The Therapeutic "Aha!": 10 Strategies for Getting Your Clients Unstuck

by Courtney Armstrong

A concise guide to shaking things up in therapy. Courtney Armstrong’s The Therapeutic “Aha!” explores the thrilling and rare moment when a client reaches an elusive realization, allowing them to make meaningful change. In 10 straightforward strategies, this practical book demonstrates how to shake things up in therapy when a client is stuck or stalled to jumpstart progress. Readers will learn how to spark the “emotional brain”―the part of the brain that houses automatic, unconscious patterns―and create new neural pathways that engage and advance the healing process.

Divided into three parts―(1) Awakening a Session, (2) Healing Emotional Wounds, and (3) Activating Experiential Change―the book walks readers through specific techniques for harnessing the emotional brain and re-patterning its routine. Elegant therapeutic insights and coping strategies only go so far; until we intervene with something our emotional brain can understand―a compelling felt experience―old, established neural patterns will persist. The brain-based strategies Armstrong presents include how to enliven the therapeutic alliance; elicit exciting goals; identify the root of an emotional conflict; reverse trauma with memory reconsolidation; invoke inspirational imagery; and use stories, humor, music, poetry, and even mindfulness to induce change.

Concise, reader-friendly, and filled with helpful case stories and client–therapist dialogue, this wonderfully accessible book puts a new spin on neuroscience knowledge, showing clinicians exactly how it can be used to make those once-elusive therapeutic breakthroughs more frequent, leading to greater healing for your patients.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 27, 2015

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be educational, helpful, and inspiring for me and my private practice. In fact I have read this book twice. If you are in private practice in the mental health field, or even working for an organization this book is packed full of ideas to help you help your clients in a way that's beneficial to them and reduces your own burnout. As many mental health workers know burnout is high in our field and finding a way to be effective clinicians and have fun is a huge relief to me!

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I too picked up this book after listening to the author on Shrink Rap Radio. What a great read. I love the stories that illustrate how powerful the concepts can be for clients. The book has already informed my practice and I know I will use the ideas in this book in the future. Thanks to the author for sharing her insight with us!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be honest, I would not have picked this book up if I hadn't heard Courtney Armstrong interviewed on Shrink Rap Radio. Her compelling interview inspired me to pick this book up. Even more surprising the book exceeded my already considerable expectations. The title suggests a book that might give a few tips and tricks to better therapeutic success. Something I would have assumed I didn't need. Instead Armstrong provides a powerful review of the most cutting edge thinkers in the field and integrates their insights and methods to provide a powerful framework for transformative work. Armstrong concisely and eloquently summarizes and integrates contemporary thinkers including Daniel Siegal, Jan Panksepp, Bruce Ecker, Peter Levine and (perhaps most interestingly) hypnotherapist Jon Connelly, drawing on the hugely varied traditions that underly each of their work. Then she goes on to provide a remarkably simple and powerful framework (which she summarizes as RECON) to deliver this cutting edge knowledge in a practical psychotherapeutic environment. Not only this but Armstrong manages the barely conceivable task of injecting humour and spontaneity into this serious and effective work, in such a way as to inspire the practitioner to do likewise!

A truly delightful work. Wonderful and groundbreaking.
It's on my A-list shelf.

[Cheri Flake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an absolute life changer for me in my work. If you are a therapist, you simply must pick it up regardless of your niche. My private practice has a whole new lift and light and my clients are the true beneficiaries of Armstrong's methods. I am truely grateful for this book.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best therapy books I've read in a while. The book is heavy on neuroscience, but the author encourages therapists to use their intuition, as well. This is a great book for new and experienced therapists alike.

[Heiki Eesmaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's not nearly as much epiphany as I'd hoped :) But it's OK.

[LaShanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! Gave me some valuable information to use with clients to help get movement going and help with the feeling of being "stuck."