| Abstract: | Reviews the book, A clinical handbook/practical therapist manual for assessing and treating adults with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by Donald Meichenbaum (see record 1995-97286-000). This text is a much needed addition in the burgeoning field that is coming to be called "psychotraumatology," including critical incident debriefing and related phenomena. Few fields of psychopathology have been fortunate enough to attract the attention of practitioners with the level of skill that Don Meichenbaum shows in this Manual, and his sobering, careful analysis of the traumatology literature in several very controversial areas deserves kudos. The reality is that this Handbook/Manual is in fact both a relatively comprehensive overview of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder literature, as well as a guidebook for treatment intervention strategies. Moreover, it is replete with appropriate cautions about variables that can interfere with treatment progress, together with strategic suggestions for overcoming that interference. The Manual is not only tremendously diverse, but is exceptional in its standards of scholarship and its careful application of those scholarly standards even to the most controversial topics. The author is also extremely credible in his treatment of potential harm from clinical techniques, and the Manual is replete with several examples of documented pitfalls, whether from comorbidity, relapse with substance-abusing populations, or the potential for harm to some individuals from simple repetitions of traumatic experiences. All in all, the reviewer strongly encourages Psychotherapy readers to avail themselves of this extremely well-written and thoughtful text. Both the book itself and the topic of PTSD deserve the excellent coverage devoted to them by this outstanding psychotherapy clinician and researcher. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
