When First Presbyterian Church in Altadena, California, was asked to provide a mission study report for its pastor nominating committee, the congregation was afraid they would find themselves engaging in busy work and producing a report that would wind up in a file gathering dust. They then asked professor Mark Lau Branson to consult with them on writing this report. He invited them to join in a process of Appreciative Inquiry--a transformational organization change process--which resulted in a major shift in congregational conversations and a new sense of hope. Memories, Hopes, and Conversations recounts the experience of First Presbyterian and outlines a process that any congregation can utilize to harness the energies of the congregation at all levels of its common life. Branson first leads readers through the foundations of Appreciative Inquiry and bracingly explores biblical texts for understanding the practice in a faith context. He then outlines and illustrates a four-step process--Initiate, Inquire, Imagine, Innovate--that creatively employs constructive conversations and questions to evoke storytelling and spur imaginations. Branson persuasively demonstrates how concentrating on needs and problems can mire a congregation in discouragement and distract it from noticing innate strengths. By focusing on memories of the congregation at its best, members are able to construct "provocative proposals" to help shape the church's future. Grounded in solid theory and real-life practice, Memories, Hopes, and Conversations is a groundbreaking work of narrative leadership and the first book to apply the principles of Appreciative Inquiry to the lives of congregations.

    From as early as one month old, he was gravely ill with one illness after another. By the time he was three years old, he had been hospitalized more times than she could count. He would get better and then suddenly relapse with no reasonable explanation. When her granddaughter was born, she too started having alarming health problems. She had known that her daughter-in-law seemed to exaggerate but never could she have imagined this. The children’s mother was so cunning and crafty in her manipulative deception that she fooled dozens of medical professionals along the way. After three years of her grandson being constantly sick with countless hospitalizations, this grandmother was faced with the horrifying realization; that her grandchildren were sick because their mother was making them sick. Then the real fight began. Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy is one of the cruelest forms of child abuse imaginable. It is very difficult to prove and even harder to prosecute. This story chronicles a woman’s journey as she discovers that her two grandchildren are victims of this abuse that most people have never even heard of. Her faith in God kept her going as she turned their tragedies and trials into triumph. Follow her journey of faith as she fights to rescue, protect, and bring healing to her grandchildren’s broken spirits and shattered little souls.

    From achieving a total escape to key methods of countering his or her manipulative machinations, all delivered from a master practitioner of the dark arts.Understand how these techniques affect the narcissist, realise why they are so effective and gain an insight into what you must and must not do in order to achieve your escape.This book considers the mind set and controlling techniques the narcissist uses against you and then reveals what you can do about it.Invaluable knowledge from the dark mind of the narcissist.

    Broad in scope, the volume is designed to help clinicians, students, and researchers become fully informed about one of the most important areas of research in contemporary psychology. Preeminent authorities cover the origins and development of attachment theory, biological perspectives, measurement of attachment across the lifespan, clinical applications, and emerging topics and issues in the field .

    Surveying the vast diversity of family forms, life challenges, and value systems in our rapidly changing society, the volume has helped redefine the boundaries of "normal family life" for generations of students and practitioners. This fully revised and expanded third edition once again brings together leading contributors to illuminate the complexities of healthy family functioning across varied structural arrangements and sociocultural and developmental contexts. Existing chapters have been updated or fully rewritten to reflect the latest theories, research, demographic trends, and clinical practices. Seven entirely new chapters address single parent families, immigrant families, spirituality, family resilience, key processes in marital success and failure, and more.

    This practical guide to managing anxiety with CBT will help you understand your anxiety, identify solutions to your problems, and maintain your gains and avoid relapse.Managing Anxiety with CBT For Dummies is a practical guide to using CBT to face your fears and overcome anxiety and persistent, irrational worries. You'll discover how to put extreme thinking into perspective and challenge negative, anxiety-inducing thoughts with a range of effective CBT techniques to help you enjoy a calmer, happier life.Helps you understand anxiety and how CBT can help Guides you in making change and setting goals Gives you tried-and-true CBT techniques to face your fears and keep a realistic perspective Managing Anxiety with CBT For Dummies gives you the tools you need to overcome anxiety and expand your horizons for a healthy, balanced life.

    This guide explains counselling in jargon-free English.

    A wealth of innovative tools for practitioners working with children in individual, group, and family counseling. Geared to 4-16 year-old clients.

    From hypomania in the Alps, to a complete breakdown and a locked ward in Wakefield, this is a gripping account of how the mind loses touch with reality, how we fall apart and how we can be healed - or not - by treatment. A story of the wonder and intensity of the manic experience, as well as its peril and strangeness, it is shot through with the love, kindness, humour and care of those who deal with someone who becomes dangerously ill. Partly a tribute to those who looked after Horatio, from family and friends to strangers and professionals, and partly an investigation into how we understand and treat acute crises of mental health, Heavy Light's beauty, power and compassion illuminate a fundamental part of human experience. It asks urgent questions about mental health that affect each and every one of us.'One of the most brilliant travel writers of our day takes us us now to that most challenging country, severe mental illness; and does so with such wit, warmth, and humanity, that, better acquainted with its terrors, we may better face our own' Reverend Richard Coles'A record of the bravest, most perilous, most intrepid journey that any human being can ever make. It is stricken, moving, urgent, crucial . . . A luminous, beautiful achievement' Niall Griffiths

    Now, in I Thought We'd Never Speak Again, she tackles another critical, emerging issue: reconciling relationships that have been damaged by betrayal, anger, and misunderstanding.With clarity and compassion, Davis maps the reconciliation process through gripping first-person stories of people who have mended relationships in a wide variety of circumstances. In these pages, parents reconcile with children, embittered siblings reconnect, angry friends reunite, and war veterans and crime victims meet with their enemies. Davis weaves these powerful accounts with her own experiences reconciling with her mother after a long, painful estrangement.Making a crucial distinction between reconciliation and forgiveness, Davis explains how people can make peace in relationships without necessarily forgiving past hurts. In addition to a special section called "Ideas for Reflection and Discussion," she includes a self-assessment quiz, "Are You Ready for Reconciliation?"Whether you want to reconcile a relationship that has ended, improve a relationship that is difficult or distant, or learn the skills you need for dealing with the inevitable conflicts we all face in life, this book will teach you to mend troubled relationships and find peace.

    These numbers have been steadily rising, and sadly, one third of people who feel the unbearable pain, hopelessness, and self-criticism of depression never seek treatment. If not you, then someone you know most likely hides within these statistics, suffering in silence. The good news is that with effective treatment you can overcome depression—and once you do, you have a good chance of preventing its recurrence.Beat the Blues Before They Beat You, the follow-up to best-selling author Robert Leahy’s The Worry Cure, outlines the causes, symptoms, and treatments for depression in a clear and easy-to-read manner. Real-life patient stories combined with simple step-by-step instructions help you understand depression. Learn what triggers your moods. Figure out how to defeat feelings of fatigue, loneliness, and hopelessness. Design a plan to develop self-confidence. Determine what treatments—both medication and therapy—are available to prevent relapse. Beat the Blues Before They Beat You is a collection of the most powerful tools in cognitive therapy to help you curb your thoughts and behaviors, so you can begin to feel good again.

    The new seventh edition explores the full range of psychopathologies and types of patients. The 23 cases focus on symptoms, the client's history, treatment, and the outcome to provide detailed descriptions of a wide range of clinical problems that readers may face in the field. These problems span from childhood disorders to psychotic and personality disorders.

    

    New edition features:Empirically supported, evidence-based treatment interventions Organized around 43 main presenting problems, including anger management, chemical dependence, depression, financial stress, low self-esteem, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Over 1,000 prewritten treatment goals, objectives, and interventions - plus space to record your own treatment plan options Easy-to-use reference format helps locate treatment plan components by behavioral problem Designed to correspond with the The Adult Psychotherapy Progress Notes Planner, Third Edition and the Adult Psychotherapy Homework Planner, Second EditionIncludes a sample treatment plan that conforms to the requirements of most third-party payors and accrediting agencies (including CARF, JCAHO, and NCQA).

    An integrated state of mindful awareness is crucial to achieving mental health. Daniel J. Siegel, an internationally recognized expert on mindfulness and therapy, reveals practical techniques that enable readers to harness their energies to promote healthy minds within themselves and their clients. He charts the nine integrative functions that emerge from the profoundly interconnecting circuits of the brain, including bodily regulation, attunement, emotional balance, response flexibility, fear extinction, insight, empathy, morality, and intuition. A practical, direct-immersion, high-emotion, low-techno-speak book, The Mindful Therapist engages readers in a personal and professional journey into the ideas and process of mindful integration that lie at the heart of health and nurturing relationships. .