Therapy With Tough Clients ― The Use of Indirect and Unconscious Techniques

Gafner offers this niche manual of technique for psychotherapists, using indirect methods to probe the unconscious. Chapter one introduces two case studies, a war veteran with PTSD among other problems and a clinical psychologist with distress over romantic attachment to a client, that run throughout the book as practical demonstrations of theory. The technical part of the book then begins with storytelling, metaphor, and the tendency for certain types of discourse to induce hypnotic-like states, even if formal hypnosis was not the intention. Therapeutic usage of spontaneous hypnotic and dissociative phenomena in the session is discussed. Topics focused upon in the main part of the book include ego-strengthening, perturbation and pattern interruption, and continuing exploration of story and metaphor. Irritable bowel syndrome and PTSD are discussed in some detail due to the nature of the case studies. After concluding the case studies, a survey of techniques not discussed in detail is provided, as well as hypnotic induction and the author's favorite facilitative narratives. Annotation c2014 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)