Today’s entry is promoted by different people who have sent us their requests for reference books or recommendations from the team of therapists.
For this reason, I am going to list the books that I consider “essential” to work from any psychotherapy model. As many know, I am a Gestaltist, but I understand that books that for me are mandatory reading if you want to work from this model, are of little use for a systemic or cognitive-behavioral therapist, for example.
These are the five books that I consider every psychologist should read, precisely because they address common aspects in all psychotherapy models.
The treatment of grief – J. William Worden
An essential book. Much beyond what it may seem. Grief is a process that is present in any patient who comes to consultation, and not only those who have a diagnosis of problematic grief or depression: Those who suffer from agoraphobia feel the grief of the freedom to go out that they have lost, the schizophrenic the mourning of having been a normal individual, the couple on the verge of breaking up the mourning of the family project that is ending…. Loss is always present in human pain, and therefore, the psychotherapist will always treat loss to a greater or lesser degree when working on any problems of their patients.
This book presents the work of grief like no other, with simple and quite eclectic language, describing its phases, symptoms and tasks to be carried out to close them.
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The Therapeutic Alliance – Myrna L. Firedlander, Valentín Escudero and Laurie Heatherington
Although they present the topic of alliance from the systemic family therapy model, they describe it in general terms, and we simply have to eliminate certain aspects such as “that the family shares a common goal” due to similar ideas of an individual format… In addition, the fact The fact that these authors have developed the SOATIF, an alliance evaluation instrument, allows any therapist to be very clear about the most important aspects of what is probably the most important thing that the psychologist must do in the treatment of their patients. We have talked a lot about Lambert and his meta-analysis that demonstrates that the psychologist-patient relationship achieves more changes than any other type of technique or model.
The book clearly explains what the alliance consists of, the variables that form it and what to do to achieve a good alliance as well as signs to evaluate it.
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Helping Relationship Notes – José Carlos Bermejo
In this simple and short manual, the author explains what elements are necessary for good active listening and how to empathize with the patient, a basic skill regardless of the psychologist’s work model. It is true that some models prioritize it over others, but every therapist must have a good empathic capacity and know how to make his patient see that he can understand his feelings and thoughts about his problem.
In the book he explains with astonishing simplicity what active listening or empathy consists of and, above all, how to put it into practice and train this skill, with interesting advice to show the patient that we connect with him and his internal world.
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The Ugly Ducklings – Boris Cyrulink
This book, although it has a great informative component, is one of the great works on Resilience. Optimism and the vision of the human being as something capable of overcoming the wounds of life may be somewhat forced, but they fill the reading psychologist with confidence in the ability of their patients to overcome adversity. Break with immovable “predictions” and “labels.”
It is a simple text that exposes the concept of resilience and narrates everything that this concept entails, which unfortunately, for many psychotherapists is simply that: a definition and not an attitude to transmit to the patient and from which to conceive our clinical work.
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Common Processes in Psychotherapy – Chris L. Kleinke
This book covers everything that is common in any psychological process, and that, therefore, every psychotherapist should not only know, but also know how to handle perfectly: Therapist Skills, Therapeutic Alliance, Ethical Dilemmas, How to start and close therapy, Work Attitude in patients… It gives an overview of the common aspects of all models and what is always inherent to the therapeutic process.
It is a compilation of writings by great psychotherapists such as Lisa Greencavage, Marvin Goldfried or Jerome Frank, where these topics are addressed and guidelines or reflections are promulgated on how to handle them.
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List previously published on , the online platform specialized in psychotherapeutic training.