A concise guide to shaking things up in therapy. Courtney Armstrong’s The Therapeutic “Aha!” explores the thrilling and rare moment when a client reaches an elusive realization, allowing them to make meaningful change. In 10 straightforward strategies, this practical book demonstrates how to shake things up in therapy when a client is stuck or stalled to jumpstart progress. Readers will learn how to spark the “emotional brain”—the part of the brain that houses automatic, unconscious patterns—and create new neural pathways that engage and advance the healing process. Divided into three parts—(1) Awakening a Session, (2) Healing Emotional Wounds, and (3) Activating Experiential Change—the book walks readers through specific techniques for harnessing the emotional brain and re-patterning its routine. Elegant therapeutic insights and coping strategies only go so far; until we intervene with something our emotional brain can understand—a compelling felt experience—old, established neural patterns will persist. The brain-based strategies Armstrong presents include how to enliven the therapeutic alliance; elicit exciting goals; identify the root of an emotional conflict; reverse trauma with memory reconsolidation; invoke inspirational imagery; and use stories, humor, music, poetry, and even mindfulness to induce change. Concise, reader-friendly, and filled with helpful case stories and client–therapist dialogue, this wonderfully accessible book puts a new spin on neuroscience knowledge, showing clinicians exactly how it can be used to make those once-elusive therapeutic breakthroughs more frequent, leading to greater healing for your patients.

Prescriptive Memories in Grief and Loss: The Art of Dreamscaping introduces a wide range of therapists to a novel, strengths-based and imaginal practice for helping clients at various points on the grief and loss continuum. Grounded in recent empirical research on how the emotional brain encodes new memories, this book describes how to create a resource-rich "prescriptive memory." Chapters by internationally recognized authors explore the theory and application of dreamscaping from a transdisciplinary perspective, including protocols for use with individuals and groups and guidelines for collaboration with other therapists and professionals. Illustrated with full-color dreamscape images co-created by clients and therapists, this is an exciting and innovative guidebook to a new method for cultivating hope and promoting restoration and growth.

Recent research has repeatedly confirmed that it is not the technique nor the theory, but the interaction between therapists and clients that creates change in clients. This practical guide outlines the ways in which psychotherapists can find new methods of moving their therapy sessions toward dynamic, healing interactions by shifting away from an overreliance on techniques and theories. The Art of Creating a Magical Session discusses the key elements needed to create the interaction conditions for transformational therapeutic change to occur. Using a conceptual approach to client transformation, the book draws from a diverse range of sources including indigenous traditions and rituals, as well as the latest research on the common factors that contribute to success in the therapy room. Each chapter focuses on educating and inspiring mental health professionals to easily adapt and apply creative and resourceful approaches to help their own clients begin inner transformations. With case studies and narratives woven throughout, this accessible guide will support mental health practitioners as they approach their practice in new ways and achieve deeper, and more magical, therapy sessions. It will be valuable reading for psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers and counselors.

Single Session Therapy: A Clinical Introduction to Principles and Practices explores the best ways to use a Single Session Therapy (SST) mindset to better achieve therapeutic goals. This text presents comprehensive ideas and methods on how to make a single session of therapy efficient and effective with individuals, couples, and families, including those of various cultural backgrounds. It emphasizes productive mindsets and includes the following topics: concepts and methods, multi-theoretical approaches, training, various clinical problems and multicultural populations, the latest research findings, access, and implementation. Numerous clinical examples from different expert SST practitioners are presented and discussed throughout. This book is an essential reference for professionals involved in brief therapy practice, research, and teaching.

This workbook is a foundational and unique resource for clinicians preparing to work with clients affected by trauma. Chapters integrate a holistic understanding of the unique client within trauma-specific case conceptualization, promote trainees’ identification of personal values and past experiences that could impact their ability to provide safe and ethical services, and offer ways to reduce the risk of occupational hazards such as vicarious traumatization. The trauma treatment process is presented within the tri-phasic framework, which is applicable across settings, disciplines, and various theoretical orientations. Each chapter also provides experiential activities that link the chapter content with clinician reflection and application of knowledge and skills, which instructors and supervisors can easily utilize for evaluation and gatekeeping regarding a student’s mastery of the content. An ideal resource for graduate-level faculty and supervisors, this book offers a versatile application for mental-health related fields including counseling, psychology, social work, school counseling, substance abuse, and marriage and family therapy. Designed for students and professional clinicians, this groundbreaking text fills an important education and training gap by providing a comprehensive and enlightening presentation of trauma work while also emphasizing the clinician’s growth in self-awareness and professional development.

Spirituality and Religion in Counseling: Competency-Based Strategies for Ethical Practice provides mental health professionals and counselors in training with practical information for understanding and responding to clients’ needs using a spiritual and religious framework. This work conceptualizes spiritual and faith development in a holistic way, using case examples and practical interventions to consider common issues through a variety of approaches and frameworks. This is an essential compendium of actionable strategies and solutions for counselors looking to address clients’ complex spiritual and religious lives and foster meaningful faith development.

Until quite recently, therapist training was predicated on the notion that therapy is an ongoing process. Single-Session Integrated CBT (SSI-CBT) questions this. In this book, Windy Dryden takes long standing research on SSI therapy and transfers it to the field of CBT in a timely and conceptual application. Based on his extensive work demonstrating the benefits of single-session CBT to public and professional audiences, Dryden has developed a single-session approach for work in the therapy and coaching fields. Comprising 30 key points, and divided into two parts - Theory and Practice - this concise book covers the key features of SSI-CBT. It will offer essential guidance for students and practitioners experienced in CBT, as well as practitioners from other theoretical orientations who require an accessible guide to the distinctive theoretical and practical features of this exciting new approach.