Systems of Psychotherapy: A Transtheoretical Analysis (Counseling) [Hardcover]

There are many books on various types of psychotherapy that analyze a single type of therapy. Some of those books are very good. However I needed a book that compared the various scientific approaches to psychotherapy. The authors of this book John Norcross and James Prochaska, both very experienced and knowledgeable clinical psychologists have written a very good book that meets this need. I am not a psychologist nor a psychiatrist, but I do a lot of reading about the subject. I have carefully read this book, learned a lot and enjoyed it. It is a good source for graduate and undergraduate students of psychotherapy, and it is relevant for professionals already applying various sorts of psychotherapy. It appeals to another category of people as well : people seeking a psychotherapist's help for themselves or people close to them. I wish when I was looking for a professional for help to someone close to me I had read this book years ago before being subjected to the malpractices of a bad intentioned " therapist ". It is in the interest of anybody seeking a therapist's help to gain knowledge of what are and what are not scientific methods of psychotherapy. There are many experienced and honest therapists who help their clients. But there are also many fake therapists who do things under the name of psychotherapy which have nothing to do with therapy. If the client ( patient ) does not have some knowledge about what therapy is and is not, and unless he / she is lucky enough to come across an honest therapist, he / she can be fooled for many years not realizing that what he / she is being subjected to has nothing to do with therapy.

In this book titled systems of psychoptherapy : a transtheoretical analysis John Norcross and James Prochaska have clearly explained the founders, historical development, current applications, and future trends in the major scientific psychotherapies throughout the world. They have also compared them with one another in terms of their comparative curative power. They have included a case study and shown the similarities and differences in the diagnosis approach of various systems to the same patient. The outstanding message repeated throughout the book is that no system of psychotherapy is distinctively superior to the others : what matters most in the probability of curing succcess of the therapy is not the system of therapy used but rather the skill of the therapist in the system used and the quality of trust and therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the client. If that is met then various different types of approaches have a similar likelihood to solve the client's psychological problems.

As a patient it is very important to be alert ( not excessively suspicious ) to judge whether the therapy is real therapy or bad intentioned treatment. In the various therapy systems in the book all approaches have one thing in common despite their differences : therapy is not telling patients what to do or what not to do. It is not lecturing parents about how to parent their children. There are a lot of good parenting books on that. A psychotherapist is expected to guide the client to find his / her solution, not to give a set of instructions that the client can read from some self help books. Homeworks are given in some systems of therapy but this is not in the form of a list of to dos. Yet in practice many people who claim to be therapists just give out instructions to their clients. Either because they do not have proper training as therapists or because they want to spend as little time as possible with each client in order to maximize their income. THIS IS NOT PSYCHOTHERAPY.

I wish to repeat that certainly there are many honest professionals who apply genuine therapy. However, good credentials are no guarantee that the therapist is competent and honest. I know quite well four famous psychiatrists, professors graduated from prestigious medical schools, reknown internationally, authors of books, making wise speeches on TV, writing articles in major newspapers, lecturing in schools and treating patients. I have observed that they do not apply what they preach publicly. In one occasion I showed to one of them the article she had written in a newspaper and asked her why she was not applying that on patients. Her answer was not convincing. Another famous psychiatrist explained very good methods of treating children with ADHD in his book. Upon investigation in a school where he had many children as clients I found out that he had not applied the methods in his book on any of the children. The reason is obvious : these people have the knowledge to treat people needing psychotherapy but do not apply it because doing so would mean spending more time with each client resulting in a drop in earnings. To maximize earnings they need to spend as little time as possible with each patient. Of course I wish to repeat that not everybody is like that, there are many honest psychiatrists and clinical psychologists who help their patients. But unless the patient educates himself / herself by reading books such as this one before seeking psychological / psychiatric help only good luck can save him/ her. This book will help you, the patient of psychotherapy, evaluate whether you are getting a genuine psychotherapy or not. You can not afford to not spare the time to read this book. Many thanks to the authors who have written a book that meets this need.