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Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide
Addressing the art and science of psychodynamic treatment, Nancy McWilliams distills the essential principles of clinical practice, including effective listening and talking; transference and countertransference; emotional safety; and an empathic, attuned attitude toward the patient. The book describes the values, assumptions, and clinical and research findings that guide the psychoanalytic enterprise, and shows how to integrate elements of other theoretical perspectives. It discusses the phases of treatment and covers such neglected topics as educating the client about the therapeutic process, handling complex challenges to boundaries, and attending to self-care. Presenting complex information in personal, nontechnical language enriched by in-depth clinical vignettes, this is an essential psychoanalytic work and training text for therapists.
353 pages, Hardcover
First published March 18, 2004
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About the author
Nancy McWilliams
40 books193 followersMcWilliams is a psychoanalytic/dynamic author, teacher, supervisor, and therapist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
August 6, 2018
Great dense book with a personal view that shares the perspective of a therapist and all the hurdles they face: running into client outside of the office, how to charge money or receive presents, how to deal with the emotional connection going too far. The book has cases. The book also helps you understand what are good and bad practices and how to choose a therapist.
Another view hat the book offers is how to have a difficult conversation with people or friends and how not to damage yourself or your relationship.
Here are some of the excerpts that I liked:
My experiences with “contracting for safety”—that is, getting suicidal patients to make a pledge not to hurt themselves as a condition for therapy—have been unimpressive. My general sense is that such contracts are often urged by the professional or employing agency as a way of reducing liability and assuaging the anxiety of the therapist, and that they have little effect on ensuring actual safety. Not that reducing one’s liability is an unseemly practice in this litigious age, but a number of suicidal individuals have told me that they eventually caved in to pressures to sign an agreement not to kill themselves while privately retaining suicide as an option. In fact, some have said that their willingness to keep on living has depended on their knowing that if the psychic pain were to get too bad, they would have an out. Given that psychodynamic therapy is based on honesty, and that colluding in a fiction for purposes of risk management is hardly an expression of candor,the therapist may have to tolerate a patient’s refusal to give a guarantee. Otherwise, one is teaching that dishonesty is the price of relationship, a lesson that cannot fail to corrupt psychotherapy at the core. Especially when the patient will not swear off lethal intentions, one should repeatedly, even relentlessly, investigate the current suicidal risk and be willing to hospitalize an acutely self-destructive person.
The psychotherapy situation naturally elicits love from clients. In fact, it does so in such a reliable way that Martin Bergmann (1987, p. 213) has observed, “For centuries men and women have searched for mandrake roots and other substances from which a love potion could be brewed. And then … a Jewish Viennese physician uncovered love’s secret.”The secret is to listen carefully, to be genuinely interested in the other person, to react in an accepting and nonshaming way to his or her disclosures, and to make no demands that the other party meet one’s emotional needs—defining aspects of the psychoanalytic arrangement.
I remember Otto Kernberg once talking about a woman he had treated who insisted that the only condition under which she would ever believe that he cared about her was if he would kill her. Her rationale was that if he were to murder her, he would finally be verifying that her pain was in fact so unbearable that the only humane option was to put her out of her misery—and on top of the obvious love in that action, he would be demonstrably elevating her needs above his own wishes to avoid criticism and stay out of jail. When he told this story, the audience of therapists murmured in a tone of polite sympathy for his clinical challenge, but they were much more deeply and delightedly engaged a couple of moments later when he added, “And you know, for a while, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her argument!” Sometimes we get drenched by the storm the client brings into the consulting room and can only wait it out, insisting on enforcing safety precautions that make sense to us, until we find some way to redefine the turbulence so that it can be seen as offering new possibilities (cf. Benjamin, 1995).
What the subjectively “empty” client tends to learn in therapy is that self-esteem is not fed by the accumulation of trophies or conquests or chemical highs but by the development of a sense of internal motivation. He or she learns to look inside for what feels true rather than outside for what feels transiently diverting, and to accept what is rather than striving for a perfectionistic ideal. This shift does not result from moral instruction. Rather, something about the process of extracting meaning from the smallest clinical incidents contributes to the capacity to be in the moment and to enjoy the here and now without continually comparing it to some fantasied better time. In Chapter 3 I commented on how much is learned, especially by clients suffering from a sense of emptiness or fraudulence, from the therapist’s willingness to acknowledge mistakes and limitations without seeming devastated. The fact that the therapist maintains a robust sense of self-esteem in the absence of perfectionism can make a strong impression on this kind of patient.
Another view hat the book offers is how to have a difficult conversation with people or friends and how not to damage yourself or your relationship.
Here are some of the excerpts that I liked:
My experiences with “contracting for safety”—that is, getting suicidal patients to make a pledge not to hurt themselves as a condition for therapy—have been unimpressive. My general sense is that such contracts are often urged by the professional or employing agency as a way of reducing liability and assuaging the anxiety of the therapist, and that they have little effect on ensuring actual safety. Not that reducing one’s liability is an unseemly practice in this litigious age, but a number of suicidal individuals have told me that they eventually caved in to pressures to sign an agreement not to kill themselves while privately retaining suicide as an option. In fact, some have said that their willingness to keep on living has depended on their knowing that if the psychic pain were to get too bad, they would have an out. Given that psychodynamic therapy is based on honesty, and that colluding in a fiction for purposes of risk management is hardly an expression of candor,the therapist may have to tolerate a patient’s refusal to give a guarantee. Otherwise, one is teaching that dishonesty is the price of relationship, a lesson that cannot fail to corrupt psychotherapy at the core. Especially when the patient will not swear off lethal intentions, one should repeatedly, even relentlessly, investigate the current suicidal risk and be willing to hospitalize an acutely self-destructive person.
The psychotherapy situation naturally elicits love from clients. In fact, it does so in such a reliable way that Martin Bergmann (1987, p. 213) has observed, “For centuries men and women have searched for mandrake roots and other substances from which a love potion could be brewed. And then … a Jewish Viennese physician uncovered love’s secret.”The secret is to listen carefully, to be genuinely interested in the other person, to react in an accepting and nonshaming way to his or her disclosures, and to make no demands that the other party meet one’s emotional needs—defining aspects of the psychoanalytic arrangement.
I remember Otto Kernberg once talking about a woman he had treated who insisted that the only condition under which she would ever believe that he cared about her was if he would kill her. Her rationale was that if he were to murder her, he would finally be verifying that her pain was in fact so unbearable that the only humane option was to put her out of her misery—and on top of the obvious love in that action, he would be demonstrably elevating her needs above his own wishes to avoid criticism and stay out of jail. When he told this story, the audience of therapists murmured in a tone of polite sympathy for his clinical challenge, but they were much more deeply and delightedly engaged a couple of moments later when he added, “And you know, for a while, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her argument!” Sometimes we get drenched by the storm the client brings into the consulting room and can only wait it out, insisting on enforcing safety precautions that make sense to us, until we find some way to redefine the turbulence so that it can be seen as offering new possibilities (cf. Benjamin, 1995).
What the subjectively “empty” client tends to learn in therapy is that self-esteem is not fed by the accumulation of trophies or conquests or chemical highs but by the development of a sense of internal motivation. He or she learns to look inside for what feels true rather than outside for what feels transiently diverting, and to accept what is rather than striving for a perfectionistic ideal. This shift does not result from moral instruction. Rather, something about the process of extracting meaning from the smallest clinical incidents contributes to the capacity to be in the moment and to enjoy the here and now without continually comparing it to some fantasied better time. In Chapter 3 I commented on how much is learned, especially by clients suffering from a sense of emptiness or fraudulence, from the therapist’s willingness to acknowledge mistakes and limitations without seeming devastated. The fact that the therapist maintains a robust sense of self-esteem in the absence of perfectionism can make a strong impression on this kind of patient.
January 22, 2012
Another one I wish I owned but don't. Sigh. Someday I will have a full library of psychoanalytic books - and I will revel in their awesomeness.
July 21, 2019
Ottimo manuale per chiunque sia interessato a iniziare una formazione psicoanalitica, scritto con un linguaggio accessibile e non troppo tecnico. Tocca diversi argomenti, soprattutto alcuni che l'autrice ritiene di non aver trovato nei manuali già disponibili, rispondendo ad alcune domande tipiche di chi si sta formando. Inclusa anche una bibliografia commentata. L'ho letto con una passione che non credevo di poter avere verso un manuale!
March 6, 2022
Nancy McWilliams è una delle analiste più note del mondo contemporaneo ed è molto apprezzata come autrice di libri indirizzati alla divulgazione per professionisti. Questo è un ottimo libro per terapeuti in formazione, con molti suggerimenti validi anche per i più esperti. Una parte del libro è dedicata alla formazione del terapeuta, una alla tecnica in senso stretto, una agli effetti della terapia (che comprende anche due casi clinici).
L’unico limite è la tendenza, a tratti, a essere eccessivamente didascalica - ma è molto meglio che risultare elusivi o peggio criptici.
L’unico limite è la tendenza, a tratti, a essere eccessivamente didascalica - ma è molto meglio che risultare elusivi o peggio criptici.
May 11, 2007
McWilliams is my favorite author in the psychoanalytic literature. Very easy to read and doesn't get tangled up in the jargon, like many writers. She is a collaborator/synthesizer and brings together many excellent directions in the anyltic lit.
July 15, 2024
Covers so many topics that will likely never get addressed in graduate school and provides a solid overview of psychoanalytic therapy. McWilliams does a brilliant job of breaking down complex concepts in ways that make them easier to understand.
June 11, 2025
I read this book for my Clinical Field Practicum class this past semester! We read all but one chapter so it took me a hot second to go back in and read the last one. Anyways I'm not big on psychoanalysis but I thought this textbook handled it in a very well thought-out, subtle, and intelligent way. Very very useful book, definitely took lots of notes and hope to refer back on it throughout my career.
October 17, 2011
This was a beautifully written, extremely well-thought-out book for beginning therapists. Why wasn't it included in my graduate school curriculum?
July 5, 2024
Čteno v češtině, vydal Portál. Dobré, obohacující, ale někdy příliš zřejmé.
October 16, 2025
Read for school, this book was excellent and very informative for beginning therapists!
November 16, 2025
McWilliams has an earthy and even folksy way of rendering complex subjects accessible that is unique among psychoanalytic literature. Wouldn’t call it required reading, but definitely worth the time nonetheless.
August 18, 2024
In my efforts to understand the basics of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, I found the following introductory books especially helpful.
Nancy McWilliams’ Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy describes the psychoanalytic attitude. Every analyst is unique, but there are certain sensibilities that bind analysts, and McWilliams beautifully articulates them in what feels like a love letter to the field. Those new to analysis might initially feel frustrated that she spends little time discussing techniques, but that’s not accidental. Analysis at its core is not a set of techniques but a specific worldview and way of being.
Deborah Luepnitz’s Schopenhauer's Porcupines is a masterfully written collection of short stories. You can’t learn something as complex as psychoanalytic therapy by simply memorizing the techniques. You also need to experience the process. This is why the analytic tradition requires analysts to be analyzed themselves. Reading Luepnitz’s book is obviously not the same thing as undergoing an analysis, but it’s a literary attempt to help us to experience what the process is like. These stories are engaging, funny, heartbreaking, illuminating, frustrating, etc., kind of like analysis.
I especially liked the following two books on technique. Glen Gabbard’s Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy succinctly describes the essentials of psychoanalytic theory and the primary techniques. An excellent jumping-off place. Deborah Cabaniss’ Psychodynamic Psychotherapy explains the major techniques in more detail. Cabaniss has the gift of making the complex simple and breaks the analytic process down to memorizable parts, writing about the three choosing principles, the three readiness principles, the three organizing sources, and so on. The more experienced therapist might find these constructions somewhat hokey, but I found them incredibly helpful for learning.
I also benefited tremendously from Leslie Greenberg’s Emotion-Focused Therapy. This is not technically a psychoanalytic text, but as someone with a CBT background wanting to learn analysis, I desperately needed to better understand emotions and how to help clients talk about them. Greenberg, the founder of emotion-focused therapy, writes clearly, as his brain seems to think in outlines, and I found him to be an excellent guide.
Nancy McWilliams’ Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy describes the psychoanalytic attitude. Every analyst is unique, but there are certain sensibilities that bind analysts, and McWilliams beautifully articulates them in what feels like a love letter to the field. Those new to analysis might initially feel frustrated that she spends little time discussing techniques, but that’s not accidental. Analysis at its core is not a set of techniques but a specific worldview and way of being.
Deborah Luepnitz’s Schopenhauer's Porcupines is a masterfully written collection of short stories. You can’t learn something as complex as psychoanalytic therapy by simply memorizing the techniques. You also need to experience the process. This is why the analytic tradition requires analysts to be analyzed themselves. Reading Luepnitz’s book is obviously not the same thing as undergoing an analysis, but it’s a literary attempt to help us to experience what the process is like. These stories are engaging, funny, heartbreaking, illuminating, frustrating, etc., kind of like analysis.
I especially liked the following two books on technique. Glen Gabbard’s Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy succinctly describes the essentials of psychoanalytic theory and the primary techniques. An excellent jumping-off place. Deborah Cabaniss’ Psychodynamic Psychotherapy explains the major techniques in more detail. Cabaniss has the gift of making the complex simple and breaks the analytic process down to memorizable parts, writing about the three choosing principles, the three readiness principles, the three organizing sources, and so on. The more experienced therapist might find these constructions somewhat hokey, but I found them incredibly helpful for learning.
I also benefited tremendously from Leslie Greenberg’s Emotion-Focused Therapy. This is not technically a psychoanalytic text, but as someone with a CBT background wanting to learn analysis, I desperately needed to better understand emotions and how to help clients talk about them. Greenberg, the founder of emotion-focused therapy, writes clearly, as his brain seems to think in outlines, and I found him to be an excellent guide.
April 19, 2015
another torturing and dry textbook for student. Gabbard's book is more interesting and engaging
December 20, 2020
Un libro lindo. Hacer un análisis es construir una relación.
June 21, 2024
A must read for every aspiring psychotherapist. Anyone who works with people and does therapy should read this. I read this during my clinical psychology studies and keep going back to it
June 30, 2022
"Although analytic therapists may hope to be ultimately assimilated by their patients as “new objects”—that is, as internal voices that differ significantly from those of people by whom their clients have felt damaged—they appreciate the fact that, because of the stability and tenacity of unconscious assumptions, they will inevitably be experienced as old ones. They consequently expect to have to absorb strong negative affects associated with painful early experiences and to help the client understand such reactions in order to move past them and learn something new that penetrates to the level of unconscious schemas. Most people in the psychoanalytic community have been struck by the wisdom in Jay Greenberg’s (1986) observation that if the therapist is not taken in as a new, good love object, the treatment never really takes off, but if the therapist is not also experienced as the old bad one, the treatment may never end (see Stark’s [1999] fascinating reflections on this therapeutic tension)."
"Very often, the kind of change that the client originally envisioned is not the kind that occurs, only because what does occur is something the client could not have initially imagined. To move into areas that are emotionally new, the client must proceed on a kind of borrowed faith. If the practitioner proceeds with integrity, the client will eventually feel trust in the therapist as a person; the therapist, meanwhile, exemplifies faith in the client, the partnership, and the process. A woman coming to treatment may want to learn how to relieve a depression and instead learns to express previously unformulated feelings, to negotiate for herself in relationships, to identify the situations in which she is likely to feel depressed, to understand the connections between those situations and her unique history, to appreciate her tendency to blame herself for things that are outside her control, to take control over things that had previously seemed impervious to her influence, and to comfort herself instead of berating herself when she is upset. As the therapeutic process evolves, she gradually loses all the vegetative, affective, and cognitive symptoms of depressive illness. But more important, even though before the therapy she may have enjoyed long periods of freedom from diagnosable clinical depression and thus could conceive of feeling better, she could not have imagined the depth of authentic feeling that is now becoming a reliable feature of her emotional landscape."
"Fortunately for all of us, there is no evidence that one has to be a paragon of mental health (or any kind of paragon) to help people psychologically. To train an athlete, a coach does not have to be a superior athlete; similarly, to help a client, a therapist does not have to be more mature or normal or satisfied in life. In fact, it is arguable that, as Greenson (1967) observed, one is a better therapist for having suffered some significant emotional troubles. A clinician without an experiential reference for psychological suffering risks feeling insufficiently empathic with clients."
"As many practitioners have noted, money is a critical aspect of therapy. It is the means by which the two participants have a kind of moral equality, a genuine reciprocity. The therapist takes care of the patient emotionally; the patient takes care of the therapist financially. Because the therapist is getting paid by the patient, there is no other way in which the patient is expected to take care of the therapist. When the therapist accepts a given fee, the message is that this amount of money will be considered an even exchange for his or her professional services. Not collecting a fee damages this straightforward equivalence, creating an imbalance in the dyad whereby the patient is essentially being exploitive. Collecting anything in addition to a fee (stock tips, expensive gifts, special services) tips the scales of the relationship in the opposite direction: The therapist is being exploitive."
"Throughout treatment, but especially in the beginning, whenever shame emerges, addressing and reducing it are high-priority matters. I have known several individuals who have learned a lot about their dynamics in psychotherapy but who seem to remain deeply ashamed of them. Self-knowledge is one goal of psychoanalytic treatment, but a more profound goal is self-acceptance. The more one accepts aspects of the self that have been seen as shameful, the less one is controlled by them."
"Crimes have to be acknowledged before they can be forgiven."
"A good yardstick for whether one is being true to one’s values is to imagine describing specific actions to an admired colleague. If it is hard to imagine telling him or her what happened in the consulting room, there is probably something questionable in one’s behavior."
January 20, 2025
*4.5
I found it very useful as an introduction to psychotherapy with a psychodynamic approach. Although it's been more than 20 years since its release, this book contains practical information that should be known by anyone who wants to work as a psychotherapist. McWilliams achieved a beautiful balance between sharing personal experiences and describing the basic principles of psychotherapy. The result is a text which is enjoyable and didactic but not in a rigid or strict way. It's also important to note that she addressed some of the most popular misconceptions about psychodynamic therapy (neutrality of the therapist, use of the couch etc.) by incorporating the newer findings on the effectiveness of psychotherapy and supporting ideas from the Common factors theory.
The only reason I didn't rate this book with 5 stars is because I disagree with some advice on the topic of the therapist's payment as McWilliams tends to lean too much on what the clients should give but ignores that certain things are mostly relevant to the therapist's life and not so much their job. For example, she claims that the cost of sessions should be adjusted according to how many children the therapist has to cover the expenses of raising them. Later, she states that the therapist's income should be enough to sustain certain activities related to continuous education but also entertainment, physical activity (because the job is sedentary) etc. I believe that the latter are irrelevant and not important in determining the fee of a therapist who works privately, not because private therapists don't deserve access to a decent and healthy lifestyle but because these factors aren't directly related to the quality of services they provide. Yes, private work means that you are not getting paid during sick leave, maternity leave etc. but you can still save ahead (as McWilliams recognizes) and in the end, it's a job that generally pays very well so there's no need to include secondary factors such as number of children or exercise requirements. Every other private professional has the same needs. A therapist's fee should be determined by their education, training, experience and generally factors which directly affect how they work.
I found it very useful as an introduction to psychotherapy with a psychodynamic approach. Although it's been more than 20 years since its release, this book contains practical information that should be known by anyone who wants to work as a psychotherapist. McWilliams achieved a beautiful balance between sharing personal experiences and describing the basic principles of psychotherapy. The result is a text which is enjoyable and didactic but not in a rigid or strict way. It's also important to note that she addressed some of the most popular misconceptions about psychodynamic therapy (neutrality of the therapist, use of the couch etc.) by incorporating the newer findings on the effectiveness of psychotherapy and supporting ideas from the Common factors theory.
The only reason I didn't rate this book with 5 stars is because I disagree with some advice on the topic of the therapist's payment as McWilliams tends to lean too much on what the clients should give but ignores that certain things are mostly relevant to the therapist's life and not so much their job. For example, she claims that the cost of sessions should be adjusted according to how many children the therapist has to cover the expenses of raising them. Later, she states that the therapist's income should be enough to sustain certain activities related to continuous education but also entertainment, physical activity (because the job is sedentary) etc. I believe that the latter are irrelevant and not important in determining the fee of a therapist who works privately, not because private therapists don't deserve access to a decent and healthy lifestyle but because these factors aren't directly related to the quality of services they provide. Yes, private work means that you are not getting paid during sick leave, maternity leave etc. but you can still save ahead (as McWilliams recognizes) and in the end, it's a job that generally pays very well so there's no need to include secondary factors such as number of children or exercise requirements. Every other private professional has the same needs. A therapist's fee should be determined by their education, training, experience and generally factors which directly affect how they work.
September 14, 2022
This is a phenomenal book for anyone interested in engaging in psychoanalytic therapy on either side of the couch. Nancy McWilliams explores psychoanalytic work from multiple angles, starting with basic theoretical orientation and working her way holistically through the experience of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
As a person currently applying to therapeutic grad school, this book has been invaluable in helping me frame and contextualize my thinking. It presents important insights that are highly relevant to doing therapeutic work, many of which I never would have come to on my own prior to accruing years of experience.
Although I found much of the book valuable, as usual, the chapters with case studies were the most engaging in my view. McWilliams is a generally accessible writer, at least to people interested in psychoanalysis, so even the more theoretically oriented chapters were quite readable.
Overall, I enjoyed this book greatly. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about what it is like, emotionally and practically, to do psychoanalytic work. Her writing has furthered my convictions that psychoanalysis speaks to a fundamentally human part of the lived experience; it gives those who engage in it a space to understand themselves more deeply, and to grow through this understanding.
As a person currently applying to therapeutic grad school, this book has been invaluable in helping me frame and contextualize my thinking. It presents important insights that are highly relevant to doing therapeutic work, many of which I never would have come to on my own prior to accruing years of experience.
Although I found much of the book valuable, as usual, the chapters with case studies were the most engaging in my view. McWilliams is a generally accessible writer, at least to people interested in psychoanalysis, so even the more theoretically oriented chapters were quite readable.
Overall, I enjoyed this book greatly. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about what it is like, emotionally and practically, to do psychoanalytic work. Her writing has furthered my convictions that psychoanalysis speaks to a fundamentally human part of the lived experience; it gives those who engage in it a space to understand themselves more deeply, and to grow through this understanding.
January 22, 2025
This is an excellent book for beginner therapists with any interest to learn more about psychodynamic therapy, or honestly, therapy in general. Although this book is primarily about the psychodynamic approach, McWilliams provides a lot of information for beginner therapists across the board, such as navigating boundaries, the logistics of practice, how to take care of yourself, etc. She teaches and works with students, so she definitely gets the beginner mindset, and her words were validating and reassuring to me.
McWilliams describes the psychodynamic approach in a holistic way, discussing the various perspectives within this approach and addressing the critiques in a rational way. She roots her information/arguments in her research and work as well as her colleagues’, showcasing how modern psychodynamic has been adapted throughout the years and given many patients incredible change. Some of her arguments were interesting to think about, such as love and honesty being the big ingredients for change.
Her writing is clear, descriptive, digestible, personable, honest, and sometimes humorous— it was an interesting and easy read for a beginner. Sometimes she goes on a bit of a tangent/restated ideas, but I didn’t mind given her tone.
Overall, I think this is a must-read for any therapist.
McWilliams describes the psychodynamic approach in a holistic way, discussing the various perspectives within this approach and addressing the critiques in a rational way. She roots her information/arguments in her research and work as well as her colleagues’, showcasing how modern psychodynamic has been adapted throughout the years and given many patients incredible change. Some of her arguments were interesting to think about, such as love and honesty being the big ingredients for change.
Her writing is clear, descriptive, digestible, personable, honest, and sometimes humorous— it was an interesting and easy read for a beginner. Sometimes she goes on a bit of a tangent/restated ideas, but I didn’t mind given her tone.
Overall, I think this is a must-read for any therapist.
December 29, 2019
Required reading for baby therapists like myself. Especially helpful if you are working in community mental health and feeling intensely frustrated with crazy-making policies (ie accepting all referrals even if you are booked 12 weeks out). Clarifies dynamics that may be causing the frustration and provides suggestions for how to best cope with them. Additionally, it really drives home that our true purpose is as healers and not technicians, which is particularly helpful for me as I sometimes forget that I am a human with needs too (needs most often violated by the agency, not clients), and that also has a role in the therapeutic relationship. Honestly renewed my faith in therapy and hopefully will keep me going throughout my time working towards independent licensure. It's an expensive book but it's well worth the price of the hardcopy. I can guarantee you will re-read and share it with colleagues.
June 2, 2020
Jest to jedna z tych wyjątkowych książek, które będąc specjalistyczne są jednocześnie zrozumiałe i przyjemne w lekturze.
Trudno powiedzieć czy jest to podręcznik, przewodnik czy poradnik (ale z tych dobrych poradników).
Autorka skupia w nim swą uwagę na sprawach technicznych prowadzenia psychoterapii. Mało tu teorii psychoanalitycznej, jej założeń i hipotez, które jej oponenci stale atakują. Aspekty techniczne są tu natomiast (co jest, jak się wydaje, osią prac psychoanalitycznych od czasów Freuda) poparte przykładami z kliniki.
Autorka nie owija w bawełnę i nie próbuje nas przekonać, że reprezentowany przez nią sposób myślenia o psychoterapii jest jedynym prawidłowym. Z resztą znana jest jako osoba niedogmatyczna (w przeciwieństwie do większości środowiska psychoanalityków) przez co jej twórczość budzi duża sympatię. Bardzo polecam wszystkim zainteresowanym psychologią.
Trudno powiedzieć czy jest to podręcznik, przewodnik czy poradnik (ale z tych dobrych poradników).
Autorka skupia w nim swą uwagę na sprawach technicznych prowadzenia psychoterapii. Mało tu teorii psychoanalitycznej, jej założeń i hipotez, które jej oponenci stale atakują. Aspekty techniczne są tu natomiast (co jest, jak się wydaje, osią prac psychoanalitycznych od czasów Freuda) poparte przykładami z kliniki.
Autorka nie owija w bawełnę i nie próbuje nas przekonać, że reprezentowany przez nią sposób myślenia o psychoterapii jest jedynym prawidłowym. Z resztą znana jest jako osoba niedogmatyczna (w przeciwieństwie do większości środowiska psychoanalityków) przez co jej twórczość budzi duża sympatię. Bardzo polecam wszystkim zainteresowanym psychologią.
September 30, 2019
Wonderfully clear and practical. Should be required reading in any graduate school. Nancy speaks from her experience and answers the questions we all need answered. How, for example, should a clinician deal with devaluation in therapy? How to handle fees and boundaries? (buy the book to find out) But there is also underlying principles discussed with warmth and realism: empathy, listening, complexity, creativity. Even the self-care section manages to rise above the normal self-indulgent tropes and help a budding clinician be reflexive about themselves and the impact their work has on them.
February 22, 2021
This book felt so validating to me! I'm not a psychoanalyst, but I use psycho dynamic theories and have struggled greatly with the expectations that have been put on me in the past to do faster, more structured, less client centered therapy. McWilliams' book helped to reassure me that I'm doing well, and encouraged me to continue to learn and grow.
There is definitely some outdated language, and the two chapters with case examples were purely psychoanalytic and may not be helpful for everyone. The rest of the book provides valuable information on being a therapist that I believe could be helpful for any therapist.
There is definitely some outdated language, and the two chapters with case examples were purely psychoanalytic and may not be helpful for everyone. The rest of the book provides valuable information on being a therapist that I believe could be helpful for any therapist.
October 24, 2022
This is an amazingly well-written and easy to read book. McWilliams helps show a way to do therapy that is not rooted in theoretical leanings but in practice. I would recommend this to therapists and non-therapists alike.
McWilliams also does a great job of showing the importance of Freud. Though I am not a Freudian, McWilliams has convinced me of his continued importance to psychology. As a graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis, this approach appeals to me. It means you can build from Freud as a start without buying into his theories, or at least having to take *all* that he says seriously.
I cannot recommend this book, or McWilliams’ work in general, enough!
McWilliams also does a great job of showing the importance of Freud. Though I am not a Freudian, McWilliams has convinced me of his continued importance to psychology. As a graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis, this approach appeals to me. It means you can build from Freud as a start without buying into his theories, or at least having to take *all* that he says seriously.
I cannot recommend this book, or McWilliams’ work in general, enough!
December 22, 2018
I believe this book is the most important book I read about psychotherapy so far, this is because the author succeeded to explain in very fine details what others didn’t; the very basics of therapy that not only applies to psychoanalytic psychotherapy, but also to every other orientation in mental health. Beware that this book being about the basics doesn’t mean that it is simple. On the contrary, the author to give very detailed information, with review of literature over the topics and her personal experience or her colleagues’. I highly recommend reading this book.
October 18, 2024
This book was terrible, I had to DNF it 70% through. Which tells you a lot because I almost never DNF a book…
When she talked so badly about 12 step program… I couldn’t believe it, it’s a terrible thing to say.
I feel like her giving advice is just completely bias opinion based on her personal liking and as a professional that’s something you should not do.
I’m sorry but I feel such a bad way about this author and this book just wasn’t it for me.
When she talked so badly about 12 step program… I couldn’t believe it, it’s a terrible thing to say.
I feel like her giving advice is just completely bias opinion based on her personal liking and as a professional that’s something you should not do.
I’m sorry but I feel such a bad way about this author and this book just wasn’t it for me.
April 20, 2018
An excellent resource for anyone interested in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches to therapy. Nancy McWilliams, in her usual style, pulls from personal clinical experience and a large theoretical base to create work that is as thought provoking as it is accessible. I found this book instrumental in my process of applying to analytic training programs in New York City - IPTAR and NPAP.
September 14, 2018
This was the first book I read as an intro to psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It was well written, easy to read, and more importantly easy to understand and grasp the principles of psychoanalysis. Nancy McWilliams has a way of explaining things that makes the puzzle falls into place very neatly and quickly. Highly recommended.
July 15, 2019
At the beginning of my practice, so many questions...and this book has the answers. Everything you wanted to know about seeing patients is here in the excellent book. I would recommend that all psychotherapists, no matter how long you have been seeing patients, read this book.
May 1, 2024
Yalnızca analitik yönelimli terapistlerin değil, psikoterapi alanına yeni başlayan herkesin mutlaka okuması gereken bir kitap. Deneyimli bir terapistin süzgeçinden geçenlerin kültürler ya da pratikler farklı olsa da kendinizde yankılandığını görüyorsunuz.
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