Conversations in Psychotherapy : Ways of Working with Individuals, Couples, and Families

Dr. R. V. Fitzgerald invites readers into his office to observe and to learn what they choose to take from the kind of psychotherapy he does. It has much in common with what many other therapists do, but it bears his personal stamp. He makes no claim that this is the best or only way therapists should practice, only that it has worked well for him and for most of his patients. His approach is an informed and selective eclecticism built on a solid base of psychoanalytic information.
This book enables the reader to (1) conduct a thorough assessment of an individual patient, couple, or family; (2) think through and write out treatment plans that consider all levels of the biopsychosocial model, including the use of pharmacotherapy; (3) formulate a dynamic diagnosis using psychoanalytic, general systems theories and concepts from the main schools of marital and family therapy; (4) plan the overall treatment strategy, including predictable complications and tentative ways of dealing with them; (5) carry through to completion the treatment planned; and (6) revise formulations and plans as comprehension of patients' problems is enlarged through the therapy process. Perhaps most useful to the therapist is that Dr. Fitzgerald provides many specific examples of what he does and the exact words he uses in achieving these goals.

Dr. R. V. Fitzgerald invites readers into his office to observe and to learn what they choose to take from the kind of psychotherapy he does. It has much in common with what many other therapists do, but it bears his personal stamp. He makes no claim that this is the best or only way therapists should practice, only that it has worked well for him and for most of his patients. His approach is an informed and selective eclecticism built on a solid base of psychoanalytic information. This book enables the reader to (1) conduct a thorough assessment of an individual patient, couple, or family; (2) think through and write out treatment plans that consider all levels of the biopsychosocial model, including the use of pharmacotherapy; (3) formulate a dynamic diagnosis using psychoanalytic, general systems theories and concepts from the main schools of marital and family therapy; (4) plan the overall treatment strategy, including predictable complications and tentative ways of dealing with them; (5) carry through to completion the treatment planned; and (6) revise formulations and plans as comprehension of patients' problems is enlarged through the therapy process. Perhaps most useful to the therapist is that Dr. Fitzgerald provides many specific examples of what he does and the exact words he uses in achieving these goals.