Integrating the work of leading client-centered, gestalt, interpersonal, focusing, and process-oriented therapists, Handbook of Experiential Psychotherapy covers both conceptual foundations and current treatment applications. Contributors present well-articulated approaches to treating depression, PTSD, anxiety, and other problems, emphasizing the need to work with the client's own moment-by-moment experience of disturbing states and processes. The volume delineates a variety of experiential methods--from working with clients to symbolize bodily felt sense, evoke memories, and express intense feelings, to helping them reflect on their experience, maintain gains from session to session, and create new meanings for themselves. The role of the therapist's relational stance in promoting particular emotional processes is also examined, and newly developed models of experiential diagnosis and case formulation are described. This text will be of interest to practitioners and students of psychotherapy in a range of orientations.
Part I: History and Theory. Watson, Greenberg, Lietaer, The Experiential Paradigm Unfolding: Relationship and Experiencing. Greenberg, Van Balen, The Theory of Experience-Centered Therapies. Part II: Foundational Processes Watson, Goldman, Vanaerschot, Empathy: A Postmodern Way of Being? Yontef, Dialogic Gestalt Therapy. Schneider, Existential Processes. Leijssen, Focusing Microprocesses. van Kessel, Lietaer, Interpersonal Processes. Bohart, Tallman, The Person as Active Agent in Experiential Therapy. Mahrer, How Can Impressive In-Session Changes Become Impressive Postsession Changes? Part III: Differential Treatment Applications. Greenberg, Watson, Goldman, Process-Experiential Therapy of Depression. Elliott, Davis, Slatik, Process-Experiential Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Difficulties. Wolfe, Sigl, Experiential Psychotherapy of the Anxiety Disorders. Sachse, Goal-Oriented Client-Centered Psychotherapy of Psychosomatic Disorders. Hudgins, Experiential Psychodrama with Sexual Trauma. Eckert, Biermann-Ratjen, The Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Warner, A Client-Centered Approach to Therapeutic Work with Dissociated and Fragile Process. Prouty, Pretherapy and Presymbolic Experiencing. Speirer, Psychopathology According to the Differential Incongruence Model. Melnick, Nevis, Diagnosing in the Here and Now: A Gestalt Therapy Approach. Part IV: Conclusion. Greenberg, Lietaer, Watson, Experiential Therapy: Identity and Challenges.
