Web
    Destinations

... for technique & process in counseling and psychotherapy

Web Destinations

Association for Play Therapy
Play therapy is a technique for working with children and adults. The site lists upcoming conferences, articles on research, and a discussion thread with practical suggestions from fellow play therapists. They publish the International Journal of Play Therapy.
http://www.a4pt.org

Counseling Zone
The counseling zone is an award-winning network for mental health professionals, counselors, and graduate students in related fields. A username and password are required to access all of their resources. There are online discussions and articles about theory and technique and a broad range of issues in counseling.
http://www.czone.infopop.cc

Education World —Counseling Techniques
Education World is a vast site for educators. One of its communities is "counseling." Under counseling, a techniques section provides articles and links to theory and technique oriented sites. Although it focuses primarily on elementary and secondary school counseling, university and college counseling information is also available.
http://www.education-world.com/counseling/techniques/index.shtml

International Society for Sandplay Therapy
Sandplay is a technique used in working with children, adults, couples, and families. The society publishes the Journal of Sandplay Therapy, abstracts of which can be read on their site.
http://www.sandplayusa.org

Online Dictionary of Mental Health
It is a little difficult to place this British website in a category. It contains links to a number of problems, techniques, and disorders. It is especially useful for finding books on selected topics for use in bibliotherapy, or for finding more information on a particular disorder. In addition, one can track down articles on particular counseling techniques.
http://www.human-nature.com/odmh/index.html

Annotated Bibliography

Foundational Works

Beier, E., & Young, D. M. (1998). The silent language of psychotherapy (3rd ed.). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Beier's work is sometimes described as the union of Freud and Skinner. Beier is interested in the subtle persuasive messages sent in counseling and how counselor and client mutually influence each other consciously and unconsciously and how these behaviors become reinforced. The book is a practical one, dealing with real issues that counselors face such as dealing with distractions, handling transference and countertransference, and managing the therapeutic relationship.

Frank, J. D., & Frank, J. B. (1993). Persuasion and healing: A comparative study of psychotherapy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Since the first publication of his work in 1961, Jerome Frank has sought answers to the questions "What is psychotherapy?" and "What are its basic components?" Although Frank has identified six common factors of successful psychotherapy, this book also examines the entire healing process, helping us to understand various formats from religious rituals to psychotropic medication. This work is a commentary on the components of effective techniques in group, individual, and family therapy.

Frankl, V. (2000). Man's search for meaning (4th ed.). New York: Beacon Press.
Although it was originally published after World War II, this work has been rereleased several times and is also available in paperback. It is at once a tale of concentration camp survival and the basis for a new form of therapy, logotherapy. Frankl came to believe that the search for meaning is a prime motivator of human behavior and a survival mechanism for those who made it through traumatic experiences.

Ivey, A. E., & Authier, J. (1978). Microcounseling: Innovations in interviewing, counseling, psychotherapy, and psych education (2nd ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
The book includes the authors' approach to skills-based training in basic counseling skills, and includes research supporting the microcounseling method that involves breaking complex counselor behaviors into smaller parts and teaching them piecemeal. This method continues to be one of the strongest influences in counselor education today. The approach also influenced the development of relationship enhancement skills training and other social skills training methods.

Jourard, S. M. (1979). The transparent self. Malabar, FL: Krieger.
The major question Jourard is trying to answer is framed in the beginning lines of the book: "Shall we permit our fellows to know us as we now are or shall we remain enigmas, wishing to be seen as persons we are not?" (p. vii). Jourard writes in a personal, confessional style about his misgivings concerning the kind of concealment that is required by institutions, including marriage. He equates authenticity, self-disclosure, and mental health. He pioneered the idea that the counselor might disclose himself or herself as a method of treatment.

Reik, T. (1983). Listening with the third ear. New York: Farrar Strauss.
Reik's hypothesis is that what the client reveals sotto voce may be the most important aspect of what he or she is saying. The therapist must learn to listen with the third ear, screening out the content and superficial feelings and find the meaning of the story that lies at the root. The meaning almost always involves a visit to the client's past and the events that preceded the current situation.

Rogers, C. R. (1995). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Rogers was one of the first therapists to look at the process from the therapist's viewpoint, to examine one's genuine personal reactions to the client outside of a psychodynamic perspective of transference/countertransference. While his 1951 book, Client-centered Therapy outlined the basis for his approach, this volume may be his most influential since it addresses the opportunities and barriers to personal growth, the nature of change, and the essence of therapeutic relationship.

Watzlawick, P., Weakland, J. H., & Fisch, R. (1974). Change: Principles of problem formation and problem resolution. New York: Norton.
This book was a catalyst for the emergence of brief therapy and was built on the premises of Milton Erickson. One important assumption is that most problems are really solutions. In other words, they are unsuccessful attempts at problem solving. Understanding this point reframes the situation for the therapist, who starts seeing the real problem rather than what appears to be resistance. In addition, this book proposes a number of strategic interventions, including absurd ones, when straightforward suggestions are ineffective.

Key Current Works

Bellack, A. S., & Hersen, M. (Eds.). (1985). Dictionary of behavior therapy techniques. New York: Pergamon.
This is a compilation of twenty years of behavior therapy techniques by noted behaviorists. For the more explicit and complex methods, there is a description, a section on clinical applications, expected outcomes and time frame, potential side effects, and a short bibliography.

Gladding, S. T. (1998). Counseling as an art: The creative arts in counseling (2nd ed.). Alexandria,VA: American Counseling Association.
Counseling as an Art is a concise overview of the various media and approaches one can use as therapeutic methods. These include music, sculpture, painting, poetry, and many others.

Jacobs, E. (1992). Creative counseling techniques: An illustrated guide. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Jacobs' book contains a variety of techniques for individual and group counseling, but there are also two chapters on couples and family therapy. Techniques are described and illustrated with drawings and examples.

Kipper, D. A. (1986) Psychotherapy through clinical role playing. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
In this book Kipper shows how a single technique can become a form of therapy. He focuses on how clients can use the role-play as a rehearsal for life. Based on psycho-dramatic and behavioral principles, the book identifies methods for use in individual, family, and group therapy.

Kottler, J. A. (1992). Compassionate therapy: Working with difficult clients. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kottler's book discusses "those clients that defy the textbooks." The author addresses the topic of what makes clients difficult and gives case examples of therapists who must deal with them. A major point is that the counselor, in many cases, sabotages the therapeutic work by blaming the client and fails to recognize his or her own issues that block a compassionate reaction.

LeShan, L. (1996). Beyond technique: Psychotherapy for the 21st century. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
LeShan is a well-known writer and therapist. Beyond Technique is a reflection on the psychotherapy process. One major conclusion of the book is that many psychotherapists are unimodal. They give the same treatment to every client, in spite of the fact that each person's unique worldview, culture, and family demands that therapy must be tailored to the client. Therapists ought to be asking the question, "What particularly helps this client flourish?" Case examples help to bolster LeShan's argument that both theory and technique have to be modified for every client. Part 2 of the book focuses on the difference between curing (symptom relief) and healing. Healing is a natural healthy process that therapists can catalyze, rather than focusing on the sickness. LeShan believes this "gardening" metaphor will eventually replace the curing metaphor that is now prevalent.

McMullin, R. E. (1999). New handbook of cognitive therapies techniques. NY: Norton.
Recently updated from the 1986 first edition, McMullin's book is a creative, eclectic compilation of cognitive, behavioral, and rational emotive therapy techniques. He draws from the work of Meichenbaum, Beck, Ellis, and Mahoney. He explains countering techniques, perceptual shifting, conditioning techniques, paradoxical methods, logical analysis, adjuncts, and cognitive restructuring therapy tools. In all, there are more than 75 methods described. For each, the author identifies key principles, the step-by-step method, examples, a comment on the application, and suggested readings.

Prochaska, J. O., Norcross, J. C., DiClemente, C. C., & Crawley, B. (1995). Changing for good. New York: HarperCollins.
Changing for Good is the result of the authors' research on the motivations for change. Change moves from stage one, where the client does not think about the issue as a problem, to the second stage of realization that treatment is needed. This model of change has strong implications for addiction work but is also useful for understanding a prime dilemma in counseling: How do you motivate an unmotivated client?

Vandercreek, L., & Jackson, T. L. (Eds.). (2002). Innovations in clinical practice: A source book (vol. 20). Sarasota, Fl: Professional Resource Exchange.
This is the most recent of 20 volumes published by Professional Resource Exchange under different editors. Over 700 authors have contributed to these volumes, most of which are over 500 pages. The articles are for practitioners and are written by experienced therapists. All of the volumes are different and many of the earlier ones are still useful. Volume 20 has six sections. For each section, one article is listed below to give a feel for the book.

Clinical Issues and Applications: Anxiety disorders in adults
Practice Management and Professional Development: A professional living will for psychologists and other mental health professionals.
Instruments and Office Forms: A quick screen for DSM-IV disorders
Community Interventions: Practical issues in conducting home-based early interventions.
Selected Topics: Understanding and predicting homicide in cases of intimate partner domestic violence.
Client Handouts: Discipline with preschoolers

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