Psychotherapy as a Developmental Process

This book provides a basis for improving psychotherapy practice, research, and training, offering therapists ways of improving their success rate by means of disciplined attention to and reflection upon therapeutic processes across all psychotherapy.It is based upon four main components: a presentation of the conceptual framework that underlies the proposed way of understanding the nature of psychotherapy in general, as well as the differences among various theoretical and technical approaches; a discussion of the research method, derived from the conceptual framework, for examining psychotherapy case material and determining how psychological development is occurring or how it may be being obstructed; a presentation of case material, illustrating the application of the research method and conceptual framework to particular cases; and a summary and discussion of the potential contributions of the theory and method in the contexts of psychotherapy research, practice, and training, as well as to developmental theory.