Becoming Psychodynamic. Getting the Most from your First Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Case

Developing psychotherapeutic competencies is an essential component of core psychiatry training. According to the UK General Medical Council’s curricular requirements, psychotherapy training is mandatory for all CT1-3s, who need to have achieved satisfactory psychotherapy competencies to progress to higher training. Teaching on this essential part of core psychiatry training is sparse and of varying quality, and existing introductory texts are now dated and omit significant advances into trauma, infant communication, and what makes therapy effective.

Becoming Psychodynamic is designed to provide a practical guide to developing psychodynamic skills for busy doctors, social workers and nurses who are doing the first of their mandated psychodynamic psychotherapy cases. Drawing from a range of psychoanalytic theory, modern neuroscience, and psychological research, this book bridges the gap between classic texts and contemporary practice. Becoming Psychodynamic will also lay out some of the key concepts, recommended further reading of ‘classic’ papers and a glossary of terms that clinicians need to maximize what they can take from the learning opportunity.

• The book demystifies previously asserted psychoanalytic truths and helps trainees understand why they learn what they learn.
• The book builds on pre-existing communication skills formulating it as a progression of the readers previous learning and removes the pressure to be a fluent psychotherapist from the start of the process.
• Presented as a succinct summary with accessible further reading which encourages busy trainees to read further and develop their understanding in a manageable way.

CONTENTS

1:The purpose of psychodynamic psychotherapy
2:Your feelings about your first case
3:Building your psychotherapy skills: The frame
4:Building your psychotherapy skills: Analytic stance
5:Building your psychotherapy skills: Enactments
6:Building your psychotherapy skills: Countertransference
7:Building your psychotherapy skills: Transference and transference interpretations
8:Building your psychotherapy skills: Working with dreams
9:Building your psychotherapy skills: Working through
10:Building your psychotherapy skills: Ending
11:Supervision
12:Personal therapy
Glossary