Bringing Psychotherapy to Life Through Caring Connections

The health care system privileges specialized therapies designed to treat psychiatric disorders, but many patients want to talk freely about troubles in their lives, and therapists want to enable them do so. This common interest requires a sense of safety promoted by a caring relationship.
The first part of the book includes an evidence-based critique of short-term therapies bearing scientific credentials that dominate the field. Do we really need hundreds of them? Meanwhile, a half-century of research attests to the overriding importance of the therapeutic relationship and therapists' interpersonal skills. Our humanity looms large here; science's majesty does not entitle it to a monarchy. Cognitive-behavior therapy is too narrow; we should give full weight to the value of emotional experience and nonverbal connection in therapy and in life.