The Basics of Psychotherapy: An Introduction to Theory and Practice

by Bruce E. Wampold

This book presents essential background necessary for understanding the role of theory in psychotherapy practice, and shows how understanding psychotherapy theory is the first step to becoming an effective therapist.

The author provides a thorough but concise overview of the history of psychotherapy, the evolution of psychotherapy theories, and research on the effectiveness of various psychotherapies in general practice and for treatment of specific common disorders.

The Basics of Psychotherapy , now in its second edition,   is an accessible, handy resource for students training to be psychotherapists and practitioners seeking to reevaluate theories and corresponding therapies. As the foundational book in the Theories of Psychotherapy Series, this title may be read first or in combination with other books in the series to establish a thorough understanding of psychotherapy and its variants. This updated second edition incorporates new developments in theory and research, new approaches including advances in culturally sensitive therapy, and updates in the classification of mental illness.

Genres: Psychology, Counselling

176 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2010

About the author

Bruce E. Wampold is the Patricia L. Wolleat Professor of Counseling Psychology and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
Wampold is known for developing the contextual model of psychotherapy, which constitutes an alternative to the prevailing theory of the effectiveness of psychotherapy, known as the medical model.
Wampold is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and received the Association's Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Applied Research in 2007.

Reviews

[Hamed Aghakhani · Rating 5 out of 5]

مبانی روان‌درمانی، مقدمه‌ای بر نظریه و عمل.
ترجمه علی نیلوفری، لیلا عبدالله پوری
نشر ارجمند

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the textbooks for Fall Semester. I decided to try to get a head start by reading it before school starts. The first half was more accessible than the second half. Or you could just read the summary, which is quite accessible.

Bottom line: psychotherapy works, but we're not sure why. Some therapists are better than others, but we can't figure out how to bottle whatever that secret is or teach it to people. Good luck students of psychotherapy.

[LMS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Money quote from the last chapter: “clearly, additional research is needed to understand how psychotherapy works.” No kidding! Most of this book was just the author (who refers to himself in the third person when referencing his own studies which is a proper academic thing to do but did always make me smile) posing a question such as “which psychotherapy theory is most effective?” And then answering it with “we don’t know. Studies are inconclusive.” Very interesting however that the “alliance” proves to be the real effective variable across all theories – that is, the relationship between therapist and client, the agreement on the tasks and goals of therapy, and the administration of explanations and solutions for the client’s problems, or the rationale: “the explanation for the clients distress is accepted by the client and leads to a solution to the presenting problem.”

Seems like the most important thing a therapist does, quoting from page 57, is to “tell a hopeful story to the client: if you believe in this new explanation and follow the steps in this treatment, your problems will be manageable and life will be better.”

Was scratching my head at his take on “truthiness” - no theory can be true, but the theory that the client believes in is the most effective one - while at the same time he has spent a considerable amount of time trying to determine the effectiveness (truth?) of different psychological theories. Maybe his failure thus far to do so leads to this conclusion.

For a book called the basics of psychotherapy, what you’ll find is a lot of acknowledgement that this entire field is very much in its infancy. Messer and Kaslow’s “Essential Psychotherapies” is next on my list and I’m hoping to find a little less failed studies and a little more certainty there.

[Joel Cuthbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this as part of an intro to Psychotherapy class. It was pretty fine. I appreciate the way it attempts to posit psychotherapy as part of the larger sciences, a struggle ultimately to define it as cleanly as medication and the other healing arts. The second half gets a bit bogged down trying to scientifically and empirically explain how therapy works, ultimately concluding that it doesn't really matter how you go about it so long as patient and practicioner are working together... almost like the core issue is just that people need to talk and half someone listen, a thing we've lost in the modern world apparently.

Surface sufficiently scratched, but there's more to find here, and I'm gonna find it!

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no generic "how to" book of psychotherapy that doesn't suck. Therapy either bears the unmistakable imprint of your personality and ethos or it is a glorified form of adult baby-sitting.

Which some people find useful, but you don't need a book like this to tell you how to do that.

[Iuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bruce Wampold is a very important voice in the field of psychotherapy research.

[gem]

technically skimmed but i did in fact get through the whole thing today - essay prep :/

[Maggie Ardizzoni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Helpful content, but a little bit dry. I also felt that the level of detail and background given on the various topics was too great for an introductory book.