Comprehensive Textbook of Psychotherapy: Theory and Practice

by Bruce Bongar (Editor)

New developments in psychotherapy research and practice over the past twenty years require a new perspective from a psychotherapy book. Until recently, approaches to clinical practices were presented as competing truths. Each one was viewed as a distinct, all-encompassing system of thought and clinical practice. Therapists were expected to decide which school they favored and then apply its treatment methods consistently to all patients. This is no longer the case.
While a growing body of empirical research supports the efficacy of treatment over no treatment, it does not endorse any one treatment as superior to all others. Moreover, most psychotherapists today acknowledge that they draw on therapeutic insights and techniques from a number of psychological schools of thought.
To guide therapists in developing their own style of effective psychotherapy, Bruce Bongar and Larry E. Beutler have assembled a work that provides an overview of the field and an understanding of the essential features of the leading schools of psychotherapy. They bring together experts who introduce the individual theories and practice techniques from these schools and guide the reader in discovering which approaches work best for which patients.

520 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 1994

About the author

Dr. Bruce Bongar, Ph.D., ABPP, FAPM, received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and served his internship in clinical community psychology with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. For over 25 years, Dr. Bongar maintained a small practice specializing in psychotherapy, consultation and supervision in working with the difficult and life-threatening patient.

Past clinical appointments include service as a senior clinical psychologist with the Division of Psychiatry, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and work as a clinical/community mental health psychologist on the psychiatric emergency team of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

Dr. Bongar is past president of the Section on Clinical Crises and Emergencies of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association, a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology, a fellow of the Divisions of Clinical Psychology (Div 12), Psychology and the Law (Div 41), and Psychotherapy (Div 29) of the American Psychological Association, a fellow of the American Psychological Society and of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, and a chartered psychologist of the British Psychological Society.

Dr. Bongar has also been a winner of the Edwin Shneidman Award from the American Association of Suicidology for outstanding early career contributions to suicide research, and the Louis I. Dublin award for lifetime achievement in research on suicidology. In 2008, he was awarded the Florence Halpern award by the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association for distinguished contributions to the practice of clinical psychology.

Since 2001, he has also become interested in the psychology of mass casualty events and suicide terrorism. From 2002-2005, he was the founding director of the National Center on Psychology of Terrorism.

His research and published work reflects his long-standing interest in the wide-ranging complexities of therapeutic interventions with difficult patients in general, and in suicide and life-threatening behaviors in particular.