Handbook of Experiential Psychotherapy

Integrating the work of leading client-centered, gestalt, interpersonal, focusing, and process-oriented therapists, Handbook of Experiential Psychotherapy covers both conceptual foundations and current treatment applications. Contributors present well-articulated approaches to treating depression, PTSD, anxiety, and other problems, emphasizing the need to work with the client's own moment-by-moment experience of disturbing states and processes. The volume delineates a variety of experiential methods--from working with clients to symbolize bodily felt sense, evoke memories, and express intense feelings, to helping them reflect on their experience, maintain gains from session to session, and create new meanings for themselves. The role of the therapist's relational stance in promoting particular emotional processes is also examined, and newly developed models of experiential diagnosis and case formulation are described.

A major shift has occurred in experiential therapy. This seminal text extends the work of Rogers and Perls and provides systematic interventions that target specific client problems. It provides the practicing therapist with a map, a rich theoretical base that emphasizes the client's potential for growth. It also offers specific guidelines for effective practice and clinical examples of tried and empirically tested interventions. This is a classic that will guide therapists for years to come. --Susan M. Johnson, EdD, Professor of Psychology & Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, CanadaI am impressed by the scope and depth of this orientation, its international development, its theory, research base, and wide variety of applications in practice. Because it is centered on the experiential dimension which cuts across other orientations, this book will bring something helpful to every practitioner. --Eugene T. Gendlin, PhD, University of Chicago, author of Focusing-Oriented PsychotherapyThis is a splendid transcultural collection that reflects fine scholarship and practical wisdom. It places experiential approaches not only in historical context, but also in their contemporary role as a leading component of 21st century psychotherapy. I recommend it highly. --Michael J. Mahoney, PhD, University of North Texas, Executive Director, Society for Constructivism in the Human Sciences -

Leslie S. Greenberg, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Psychotherapy Research Center at York University in Canada. Coauthor of Facilitating Emotional Change; Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples; and Emotion in Psychotherapy, he has coedited numerous volumes including Emotion, Psychotherapy, and Change; Empathy Reconsidered; and The Working Alliance. Past President of the International Society for Psychotherapy Research, Dr. Greenberg maintains a private practice in Toronto.