Counselling Psychology

“If only I could get some closure…” If you’ve found yourself saying these words, you’re not alone. When you’ve lost a relationship, a job, or a loved one, closure can seem as elusive as it is necessary. Psychotherapist and relationship coach Gary McClain says it’s one of the most common—and important—issues his clients bring up. In this empathetic and insightful guide, Dr. McClain explains why the promise of closure is so appealing—and why it’s not always all it’s cracked up to be.

Unlocking the doors to the psych ward, NHS psychiatrist Dr Benji Waterhouse provides a fly-on-the-padded-wall account of medicine’s most mysterious and controversial speciality. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to be a psychiatrist? Are the solutions to people’s messy lives really within medical school textbooks? And how can vulnerable patients receive the care they need when psychiatry lacks staff, hospital beds and any actual cures?

Spirituality is an important part of many clients’ lives. It can be a resource for stabilization, healing, and growth. It can also be the cause of struggle and even harm. More and more therapists - those who consider themselves spiritual and those who do not - recognize the value of addressing spirituality in therapy and increasing their skill for engaging it ethically and effectively. In this immensely practical book, Russell Siler Jones helps therapists feel more competent and confident about having spiritual conversations with clients.

When Dr. Brandy Engler opened her sex therapy practice for women in Manhattan, she got a big surprise. Most of the calls were from men. They wanted to talk about womanizing, porn addiction, impotence, prostitutes - and most of all, love.

Seeking reassurance to remove doubt or fear is natural, and we all do it from time to time. However, it becomes a compulsion when it develops into something repetitive and ritualistic. This compulsion is linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), can perpetuate and worsen this condition, and can also create conflict between you, your friends, coworkers, and loved ones. So, how do you stop? The Compulsive Reassurance Seeking Workbook offers proven-effective tools to reduce compulsions, make peace with uncertainty, and better manage your OCD.

This extraordinary book presents scenarios of one family's therapy experience and explains what underlies each encounter. You will discover the general patterns that are common to all families - stress, polarization and escalation, scapegoating, triangulation, blaming, and the diffusion of identity - and you will gain a vivid understanding of the intriguing field of family therapy.

Whatever loss you have experienced, this book can help you to make sense of it; guiding you through those difficult and overwhelming emotions, explaining how these fit into the universal psychological process of grieving—and showing you a path to creating a more content life. Psychotherapist Christine Hopfgarten looks in detail at different reasons that we may encounter feelings of loss and grief, including bereavement, relationship break-up, losing a job, infertility, miscarriage and illness, and provides focused help.

Many of us believe that the best way to treat crises and challenges is to process them: to mull over and analyse the stresses, anxieties and traumas we face. But this perception is misguided. Instead, we should think of our mind as a sieve through which everything slips unless we choose to hold on to it. But how do we let go of those negative thoughts we’ve held on to which are weighing us down?

Renee is stunned when Colin tells her he wants a divorce. As a last-ditch effort save their marriage she turns to Dr. Jason Kincaid, an eccentric therapist who specializes in helping couples whose relationships are at risk. What Renee doesn't know is that Colin has his own agenda for agreeing to therapy, one that involves secrets he doesn't want revealed.

Will Jason's irreverent approach to counseling help save their marriage? Or will he simply be their first stop on their road to an ugly divorce? If you had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall of a therapist's office, would you take it?

Human brains and behavior are shaped by genetic predispositions and early experience. But we are not doomed by our genes or our past. Neuroscientific discoveries of the last decade have provided an optimistic and revolutionary view of adult brain function: People can change. This revelation offers hope to therapists and to couples seeking to improve their relationship. Loving With the Brain in Mind explores ways to help couples become proactive in revitalizing their relationship.

Walking through Psalm 23 phrase by phrase, therapist and author K.J. Ramsey explores the landscape of our fear, trauma, and faith. When she stepped through her own wilderness of spiritual abuse and religious trauma, K.J. discovered that courage is not the absence of anxiety but the practice of trusting we will be held and loved no matter what. The Lord is My Courage is for the deconstructing and the dreamers, the afraid and the amazed, for those whose fear has not been fully shepherded but who can't seem to stop listening for their Good Shepherd's Voice.

For most of us, the major questions of life continue to perplex: Who am I? Why am I here? How should I live? In the late 19th century, a class of thinkers emerged who made solving these problems central to their work. They understood that human questions demand human answers and that, without understanding what it means to be human, there are no answers. Through the biographies and theories of luminaries ranging from Sigmund Freud to Erich Fromm, Frank Tallis shows us how to think about companionship and parenting, identity and aging, and much more.

When treating a client who has suffered from interpersonal trauma - whether chronic childhood abuse or domestic violence, for example - talk therapy isn't always the most effective course. For these individuals, the trauma and its effects are so entrenched, so complex, that reducing their experience to a set of symptoms or suggesting a change in cognitive frame or behavioral pattern ignores a very basic but critical player: the body.

This down-to-earth guide walks you through the four DBT modules, mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Each chapter explains how to practice the key skills and dives into the authors' own experiences to explore what works, what doesn't, and which skills work best for particular challenges. Journaling prompts help you work out how to fit the skills into your own day-to-day life, so you can make changes that work for you.

An essential resource for psychologists, therapists, and clinicians to help clients understand dissociation, make sense of their parts, and visualize depersonalization and derealization—a stigma-free guide from the bestselling author of Dissociation Made Simple.

Not a day goes by without our being called upon to help one another - at home, at work, on the street, on the phone. We do what we can. Yet so many questions come up to complicate this natural response. In this practical helper's companion, the authors explore a path through these confusions and provide support and inspiration for us in our efforts as members of the helping professions, as volunteers, as community activists, or simply as friends and family trying to meet each other's needs.

The Alchemy of the Enneagram in Transforming Addiction describes the distinct differences between the nine Enneagram types and their particular addiction struggles, protective mechanisms, relapse patterns, and key strategies for each type that will allow them to become conscious and drug-free men.

Adult children of narcissists have been conditioned to downplay, dismiss, and ignore their experiences. This survival skill of staying below the radar can cause even very skilled clinicians to miss subtle opportunities to connect. It is paramount that clinicians understand the scope of these clients' experiences in order to support their healing—and to avoid the common clinical mistakes and pitfalls that often lead to inadvertently repeating harmful cycles.

Life in the Past Lane is an audiobook that focuses on better days ahead. Learn how to frame the issues, problems, and concerns of our past by being more aware and more willing to make the changes necessary. Included are strategies to better manage stress, anxiety, depression, and relationship dynamics in our lives. You will learn how to dispute negative thoughts with the evidence that it will be okay. Thinking about what you can do differently is the first step to making life better.

Strengthening, calming, and stabilizing the mind is the essential first step in accomplishing nearly any goal. Growing up American with a Tibetan twist, Sakyong Mipham talks to Westerners as no one can: in idiomatic English with stories and wisdom from American culture and the great Buddhist teachers. Turning the Mind Into an Ally makes it possible for anyone to achieve peace and clarity in their lives.