness is a way to be aware of your thoughts and feelings in the present moment. You can use mindfulness when you start to feel as though things are spinning out of control, so you can stop worrying about what might happen and focus instead on what’s happening now.If you’re like many people, you find it easy to look at your negative qualities or feel there is no way to fix your problems or stress. This book is about building on the resources, skills, and positive qualities that you might not even realize you have. It is a way to move from “I'm powerless” thinking to “I can do it!” thinking.Hundreds of teens in mindfulness-based stress reduction classes have used activities like the ones in this book, and here is what some of them have said:“I have learned to let things go and move on from bad experiences.”“I felt that the coping skills learned are easy enough and effective enough to be used when I need. I now feel at the very least that I have the ability to reduce my stress.”“I learned new and different ways to stay relaxed and how to deal with stress and now I don’t worry much.”If they can do it, so can you! By practicing the skills outlined in this workbook, you'll be well on your way to developing lasting resilience and a new kind of strength—one that comes from within. Why not get started today?

    

    Grace. Christian Counseling. How do these fit together? In Christian theology sin and grace are intrinsically interconnected. Teacher and counselor Mark McMinn believes that Christian counseling, then, must also take account of both human sin and God's grace. For both sin and grace are distorted whenever one is emphasized without the other. McMinn, noting his own tendencies and the temptation to stereotype different Christian approaches to counseling along this theological divide, aims to help all those preparing for or currently serving in the helping professions. Expounding the proper relationship of sin and grace, McMinn shows how the full truth of the Christian gospel works itself out in the functional, structural and relational domains of an integrative model of psychotherapy.

    This volume disproves the belief that certain psychotherapies are more effective in treating certain psychological problems than other therapies.

    Her conclusions―on what sort of parenting can create a drug addict, or a murderer, or a Hitler―offer much insight, and make a good deal of sense, while also straying far from psychoanalytic dogma about human nature, which Miller vehemently rejects.This important study paints a shocking picture of the violent world―indeed, of the ever-more-violent world―that each generation helps to create when traditional upbringing, with its hidden cruelty, is perpetuated. The book also presents readers with useful solutions in this regard―namely, to resensitize the victimized child who has been trapped within the adult, and to unlock the emotional life that has been frozen in repression.

    She places particular emphasis on positive mother complexes, which have long been devalued and are still veiled in shadow. This book clarifies the effects of all kinds of complexes, so that we can ultimately free ourselves from their negative impact. In so doing we can gain happiness and independence and form better, closer relationships with others.

    It resists self-help and undermines even intensive psychoanalysis.　 Patricia A. DeYoung's cutting-edge book gives chronic shame the serious attention it deserves, integrating new brain science with an inclusive tradition of relational psychotherapy. She looks behind the myriad symptoms of shame to its relational essence. As DeYoung describes how chronic shame is wired into the brain and developed in personality, she clarifies complex concepts and makes them available for everyday therapy practice.　 Grounded in clinical experience and alive with case examples, Understanding and Treating Chronic Shame is highly readable and immediately helpful. Patricia A. DeYoung's clear, engaging writing helps readers recognize the presence of shame in the therapy room, think through its origins and effects in their clients' lives, and decide how best to work with those clients. Therapists will find that Understanding and Treating Chronic Shame enhances the scope of their practice and efficacy with this client group, which comprises a large part of most therapy practices. Challenging, enlightening, and nourishing, this book belongs in the library of every shame-aware therapist.

    Nathan has been lying to his wife about a serious medical condition. Marsha, recently separated from her husband, cannot resist telling her children negative things about their father. What is the role of therapy in these situations? Trained to strive for neutrality and to focus strictly on the clients' needs, most therapists generally consider moral issues such as fairness, truthfulness, and obligation beyond their domain. Now, an award-winning psychologist and family therapist criticizes psychotherapy's overemphasis on individual self-interest and calls for a sense of moral responsibility in therapy.

    This text introduces readers to the theory and research findings needed to understand how to make groups effective, and it helps build the skills required to apply that knowledge in practical situations.

    Perry and award-winning science journalist Maia Szalavitz interweave research and stories from Perry's practice with cutting-edge scientific studies and historical examples to explain how empathy develops, why it is essential for our development into healthy adults, and how it is threatened in the modern world.Perry and Szalavitz show that compassion underlies the qualities that make society work—trust, altruism, collaboration, love, charity—and how difficulties related to empathy are key factors in social problems such as war, crime, racism, and mental illness. Even physical health, from infectious diseases to heart attacks, is deeply affected by our human connections to one another.As Born for Love reveals, recent changes in technology, child-rearing practices, education, and lifestyles are starting to rob children of necessary human contact and deep relationships—the essential foundation for empathy and a caring, healthy society. Sounding an important warning bell, Born for Love offers practical ideas for combating the negative influences of modern life and fostering positive social change to benefit us all.

    Inside you'll find 30 Daily Lessons, 20 Fun Activities, 180 Multiple Choice Questions, 60 Short Essay Questions, 20 Essay Questions, Quizzes/Homework Assignments, Tests, and more. The lessons and activities will help students gain an intimate understanding of the text; while the tests and quizzes will help you evaluate how well the students have grasped the material.

    With welcome clarity and sanity, Mick Cooper efficiently lays out the concepts, techniques and directions adopted by several key figures in the broad field of existentially informed psychotherapy. In an excellent first chapter, Mick Cooper pointed out my `ontic′ from my `ontological′; and I could see, behind the long-words-with-dashes, the true resonance of these ideas with real human and therapeutic issues, dilemmas and goals′ - Clinical Psychology `This book proves to be a real treasure chest: what you always wanted to know about existential psychotherapy but failed to find anywhere else in such a comprehensive, clear and concise manner. In that sense, this publication provides a missing link. One merit of the book is its systematic structure. As extensive, and in part as heterogeneous as existential philosophy and therapy also maybe, Mick Cooper had nevertheless been able to build convincing clusters with, on the one hand, an enormous understanding of details and, on the other, a far-sightedness that, like a map, provides orientation in the diversity of existential therapy. I really appreciate this publication and can recommend it very strongly′ - Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapies `Existential Therapies will I suspect, suddenly make existentialism come alive. The author, Mick Cooper loves his subject, it fascinates and enthrals him, and we get to experience some of that, even though the book is academic. The connections and overlaps with person-centred psychology are there for us to be, but so are the differences′ - Person-Centred Practice `As an overview of a number of different existential therapies the book is extremely welcome and manages in a relatively short space to cover a wide arena. Overall I rate the book highly. To pull together a large and somewhat disparate literature, then make sense of it and finally retains the reader′s interest, is difficult′ - Existential Analysis `Mick Cooper has done an impressive job in writing a much needed, current and user friendly survey of the field of existential therapies. If I were to teach this course, I would use this book. I applaud Mick Cooper for having admirably achieved the aim he set out to achieve. All this makes Mick Cooper′s book a must-read for anyone wishing to explore the topic of existential therapy′ - Society for Laingian Studies Website `What makes this book unique is that all the different strands of Existential philosophy are always clearly linked to practice′ - Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal `This is a very fresh book, not treading well-worn paths and genuinely informing us about a small but important field. This is really an indispensable book for anyone who wants to understand existentialist approaches to therapy′ - Self and Society `This publication marks a milestone providing an excellent, clear and critical overview of the contrasting forms of the approach as it is currently practised′ - Emmy van Deurzen, New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, Schiller University, London `This is a book of superb thoroughness and scholarship - an unprecedented guide to existential therapy′s chief positions and controversies′ - Kirk J Schneider, President of the Existential-Humanistic Institute, USA `Combines scholarship with a writing style that makes difficult concepts accessible. This book should be required reading on any course where the existential tradition plays a part, and that includes person-centred courses and all sympathetic to the idea that psychotherapy is, in essence, a human encounter where warmth, understanding and a deep respect for the individual are key values′ - Tony Merry, University of East London What does it mean to practice in an existential way? What are the different existential approaches? What are their strengths and limitations? Existential Therapies addresses these key questions, and more, by providing students and practitioners with an invaluable introduction to the diverse and multifaceted world of existential therapeutic practices.Focusing on practical, face-to-face work with clients, the book:- introduces readers to six key existential therapies- discusses key figures and their contributions, including Irvin Yalom, Emmy van Deurzen, Ernesto Spinelli, Viktor Frankl and R D Laing- compares and contrasts the various approaches,highlighting areas of commonality and difference- outlines key debates within the existential therapy field- provides detailed suggestions for further readingExistential Therapies offers students and practitioners of all orientations much that they can incorporate into their own therapeutic work, and each approach is vividly brought to life through therapist-client dialogues and case studies. Written in an accessible, warm, and engaging manner, Existential Therapies is an essential introduction to this rich, vibrant and stimulating field.

    . . that are remarkably fresh and helpful.”—New York Times Book ReviewThe classic groundbreaking book on family therapy by acclaimed experts Augustus Y. Napier, Ph.D., and Carl Whitaker, M.D.This extraordinary book presents scenarios of one family’s therapy experience and explains what underlies each encounter. You will discover the general patterns that are common to all families—stress, polarization and escalation, scapegoating, triangulation, blaming, and the diffusion of identity—and you will gain a vivid understanding of the intriguing field of family therapy.

    Leading authorities demonstrate effective ways to integrate psychological, interpersonal, and medical interventions. Every chapter includes detailed clinical examples illustrating the process of therapy and the factors that influence treatment outcomes.  Winner-- Society for Sex Therapy and Research (SSTAR) Health Professional Book Award