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Come Sopravvivere da Psicoterapeuta
Nina Coltart’s classic work, How to Survive as a Psychotherapist, was written over a quarter of a century ago and yet still resonates today with sage advice for the aspiring and established psychotherapist. This reissue contains a new Foreword from celebrated psychoanalyst David E. Scharff and an updated Further Reading section.
Not simply a “how to” manual, this compact book is an amalgam of down-to-earth practicality about assessment, the pleasures of psychotherapy as opposed to analysis, details of how to run a practice, vivid clinical stories which don’t necessarily turn out well, discussions of Buddhism, and an autobiographical finale on the balance between life and work, including Coltart’s choice to live alone. Written in deceptively simple language, it reads easily and encourages beginners, but its backbone is the accrued wisdom for a career containing “survival-with-enjoyment” that offers new perspectives to both mid-career and experienced therapists and teachers.
The professional autobiographical quality of the book reveals a lot about her love of psychotherapy over full analysis and the number of strictures in analysis that she feels bind rather than guide. She describes the first years, in training and beyond, as full of trying to get things right whilst an inner critical voice and the judgement of supervisors and teachers hangs over it all. Slowly, as time goes by, the ability to relax into a career with confidence in one’s own voice, knowledge, and intuition leads to a capacity for enjoyment of what can seem to outsiders a grim profession dealing only with suffering.
Coltart’s book celebrates psychotherapy and its practitioners, and is full of interesting and practical advice that both experienced and novice psychotherapists will find invaluable. This enduring classic has stood the test of time and should be a feature of every aficionado’s bookshelf.
Not simply a “how to” manual, this compact book is an amalgam of down-to-earth practicality about assessment, the pleasures of psychotherapy as opposed to analysis, details of how to run a practice, vivid clinical stories which don’t necessarily turn out well, discussions of Buddhism, and an autobiographical finale on the balance between life and work, including Coltart’s choice to live alone. Written in deceptively simple language, it reads easily and encourages beginners, but its backbone is the accrued wisdom for a career containing “survival-with-enjoyment” that offers new perspectives to both mid-career and experienced therapists and teachers.
The professional autobiographical quality of the book reveals a lot about her love of psychotherapy over full analysis and the number of strictures in analysis that she feels bind rather than guide. She describes the first years, in training and beyond, as full of trying to get things right whilst an inner critical voice and the judgement of supervisors and teachers hangs over it all. Slowly, as time goes by, the ability to relax into a career with confidence in one’s own voice, knowledge, and intuition leads to a capacity for enjoyment of what can seem to outsiders a grim profession dealing only with suffering.
Coltart’s book celebrates psychotherapy and its practitioners, and is full of interesting and practical advice that both experienced and novice psychotherapists will find invaluable. This enduring classic has stood the test of time and should be a feature of every aficionado’s bookshelf.
- GenresPsychologyPsychoanalysis
Paperback
First published January 28, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 11, 2013
I ordered this book online and was surprised at the lack of pages when it arrived. From other books I've read and received, I always expect psychology books written by psychologists to be large and somewhat intimidating. This isn't, and you can either take that as a positive or negative. The cover itself was also odd and basic, but as I've always been told never to judge a book by its cover, I jumped right in.
I thought the book was going to be written like a guide to becoming a psychotherapist, from undergrad through to setting up private practice, but it's not really like that at all. It's more a series of thoughts about being a therapist, written by someone who clearly has a very analytical, Freudian approach to therapy. Not that it's a bad thing, but whilst I was reading I got the feeling that the author wasn't particularly open-minded or informative about other options.
The book starts with talking about students at degree level, (but not in detail...), then goes straight on to setting up private practice and some of the odd things you'll need but don't consider, such as choosing the right chairs and having a metal bin...
It's all a bit... Well, 'bitty'.
There are a few good stories about clients, but in my opinion not enough for someone who has been a therapist for many years.
Although there was some useful information, it was quite hard wading through the odd writing style to find the good bits.
Which brings me on to my next point; one does not need to use 'one' in almost every sentence, does one?! This can get very tedious and also comes across as very pretentious. This takes me to the last chapter quite nicely...
In the final part, the author attempts writing as herself rather than a therapist, but, I felt, came across as rather old-fashioned, particularly when the majority of the chapter focuses on the fact that she has no children or partner and that this is an advantage when being a therapist. She covers herself with one sentence about how she knows of colleagues who are able to manage a PART time practice and have a family, but clearly is of the opinion that there is no way to manage having a family AND being a decent therapist. I think it was this chapter which jaded my opinion of the entire book - the 'one' references I could have just about dealt with if I hadn't of got the impression at the end that the author was as pretentious as her writing style.
All in all I would recommend a read if you're studying undergrad psychology - there are some good points to take away, and if you're a Freudian you won't have too many problems reading this. If, like me, you're more open-minded about therapy then be prepared for a little frustration. However, it's such a short book that it doesn't take long to read, and I say any extra information or snippets of advice at this stage of the journey are worth noting, even if one does not agree with the style of writing, or the author's opinion. After all, learning how to disagree tactfully is all part of being a therapist, right?!
I thought the book was going to be written like a guide to becoming a psychotherapist, from undergrad through to setting up private practice, but it's not really like that at all. It's more a series of thoughts about being a therapist, written by someone who clearly has a very analytical, Freudian approach to therapy. Not that it's a bad thing, but whilst I was reading I got the feeling that the author wasn't particularly open-minded or informative about other options.
The book starts with talking about students at degree level, (but not in detail...), then goes straight on to setting up private practice and some of the odd things you'll need but don't consider, such as choosing the right chairs and having a metal bin...
It's all a bit... Well, 'bitty'.
There are a few good stories about clients, but in my opinion not enough for someone who has been a therapist for many years.
Although there was some useful information, it was quite hard wading through the odd writing style to find the good bits.
Which brings me on to my next point; one does not need to use 'one' in almost every sentence, does one?! This can get very tedious and also comes across as very pretentious. This takes me to the last chapter quite nicely...
In the final part, the author attempts writing as herself rather than a therapist, but, I felt, came across as rather old-fashioned, particularly when the majority of the chapter focuses on the fact that she has no children or partner and that this is an advantage when being a therapist. She covers herself with one sentence about how she knows of colleagues who are able to manage a PART time practice and have a family, but clearly is of the opinion that there is no way to manage having a family AND being a decent therapist. I think it was this chapter which jaded my opinion of the entire book - the 'one' references I could have just about dealt with if I hadn't of got the impression at the end that the author was as pretentious as her writing style.
All in all I would recommend a read if you're studying undergrad psychology - there are some good points to take away, and if you're a Freudian you won't have too many problems reading this. If, like me, you're more open-minded about therapy then be prepared for a little frustration. However, it's such a short book that it doesn't take long to read, and I say any extra information or snippets of advice at this stage of the journey are worth noting, even if one does not agree with the style of writing, or the author's opinion. After all, learning how to disagree tactfully is all part of being a therapist, right?!
February 26, 2025
Niepozorna książeczka o zaskakująco dużej mocy. Warto przeczytać.
February 4, 2025
I ordered this book online and was surprised at the lack of pages when it arrived. From other books I've read and received, I always expect psychology books written by psychologists to be large and somewhat intimidating. This isn't, and you can either take that as a positive or negative. The cover itself was also odd and basic, but as I've always been told never to judge a book by its cover, I jumped right in.
I thought the book was going to be written like a guide to becoming a psychotherapist, from undergrad through to setting up private practice, but it's not really like that at all. It's more a series of thoughts about being a therapist, written by someone who clearly has a very analytical, Freudian approach to therapy. Not that it's a bad thing, but whilst I was reading I got the feeling that the author wasn't particularly open-minded or informative about other options.
The book starts with talking about students at degree level, (but not in detail...), then goes straight on to setting up private practice and some of the odd things you'll need but don't consider, such as choosing the right chairs and having a metal bin...
It's all a bit... Well, 'bitty'.
There are a few good stories about clients, but in my opinion not enough for someone who has been a therapist for many years.
Although there was some useful information, it was quite hard wading through the odd writing style to find the good bits.
Which brings me on to my next point; one does not need to use 'one' in almost every sentence, does one?! This can get very tedious and also comes across as very pretentious. This takes me to the last chapter quite nicely...
In the final part, the author attempts writing as herself rather than a therapist, but, I felt, came across as rather old-fashioned, particularly when the majority of the chapter focuses on the fact that she has no children or partner and that this is an advantage when being a therapist. She covers herself with one sentence about how she knows of colleagues who are able to manage a PART time practice and have a family, but clearly is of the opinion that there is no way to manage having a family AND being a decent therapist. I think it was this chapter which jaded my opinion of the entire book - the 'one' references I could have just about dealt with if I hadn't of got the impression at the end that the author was as pretentious as her writing style.
All in all I would recommend a read if you're studying undergrad psychology - there are some good points to take away, and if you're a Freudian you won't have too many problems reading this. If, like me, you're more open-minded about therapy then be prepared for a little frustration. However, it's such a short book that it doesn't take long to read, and I say any extra information or snippets of advice at this stage of the journey are worth noting, even if one does not agree with the style of writing, or the author's opinion. After all, learning how to disagree tactfully is all part of being a therapist, right?!
I thought the book was going to be written like a guide to becoming a psychotherapist, from undergrad through to setting up private practice, but it's not really like that at all. It's more a series of thoughts about being a therapist, written by someone who clearly has a very analytical, Freudian approach to therapy. Not that it's a bad thing, but whilst I was reading I got the feeling that the author wasn't particularly open-minded or informative about other options.
The book starts with talking about students at degree level, (but not in detail...), then goes straight on to setting up private practice and some of the odd things you'll need but don't consider, such as choosing the right chairs and having a metal bin...
It's all a bit... Well, 'bitty'.
There are a few good stories about clients, but in my opinion not enough for someone who has been a therapist for many years.
Although there was some useful information, it was quite hard wading through the odd writing style to find the good bits.
Which brings me on to my next point; one does not need to use 'one' in almost every sentence, does one?! This can get very tedious and also comes across as very pretentious. This takes me to the last chapter quite nicely...
In the final part, the author attempts writing as herself rather than a therapist, but, I felt, came across as rather old-fashioned, particularly when the majority of the chapter focuses on the fact that she has no children or partner and that this is an advantage when being a therapist. She covers herself with one sentence about how she knows of colleagues who are able to manage a PART time practice and have a family, but clearly is of the opinion that there is no way to manage having a family AND being a decent therapist. I think it was this chapter which jaded my opinion of the entire book - the 'one' references I could have just about dealt with if I hadn't of got the impression at the end that the author was as pretentious as her writing style.
All in all I would recommend a read if you're studying undergrad psychology - there are some good points to take away, and if you're a Freudian you won't have too many problems reading this. If, like me, you're more open-minded about therapy then be prepared for a little frustration. However, it's such a short book that it doesn't take long to read, and I say any extra information or snippets of advice at this stage of the journey are worth noting, even if one does not agree with the style of writing, or the author's opinion. After all, learning how to disagree tactfully is all part of being a therapist, right?!
November 11, 2022
Something so simple, grounded and hopeful about this book.
May 31, 2023
Testo interessante e rassicurante per psicologi e psicoterapeuti agli esordi. Contiene tante riflessioni, molte attuali alcune obsolete, ma comunque utili.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews