Inside the Session: What Really Happens in Psychotherapy

Unlike many presentations of clinical material, Inside the Session does not offer carefully selected examples of therapeutic dialogue that are conveniently chosen to conform to the therapist's views. Rather, it presents full transcripts of three entire sessions, enabling readers to see not only what went right but also where the therapist may have missed a crucial detail or may have intervened at the wrong moment. This volume provides a rare opportunity to look over the shoulder-and into the mind-of a renowned psychotherapist at work. Paul L. Wachtel intersperses the sessions' transcripts with insightful at-the-moment commentary not only on the clients' presenting problems but also on his reasoning about how to explore their lines of thought, encourage crucial insight, and effectively use restatements and simple words to facilitate dialogue. A further illuminating feature of the book is an integrative framework that links the clinical work and the theoretical discussion, highlighting convergences that are obscured by different terminologies and clarifying where the differences are real and important.