Understanding and Managing the Therapeutic Relationship

Book excerpt: Working with clients can be challenging, even for therapists with years of training, and working with difficult clients can be even more daunting. Understanding how the emotions of both therapist and client affect their relationship is as important as understanding theory and technique, and effective management of that relationship is crucial to successful treatment. Understanding and Managing the Therapeutic Relationship is the first book to integrate the theoretical, practical, and emotional aspects of the clinical relationship. Through a combination of classical and contemporary theory, comprehensive practical case applications, and empirically grounded knowledge from such varied sources as attachment theory and neuroscience, McKenzie has created a text that captures the emotional aspects of the therapeutic encounter in a way that is informative and useful to both the beginning clinician and the experienced therapist. This book works well in both advanced and introductory courses in social work theory and practice, counseling psychology practice, clinical psychology practice, and human services practice. It also proves a useful reference for doctoral level classes.