Psychiatric Interviewing E-Book: The Art of Understanding: A Practical Guide for Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Nurses, and Other Mental Health Professionals

by Shawn Christopher Shea MD

 With time at a premium, today's clinicians must rapidly engage their patients while gathering an imposingly large amount of critical information. These clinicians appropriately worry that the "person" beneath the diagnoses will be lost in the shuffle of time constraints, data gathering, and the creation of the electronic health record. Psychiatric Interviewing: The Art of Understanding: A Practical Guide for Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals, 3rd Edition tackles these problems head-on, providing flexible and practical solutions for gathering critical information while always attending to the concerns and unique needs of the patient.

Within the text, Dr. Shea deftly integrates interviewing techniques from a variety of professional disciplines from psychiatry to clinical psychology, social work, and counseling providing a broad scope of theoretical foundation. Written in the same refreshing, informal writing style that made the first two editions best sellers, the text provides a compelling introduction to all of the core interviewing skills from conveying empathy, effectively utilizing open-ended questions, and forging a powerful therapeutic alliance to sensitively structuring the interview while understanding nonverbal communication at a sophisticated level. Updated to the DSM-5, the text also illustrates how to arrive at a differential diagnosis in a humanistic, caring fashion with the patient treated as a person, not just another case.

Whether the reader is a psychiatric resident or a graduate student in clinical psychology, social work, counseling or psychiatric nursing, the updated third edition is designed to prepare the trainee to function effectively in the hectic worlds of community mental health centers, inpatient units, emergency rooms, and university counseling centers. To do so, the pages are filled with sample questions and examples of interviewing dialogue that bring to life methods for sensitively exploring difficult topics such as domestic violence, drug abuse, incest, antisocial behavior, and taking a sexual history as well as performing complex processes such as the mental status. The expanded chapter on suicide assessment includes an introduction to the internationally acclaimed interviewing strategy for uncovering suicidal ideation, the Chronological Assessment of Suicide Events (CASE Approach). Dr. Shea, the creator of the CASE Approach, then illustrates its techniques in a compelling video demonstrating its effective use in an interview involving a complex presentation of suicidal planning and intent

.A key aspect of this text is its unique appeal to both novice and experienced clinicians. It is designed to grow with the reader as they progress through their graduate training, while providing a reference that the reader will pull off the shelf many times in their subsequent career as a mental health professional. Perhaps the most unique aspect in this regard is the addition of five complete chapters on Advanced and Specialized Interviewing (which comprise Part IV of the book) which appear as bonus chapters in the accompanying e-book without any additional cost to the reader. With over 310 pages, this web-based bonus section provides the reader with essentially two books for the price of one, acquiring not only the expanded core textbook but a set of independent monographs on specialized skill sets that the reader and/or faculty can add to their curriculum as they deem fit.

Genres: Psychology, Psychiatry, Mental Health, Counselling, Nonfiction, Medicine, Social Work

878 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 1988

Reviews

[Ahmed Shadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book in about 5 months and it was one of the most useful, interesting and engaging books I've read in psychiatric interviewing.

What I loved about it is that it contains principles, techniques and strategies to use in the clinic.
It contains a lot of tools and techniques to use for many different situations and clients we meet everyday.

The book comes with videos which contains sample of the interviewing that Dr. Shea does himself and it's very useful as we learn by observation.

I've read a lot about the therapeutic relationship and it's explained here in the most elaborate and applicable form.

It contains one of the best suicidal exploration methods and after applying the principles in it, I'm finding it a lot easier to talk about and deal with suicide ideation or attempts especially after watching Dr Shea applying the techniques and the method himself in the videos that come with the book.

I can't thank the author enough for this masterpiece.

Due it's length, I recommend it for the advanced clinicians, not for beginners in the field.

[Jarod Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is actually a pretty outstanding introduction into the art of psychiatric interviewing - a skill that is not exclusive to the field of psychiatric, but useful for talking to people in any sort of professional interaction. Learning how to understand the source of resistances or issues in the friendliness ("blending") of a conversation is important for myriad circumstances. Dr Shea does a pretty great job at covering a wide ground of very relevant and intriguing topics in a way that is entertaining to read about. Though this may be a textbook, it reads very well with its examples of patient-clinician interaction, rarely boring as one may expect. If you are an expert in the field, this may tread over much common ground, but if you have any interest in understanding the science of a dyadic interaction or psychiatry, this is really a fantastic book.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t recommend this book enough for anyone in the mental health field. It’s an unfortunate statistical truth that 50% of psychiatrists/psychologists/therapists are below average, but if everyone in it were to read this book then the mean would at least be shifted significantly right. Every single chapter contains immensely useful pearls that I immediately see the benefits of putting into practice.

[Brittany Pike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wealth of information! This was my favorite book to read in school by far. I was so honored to hear Dr. Shea speak at our school in my last semester. What a legend.

[Nauticality · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent toolkit for interviewing techniques with tons of good vignettes and case studies to examine.

[Joe Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accessible. Witty. Applicable. Deep in its insights. Each chapter is valuable. A book worth reading for any psychiatrist looking to improve their interviewing skills.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Добра книга. Създава съвсем прилична представа за динамичната природа на психиатричното интервю. Монографиите, посветени на изкуството на интервирането в психиатрията, а и във всички помагащи професии, не са никак много и всяка книга, заела се да концептуализира и изведе принципите на това занимание, в което се преплитат знания и умения, е добре дошла.
В книгата, все пак, няма нищо новаторско, но въпреки това тя е един добър текст, който може да послужи като основа за сериозен дебат по въпросите на изграждането на среда, подходяща за изграждане на терапевтична връзка при първите контакти с пациенти с различни емоционални и психични проблеми.

[Genoveva Uzunova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book!

[Watk4373 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best text I've read that dissects the interview down to the most nuanced interactions!

[Laurie Rackley-joseph]

Amazing useful detail on every page.