Review of A cognitive behavioural therapy program for problem gambling, therapist manual.

Reviews the book, A cognitive behavioural therapy program for problem gambling, therapist manual by Namrata Raylu and Tian Po Oei (2010). This book provides a session by session protocol for outpatient treatment of problem gambling. The protocol was developed for an efficacy study comparing individual and group treatment but has been repackaged for a broader audience. In the research study, both the individual and group participants showed good outcomes in comparison with a waiting list control with no differences between individual and group formats. This work adds to the growing evidence base for cognitive–behavioural and motivational treatments for gambling disorders. The treatment program comprises 10 core and 3 elective sessions. As with many CBT protocols, the first two sessions focus on assessment and psychoeducation. The remaining eight core sessions cover cognitive and behavioural strategies, relaxation, imaginal exposure, problem-solving skills, management of negative emotions, and relapse prevention. The three elective sessions focus on helping clients with assertiveness and dealing with debt, and helping concerned significant others cope with the gambling problems. As is indicated in the Preface, this manual is written for professional health workers with some knowledge of CBT but limited knowledge of problem gambling. The aim of providing the relevant background in gambling disorders is accomplished effectively in two ways. First, the book provides a concise but comprehensive review of the research literature on the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of gambling disorders in the second chapter. Second, a connection is made to the background literature in providing the rationale for specific areas of focus, interventions, and topics for each session. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Participant reactions to a cognitive-behavioral guided self-help program for binge eating: developing criteria for program evaluation

This article evaluates the effectiveness of a telephone-based guided self-help program for women who binge eat. We report how key program components (e.g., phone sessions, the self-help book) contribute to the four self-help goals identified in the clinical literature: (1) decrease isolation/increase support; (2) increase knowledge of the problem; (3) broaden coping skills; and (4) improve self-esteem. Using the example of our feasibility study, we illustrate that even minimal interventions create a relational context which can promote entry into and engagement with treatment. We conclude that program evaluation should include not only traditional measures of outcome (e.g., reduction in symptomatology), but utilize outcome measures related to the specific goals of minimal interventions (e.g., changes in help-seeking behavior).     

Review of Words were originally magic.

Reviews the book, Words were originally magic by Steve de Shazer (see record 1994-97917-000). This book is written from both a philosophical and clinical perspective. It deals with the importance of language in psychotherapy. The author sets the foundation relative to language structure, meaning, and therapeutic change modalities in preparation for the discussion of brief problem focused psychotherapy. Case examples from actual therapy sessions are then presented in illustration of therapy process and outcome. The reviewer believes that this book has significant relevancy for current practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Just stop thinking about it": Effects of emotional disengagement on children's memory for educational material.

Children regulate negative emotions in a variety of ways. Emotion education programs typically discourage emotional disengagement and encourage emotional engagement or "working through" negative emotions. The authors examined the effects of emotional disengagement and engagement on children's memory for educational material. Children averaging 7 or 10 years of age (N=200) watched either a sad or an emotionally neutral film and were then instructed to emotionally disengage, instructed to engage in problem solving concerning their emotion, or received no emotion regulation instructions. All children then watched and were asked to recall the details of an emotionally neutral educational film. Children instructed to disengage remembered the educational film better than children instructed to work through their feelings or children who received no emotion regulation instructions. Although past research has indicated that specific forms of emotional disengagement can impair memory for emotionally relevant events, the current findings suggest that disengagement is a useful short-term strategy for regulating mild negative emotion in educational settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Shifting contexts: The generation of effective psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, Shifting contexts: The generation of effective psychotherapy by Bill O'Hanlon and James Wilk (see record 1987-98642-000). The premise of the book is that what prevents people from achieving their (physically) attainable goals is their belief that they cannot achieve them because of some obstacle. The authors argue that by "sifting facts" (i.e., observable behavior) from meanings and attributions (i.e., the presuppositions) the therapist can negotiate a solvable problem with the client. Solvable problems are negotiated by creating doubt and uncertainty about the presuppositions that support the self-perceived, unsolvable "problem." The authors contend that the negotiation process itself is the key to the "dissolution" in language--as opposed to the solution--of the problem, and it is this process that accounts for their successful one-session cases. Two fundamental criticisms may be leveled at an otherwise practical and stimulating book. First is the unfortunate use of the term "epistemology." Readers familiar with the "epistemology debates" of the (family) systems movement may recoil from the confusion engendered there by that much-abused term. Other readers may simply be confused. The second and perhaps more important criticism concerns the position on psychology. To adopt a therapy model that focuses on process and disavows the value of "psychological" content is neither new nor, depending upon one's definition, necessarily outside the discipline of psychology. What this book does provide is a refreshing, witty, and appealing approach to the doing of psychotherapy. It is written with grace and style, and with an appreciation of the power and intricacies of language found in the common discourse of life, including therapy sessions. It succeeds most surely in bringing new articulations, understandings, and approaches to some not-so-new ideas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Damasio's proposition: A review of Damasio, A. (1994).

Reviews the book, Descartes' error: Emotion, reason and the human brain by A. Damasio (1994). This book proposes that emotion and reason are inextricably linked, an idea that runs counter to common folk wisdom but with potentially profound implications for neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophy. In the first section, the author tells the tale of Phineas Gage, the colorful character who sustained both brain damage and severe personality change following an explosion that blew a 3-foot tamping iron through his skull. In the second section, Damasio starts to assemble an explanation to account for the phenomena presented in the first section, that is, the "mysterious alliance" of emotion and reason. In the third section of the book, Damasio presents some of the initial attempts to test experimentally the somatic-marker hypothesis. Descartes' error is an entertaining, educational and thought-provoking journey. Damasio does a remarkable job of bringing together a diversity of topics that are often studied and discussed separately--cognition, emotion, learning, neuroanatomy, personality, evolution, and philosophy of mind. The author's presentation of the somatic-marker hypothesis will pique interest and may serve to guide new research to test the tenability of this theory. He has highlighted the importance of that ill-defined aspect of human existence known as "emotion," and brought it to the forefront, a step that may make it not only respectable to consider in future research, but necessary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cognition and emotion: From order to disorder, second edition.

Reviews the book, Cognition and emotion: From order to disorder, second edition by Mick Power and Tim Dalgleish (see record 2007-10431-000). In this book, the authors provide a detailed analysis of emotion with an explicit focus on differences and similarities between "disordered" emotion and normative emotional experience. What sets this text apart from other books on cognition and emotion is its attempt to describe the philosophical and historical underpinnings of work on emotion. Another unique feature of this text is that the authors go beyond just describing the various theories of emotion by comparing and contrasting the arguments advanced by the theories and highlighting the strengths and limitations of each theory. This book is divided into two parts: Part 1 is a review of the major theories of emotion, and Part 2 consists of reviews of research on five basic emotions, as well as illustrations of how the SPAARS framework can be used to explain normative and nonnormative variants of these emotions. Power and Dalgleish suggest that readers can choose either to read the book in its entirety or to focus on the sections that are of interest. Overall, this second edition of Cognition and Emotion is a readable and engaging book. This book is not a primer; as noted earlier, some parts of it are conceptually heavy. For this reason, the most appropriate audience for this book is advanced graduate students who already have some background in research on basic emotion or psychopathology and who are looking to enhance their knowledge base. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Emotion-focused therapy: Coaching clients to work through their feelings.

Reviews the book, Emotion-focused therapy: Coaching clients to work through their feelings by Leslie S. Greenberg (see record 2002-00066-000). This book was written for both novice therapists who have had little experience working with emotions in treatment, as well as for experienced therapists looking to systematize their understanding of how emotional change works. The book is divided into four parts. Part I examines the nature and function of emotions. Part II examines the first part of emotional coaching--arriving at emotion. Part III examines the second part of emotional coaching--leaving emotion. Finally, Part IV examines the application of emotion-focused therapy to the problems of living, in the context of individuals, couples therapy, and parenting. This book offers a wealth of therapeutic techniques and theoretical principles about the process of change. As such, it is an important and natural companion to seminal works in cognitive behaviour therapy and interpersonal therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Expressing emotion: Myths, realities, and therapeutic strategies.

Reviews the book, Expressing emotion: Myths, realities, and therapeutic strategies by Eileen Kennedy-Moore and Jeanne C. Watson (see record 1999-02735-000). This book is a timely exposition of the theory, research, and clinical techniques associated with emotion and the expression of emotion. It is a particularly relevant text for clinical psychology in the context of recent discussions of emotional intelligence and the limitations of purely behavioural or cognitive perspectives on human functioning and therapeutic change. It deals with the myths about emotional expression that have permeated the field, such as that emotion is dangerous and to be avoided in therapy, or that the cathartic ventilation of emotion drains negativity much like lancing a wound. This book provides a rich contrast to such simplistic, all or nothing positions on emotion that have so often dominated psychological thinking, especially in the literature on psychotherapy. One of the strengths of the treatment-oriented part of the book is that it is integrative. A second strength of this volume is that it is well written. This book addresses a very complex and intriguing topic in a stimulating, readable manner. It is pragmatic enough for the practicing therapist and stimulating enough for the theoretically oriented reader. It will find a treasured place in many a clinician's and teacher's library. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cognitive therapy with schizophrenic patients.

Reviews the book, Cognitive therapy with schizophrenic patients by Carlo Perris (see record 1989-97536-000). The author wrote this book with the purpose of presenting cognitive psychotherapy as a part of a successful holistic, cognitive behavioral program implemented at small community-based treatment centers, and as individual therapy with relatively young patients suffering from a schizophrenic disorder. The program de-emphasizes the medical model and introduces a 24-hour psychosocial milieu treatment model conducted over at least 9 full months, in which the patient is responsible for goal-setting, interpersonal problem solving, and medication schedule, with little family intervention. Throughout the text, the author writes about cognitive psychotherapy. The words "cognitive psychotherapy" not "cognitive therapy" would seem to be most appropriate for the tide of the book. For some therapists and researchers, specific information on cognitive therapy includes more details on tasks and measures of performance ranging from arousal, attention, and concentration through recognition, recall, immediate, delayed, long-term, and short term and executive functions, that is, the information processing approach. One of the attractions of the book is that readers first learning about cognitive psychotherapy are offered an opportunity to explore the future use of cognitive psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients and other patient groups. For psychotherapists, mental health workers, graduate, and undergraduate students, Cognitive Therapy with Schizophrenic Patients, is a thorough introduction to a new treatment strategy for schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Time-limited, intermittent therapy with children and families.

Reviews the book, Time-limited, intermittent therapy with children and families by Thomas Kreilkamp (see record 1989-97421-000). The use of the word "therapy" in the title of this book may mislead some potential readers. In this book Kreilkamp describes, in general terms, a model of active intervention which combines educational and consultative elements with a vaguely endorsed "psychodynamic" understanding of defenses. This intervention, applied in a time-limited, intermittent way, aims at changing children's problem behaviors, usually by changing the ways parents see and understand them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Family-of-origin therapy: An intergenerational approach.

Reviews the book, Family-of-origin therapy: An intergenerational approach by James L. Framo (see record 1992-97188-000). This book is a summation of the author's intergenerational approach to psychotherapy which has evolved in his 35 years of clinical practice. For his theoretical base he draws on Fairbairn's object relations theory, combined with Dicks' application of this theory to marital relationships. Framo further integrates this approach with the basic precepts of Bowen's multigenerational theory, particularly Bowen's emphasis on bypassing transferential issues by encouraging patients to connect with members of their family-of-origin. The innovative and unique aspect of Framo's psychotherapeutic approach is his use of one or two family-of-origin sessions. In the course of psychotherapy with adult clients, whether seen individually, as a couple, or in a couples group, he encourages them to bring in the members of their family-of-origin for two, two-hour sessions. The purpose is for the patient to develop the capacity and the courage to talk directly to all familial significant others about unresolved issues between them, rather than spending months or years talking to their therapist about these issues, or in analyzing the patient's transferential projections onto the therapist. Framo's thesis is that the family-of-origin consultation can have great power in producing positive change and flexibility in the individual and in the marital and family systems. He states that the intergenerational encounter can "create an opportunity for forgiveness for alleged wrongs, for mutual misunderstandings, compromise, acceptance and resolution." In this book the author clearly delineates his conceptual basis as well as providing explicit guidelines regarding the conduct of the family-of-origin sessions. The book is an important addition to the proliferating family therapy literature and a significant step toward integrating object relations and family systems theories and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use and nature of present-focused interventions in cognitive and behavioral therapies for depression.

To improve cognitive and behavioral therapies (CBT) for depression, several approaches recommend an increased focus on the occurrence of problems as they occur in the therapeutic relationship or in relation to the live therapy process, referred to as present-focused. A lingering question has been the degree to which CBT therapists already engage in present-focused work. This study utilized sessions from recent trials of CBT for depression and, in Phase I, raters identified present-focused interventions on a turn-by-turn basis. Phase II raters used a qualitative analysis to determine categories of present-focused interventions. Results indicated that therapists rarely focused on the therapeutic relationship; when they did, it was often transient and lacking in the elaborations suggested by newer approaches. Therapists more often performed therapy process and emotion focused interventions, but these also tended to lack elaboration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive psychotherapy.

Positive psychotherapy (PPT) contrasts with standard interventions for depression by increasing positive emotion, engagement, and meaning rather than directly targeting depressive symptoms. The authors have tested the effects of these interventions in a variety of settings. In informal student and clinical settings, people not uncommonly reported them to be "life-changing." Delivered on the Web, positive psychology exercises relieved depressive symptoms for at least 6 months compared with placebo interventions, the effects of which lasted less than a week. In severe depression, the effects of these Web exercises were particularly striking. This address reports two preliminary studies: In the first, PPT delivered to groups significantly decreased levels of mild-to-moderate depression through 1-year follow-up. In the second, PPT delivered to individuals produced higher remission rates than did treatment as usual and treatment as usual plus medication among outpatients with major depressive disorder. Together, these studies suggest that treatments for depression may usefully be supplemented by exercises that explicitly increase positive emotion, engagement, and meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

All interventions were not created equal: The case against an anything goes approach to psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, A guide to treatments that work by P. E. Nathan and J. M. Gorman (see record 1998-07090-000). There has been a fervor of activity within psychology and psychiatry, especially during the last decade, aimed at uncovering scientifically established principles that guide therapy decisions. A Guide to Treatments That Work is a product of this scholarly pursuit of the hard facts about intervention effectiveness. The criteria advocated by Nathan and Gorman for classifying treatment outcomes are unique and advance considerably our scientific understanding of what works. Clearly, the structure for evaluating evidence in support of an intervention emanating through an application of the six types of studies has raised the bar in providing standards of proof and as a way for conceptualizing differences in what is truly known about specific interventions for specific problems. This book also provides an important basis for appreciating the many complex issues that are involved in delineating practice guidelines and for mobilizing efforts to integrate what is known about effective interventions into the practice of psychology. In many ways this book is a foundation to help move practitioners toward evidence-based intervention (EBI) procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Communication in management.

Reviews the book "Communication in management" by Charles E. Redfield (see record 1954-06660-000). Redfield's book presents an excellent broad view of the problem of communication in industry as well as information on how to handle rather specific problems. The book is arranged in five parts. The first part provides a general introduction to the problem, and contains highly useful guiding principles for effective communication. It is necessarily general in scope, but it does seem to give too little attention to one aspect of communication, effectiveness as a function of the educational differences of "communicator" and "communicatee." Part II of the book takes up "communication downward and outward," the most important aspect of which is order-giving. In Part III, Redfield presents "communication upward and inward." Part IV of the book is an interesting presentation of "horizontal communication," or such cross-talk as clearance, review, and conferences. In the final section of the book (Part V), Redfield presents his views of the future of communication in management. All in all, the book is a valuable one, chiefly for its survey of the field and its complete list of references and selected readings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychotherapy tradecraft: The technique and style of doing therapy.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy tradecraft: The technique and style of doing therapy by Theodore H. Blau (see record 1988-97142-000). This book begins with an introduction by Blau which defines the concept of "tradecraft" and is followed by eleven chapters divided into three sections. The first section is made up of four chapters concerned with becoming a psychotherapist. The second section of the book includes six chapters about actually conducting therapy. The third section of the book consists of one chapter about the stress of psychotherapy practice and includes a very helpful list of the signs of stress and burnout as well as specific suggestions designed to prevent or reduce stress. The book is certainly well written and well organized. The copies of various office forms, psychotherapy vignettes used to explain various treatment techniques, and specific examples of therapist responses, all provide helpful information for novice therapists. It is very likely that the book is most appropriate for graduate students and inexperienced practitioners. It will probably be of greatest interest to those professionals entering private practice or, who as teachers and supervisors, want to train others to do so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The newer therapies: A sourcebook.

Reviews the book, The newer therapies: A sourcebook by Lawrence Edwin Abt and Irving R. Stuart (1982). This volume seeks to present a representative sample of innovative psychotherapies through the writings of leading practitioners of the approaches. The 21 chapters are grouped into four sections: "Cognitive Therapies" (including a cognitive approach to hopelessness, meditation techniques, and ego-state therapy); "Therapy with Children" (including paraverbal therapy and theraplay); "Group Approaches" (including family, group, and network therapies); and "Adjuvant Therapies". The chapters generally provide a well-written and authoritative introduction to the therapy approach at hand. With concise delineations of the fundamental theoretical assumptions, illustrative and effective excerpts from therapy sessions, and select primary source references, the chapters are stimulating even to the sophisticated reader. With its well-written, wide-ranging, and stimulating content, this book is especially suited for use by graduate students, supervised groups, and the practicing clinician. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)