Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Clinical Manual

Rate this book
Psychodynamic psychotherapy offers people a chance to create new ways of thinking and behaving in order to improve the quality of their lives. This book offers a practical, step-by-step guide to the technique of psychodynamic psychotherapy, with instruction on listening, reflecting , and intervening . It will systematically take the reader from evaluation to termination using straightforward language and carefully annotated examples. Written by experienced educators and based on a tried and tested syllabus, this book provides clinically relevant and accessible aspects of theories of treatment processes. The workbook style exercises in this book allow readers to practice what they learn in each section and more “actively” learn as they read the book. This book will teach This book presents complex concepts in a clear way that will be approachable for all readers. It is an invaluable guide for psychiatry residents, psychology students, and social work students, but also offers practicing clinicians in these areas a new way to think about psychodynamic psychotherapy. The practical approach and guided exercises make this an exceptional tool for psychotherapy educators teaching all levels of learners. This book includes a companion www.wiley.com/go/cabaniss/psychotherapy with the "Listening Exercise" for Chapter 16 (Learning to Listen). This is a short recording that will help the reader to learn about different ways we listen. Praise for Psychodynamic A Clinical Manual "This book has a more practical, hands-on, active learning approach than existing books on psychodynamic therapy."
Bob Bornstein , co-editor of Principles of Psychotherapy; Adelphi University, NY "Well-written, concise and crystal clear for any clinician who wishes to understand and practice psychodynamic psychotherapy. Full of real-world clinical vignettes, jargon-free and useful in understanding how to assess, introduce and begin psychotherapy with a patient. Extraordinarily practical with numerous examples of how to listen to and talk with patients while retaining a sophistication about the complexity of the therapeutic interaction. My trainees have said that this book finally allowed them to understand what psychodynamic psychotherapy is all about!"
—Debra Katz , Vice Chair for Education at the University of Kentucky and Director of Psychiatry Residency Training "This volume offers a comprehensive learning guide for psychodynamic psychotherapy training."
—Robert Glick , Professor, Columbia University

394 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

100 people are currently reading
335 people want to read

About the author

Deborah L. Cabaniss

7 books3 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
87 (52%)
4 stars
67 (40%)
3 stars
11 (6%)
2 stars
2 (1%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Maica.
62 reviews200 followers
December 25, 2017
Back in January, I attended a seminar-workshop on Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at the Philippine International Convention Center, which was organized by a group of psychiatrists from University of the Philippines - Philippine General Hospital. The seminar speakers utilized this book on their lectures, and what got me interested, is the book provided a structured approach to therapy which resembles the Cognitive-Behavioral approach. By applying psychoanalytic approaches, therapy can become a solution-focused process, though initially, it can be intimidating for the client, because defenses will be encountered and addressed. This book is very practical, useful, and gives structure and insight for the psychotherapy oriented towards the psychodynamic or psychoanalytic orientation.
Profile Image for Moses.
66 reviews6 followers
February 15, 2016
This is a very useful and insightful book. Very practical manual for practitioner.

To be honest, i felt a little sad as i finish the last chapter. It's as if i have to say goodbye to a wise teacher. (I must do therapy on my own now :)

Thank you
Profile Image for Saeid soheili.
44 reviews1 follower
October 22, 2020
کتابی مناسب برای آشنایی با رواندرمانی تحلیلی. مزیت بزرگ کتاب در مثال‌های متعدد آن است. در نیمه‌ی دوم کتاب جزئیات مهم‌تری درباره‌ی جزئیات جلسه درمان مطرح می‌شود که غیر درمانگران نیز می‌توانند از آن سود برند.
Profile Image for Don.
346 reviews3 followers
February 4, 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.
Profile Image for Ian Felton.
Author 3 books39 followers
September 23, 2019
An excellent guide to psychodynamic therapy. It's detailed, organized incredibly well, and has many case scenarios. A book to revisit again.
Profile Image for Juan  Li.
3 reviews1 follower
December 27, 2018
like what the author wrote in the end of the book “people search for meaning since the beginning,psychodynamic psychotherapy provides meaning to people within themselves.

meaning that originates from our childhood, meaning that related to other materials, meaning that lead us to feel comfortable.

two month of reading , I was quiet enjoying reading this boook. also it’s my first psychodynamic psychotherapy book. get really into this area now. it’s very helpful for a starter psychotherapists who learn and conduct in their sessions. I highly recommended it to everyone who is going to start it and even for people who don’t plan to be a therapist but interested in how their conscious and unconscious works could read it for getting to know themselves better. also the reference could enhance your learning more, too many but good to check when having time. I will read again and make notes when I conduct in my sessions.
Profile Image for Nick.
252 reviews10 followers
November 12, 2019
A good introduction to psychodynamic psychotherapy.
235 reviews
Read
June 12, 2023
term 1, read parts. v interesting, would explore further with more time.
good basics, accessible and deep.
Profile Image for Teddy Goetz.
Author 6 books19 followers
September 14, 2023
A profoundly clear, well-organized, and readable book on psychodynamic psychotherapy. Highly recommend.
Profile Image for Bachir ELHALLAK.
37 reviews2 followers
May 8, 2024
Very useful guide for PP clinicians, therapists and students, highly recomended.
Profile Image for Matthew Gibson.
35 reviews2 followers
March 14, 2016
I found this to be a solid introductory textbook. I appreciated its thorough discussion of every aspect of the patient that a therapist should pay attention to (e.g. Affect, dreams, various ego functions), though I also found that this made some of the book seem repetitive. It's truly a basic text, and functions well in that capacity, but there's not a whole lot of depth. I did really appreciate the multitude of examples, and the exercises to practice techniques.
61 reviews
June 15, 2013
This is a really good manual and gave me amazing insight into Pyschodynamic Psychotherapy. I loved the fact that is was straight to the point and didnt bore me with long explainations or discussions that just seem to go on forever. The author wanted to get the points across, not just hear herself speak (or write).
Profile Image for Trevor.
588 reviews9 followers
October 19, 2016
Concise, practical manual for psychodynamic psychotherapy clinical practice. I will be referring to this for case notes.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.