A Safe Place: Laying the Groundwork of Psychotherapy - Softcover

Havens, Leston

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674000862 ISBN 13: 9780674000865

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Drawing on his rich experience within psychiatry, Leston Havens takes the reader on an extraordinary journey through the vast and changing landscape of psychotherapy and psychiatry today. Closely examining the dynamics of the doctor–patient exchange, he seeks to locate and describe the elusive therapeutic environment within which psychological healing most effectively takes place.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In a world that seems increasingly complex, even hostile, many of us yearn for a place where we can be totally accepted, where grievances great and small can be aired, old hurts and secret foibles disclosed to another trusting human being. To find such a place, and such a person, could give us the safety and freedom we need to be who we really are.  In this beautifully written, meticulously thoughtful book, psychiatrist Leston Havens declares that a safe place does exist--indeed must exist--in the therapist's office as the process of healing takes place. With great empathy for his patients, Dr. Havens takes readers into the mind of the therapist as he does his careful work: the kind of thinking he must do during sessions, how he must sometimes hold back for the patient's good, deal with his own feelings appropriately, or provoke in order to enlighten.  As he narrates his experience with a variety of patients--a highly emotional college student, a physician preoccupied by death, a schizophrenic seminary student, and others--Dr. Havens describes the challenge of creating a safe place for people who are wary, forlorn, and sick at heart. And in his capable hands, the idea of a safe place is explored in ways that can be translated to life outside the treatment session. In doing so, he teaches all of us the quality of mind required to establish a safe place for ourselves, and for others.

About the Author:

Leston L. Havens, M.D.  was Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Hospital.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0674000862
• ISBN 13: 9780674000865
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 174