Prescriptive Psychotherapy: A Practical Guide to Systematic Treatment Selection / Edition 1

by Larry E. Beutler, T. Mark Harwood

Overview

This is a brief but highly detailed and useful reference book for professional psychotherapists. It is ideal for practicing clinicians whose jobs involve the selection of appropriate therapeutic procedures for various patients.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195136692
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/04/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Beutler, Larry E. (UC Santa Barbara); Harwood, T. Mark (UC Santa Barbara)

Table of Contents

PART I: INTRODUCTION1. Introduction to Prescriptive Therapy2. Training Objectives and Rationale3. Patient EvaluationPART II: TREATMENT PRINCIPLES AND STRATEGIES4. Establishing a Therapeutic Relationship5. Adapting Treatment to Patient Level of Impairment and Coping Style: Part I6. Adapting Treatment to Patient Level of Impairment and Coping Style: Part II7. Adapting Therapy to Patient Resistance Levels8. Adapting Therapy to Patient Level of Distress and Impairment9. Summary and ConclusionsAPPENDICESA. STS Therapy Process Rating ScaleB. Prescriptive Therapy Adherence ScaleC. Client's Emotional Arousal ScaleReferencesIndex

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Cheryl A. Richards, PhD (Washington University School of Medicine)
Description: This treatment manual is a set of empirically derived principles that are not tied to a particular theoretical orientation and can be used by clinicians to select and implement interventions.
Purpose: The authors have created a manual to be used by clinicians to allow them to systematically evaluate patients and then select and modify treatment interventions based on particular patient characteristics. The authors' approach is specifically designed to be used with complex cases such as when substance abuse and/or personality disorders are present in addition to depressive or anxiety disorders. Among the issues they examine are how to establish a therapeutic relationship and how to design an effective treatment program based on patient characteristics such as level of impairment, degree of distress, coping style, and resistance level. Although the authors emphasize that their purpose is not to provide a specific set of techniques that must be uniformly applied to all patients, they do provide examples of many techniques that would be appropriate interventions for patients with particular characteristics.
Audience: This book would be useful to clinicians with a wide range of experience. Both students and experienced clinicians would find the approach described in this volume useful for systematically evaluating patients at the beginning of treatment and in designing effective treatment intervention programs. Although prescriptive therapy is designed to apply to many different types of psychological problems, this work contains many specific examples of how this approach can be applied to patients with substance abuse problems. Consequently, therapists who work with patients with substance abuse problems may find this volume particularly useful.
Features: The authors refer to Beutler's past work and also provide short descriptions of many psychotherapeutic techniques associated with a variety of theoretical orientations. References are provided for many of the techniques so that interested readers will be able to obtain additional information about techniques with which they are not familiar.
Assessment: The authors have provided a valuable resource for therapists who work in a wide variety of settings. The focus on using patient characteristics to individualize treatment interventions is an alternative to manuals that are targeted to a specific diagnostic category. This book would be of interest to clinicians when they are developing treatment plans for patients with multiple problems that need to be addressed in therapy. It would be especially helpful to clinicians who are looking for a manual to guide selection of appropriate treatment techniques but still want the flexibility to use techniques that they have found effective. This is a valuable contribution to the existing literature.

Doody's Review Service

"How can we sum up this valuable work? Rather than being a manual, it is more a guide for a therapist who wishes to incorporate the best that research has to offer with the flexibility and creativity that practitioners see as vital to success. As such, it is also a good example of the local clinical scientist in action, and I applaud its inentions and eagerly await further updates on this project."—Psychotherapy Research

From the Publisher

3 Stars from Doody

This treatment manual is a set of empirically derived principles that are not tied to a particular theoretical orientation and can be used by clinicians to select and implement interventions. The authors have created a manual to be used by clinicians to allow them to systematically evaluate patients and then select and modify treatment interventions based on particular patient characteristics. The authors' approach is specifically designed to be used with complex cases such as when substance abuse and/or personality disorders are present in addition to depressive or anxiety disorders. Among the issues they examine are how to establish a therapeutic relationship and how to design an effective treatment program based on patient characteristics such as level of impairment, degree of distress, coping style, and resistance level. Although the authors emphasize that their purpose is not to provide a specific set of techniques that must be uniformly applied to all patients, they do provide examples of many techniques that would be appropriate interventions for patients with particular characteristics. This book would be useful to clinicians with a wide range of experience. Both students and experienced clinicians would find the approach described in this volume useful for systematically evaluating patients at the beginning of treatment and in designing effective treatment intervention programs. Although prescriptive therapy is designed to apply to many different types of psychological problems, this work contains many specific examples of how this approach can be applied to patients with substance abuse problems. Consequently, therapists who work with patients with substance abuseproblems may find this volume particularly useful. The authors refer to Beutler's past work and also provide short descriptions of many psychotherapeutic techniques associated with a variety of theoretical orientations. References are provided for many of the techniques so that interested readers will be able to obtain additional information about techniques with which they are not familiar. The authors have provided a valuable resource for therapists who work in a wide variety of settings. The focus on using patient characteristics to individualize treatment interventions is an alternative to manuals that are targeted to a specific diagnostic category. This book would be of interest to clinicians when they are developing treatment plans for patients with multiple problems that need to be addressed in therapy. It would be especially helpful to clinicians who are looking for a manual to guide selection of appropriate treatment techniques but still want the flexibility to use techniques that they have found effective. This is a valuable contribution to the existing literature.

Cheryl A. Richards