Wow! eBook
Opening Gambits: The First Session of Psychotherapy
Author(s): Peter S. Armstrong (Author)
- Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc. (UK)
- Publication Date: 1 Mar. 2000
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 235 pages
- ISBN-10: 076570241X
- ISBN-13: 9780765702418
Book Description
The therapists stance and its implications for first session technique are discussed (e.g., first words, therapist anxiety, and subtle directives) as well as issues of scheduling, fees, and cancellations. Armstrong identifies eight essential tasks of the first session (including, for example, an atmosphere of safety, patient assessment, the contract, and transition), and demonstrates with rich clinical detail the steps he takes to accomplish them. Specific attention is given to patients with previous therapy, returning patients, compliant and meek patients, and those in need of medication or hospitalization. Well considered and thought-provoking, this book introduces beginning therapists to the complexity and range of first session concerns, and challenges experienced therapists to rethink the techniques and personal mannerisms that may have become automatic in meeting a patient for the first time.
Editorial Reviews
Review
With rare teaching ability, Dr. Armstrong explicates how the psychotherapist approaches the first session, but this book is as much about the rationale for and substance of the psychoanalytic attitude. A must-read for beginning therapists or those interested in beginning psychotherapy themselves. — Helen Desmond, Ph.D., past president an dtraining and supervising analyst, Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute
Despite the fact that every clinician has conducted many first sessions, until now there has been no definitive book on the subject. Dr. Armstrong has ably filled that vacuum. Buttressed with sound theoretical underpinnings and clear clinical illustrations, he covers everything from the therapist”s first words to transference and countertransference phenomena, resistances and counterresistances, arrangement of the office, establishing fee schedules, and much more. All clinicians will welcome this very readable book. It is highly recommended, particularly for those who want to help their patients stay in treatment―and that is just about all of us. — Herbert S. Strean, D.S.W., Rutgers University; director emeritus, New York Center for Psychoanalytic Training
