Book Review: The Gift of Therapy by Y.D. Yalom

This paper will recount the development and history of narrative therapy and provide a brief background assessment on the founders and significant contributors to the postmodern approach of Narrative Therapy. The role of the therapist, the theory of change, the target of intervention, the assessment from this approach, and what the approach says about normalcy, health, and pathology will be presented. It will also discuss how narrative therapy might work with and be sensitive to the cultural and diversity factors and give some examples of intervention from this approach. It will then discus the case using concepts and ideas from narrative therapy and the application of the essential ideas of the narrative therapy in the case and, where appropriate,

In chapter six (6), Bromfield points out several small gestures that therapist may do to create a more comfortable and secure environment for adolescents. I concur with this belief, as feeling a sense of security and importance in therapy are key in its progression. He claims that simple gesture such as; offering a shawl, opening a window or simply adjusting the heater can assure these teenagers that their

Rogers worked with many others in developing the idea that clients could heal themselves, if only the therapist provided ‘facilitative’ or core conditions of, ‘empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard.’

Throughout this course, we have learned different approaches and techniques regarding therapy and counseling. More so, multiple of these techniques are used to develop a plan for the benefit of the patient. Love’s Executioner (1989), written by Irvin D. Yalom, was a documentation of the relationship and interactions between Thelma and himself. Throughout the treatment, he used a variety of helping skills and approaches to attempt to breakthrough her within six months. Thelma’s reason for coming into therapy was that she was emotionally distressed based on a past experience. She perceived to be hopelessly in love with an old therapist of hers, Matthew. This “love” was more than an emotion felt and since it was not reciprocated, it was merely an obsession of the twenty-seven days she spent with Matthew. Through the course of this interaction, Yalom used a psychoanalytic orientation

Grold, K. (1996). How to find a good therapist: Finding & evaluating a private therapist.

1. Overholser, J. C. (2005). Contemporary Psychotherapy: Promoting personal responsibility for therapeutic change. Journal of Contemporary psychotherapy, 35,369-376.

A counselling relationship is likened to being on a journey - a beginning, middle and end (Smallwood, 2013). During the beginning phase the client develops sufficient trust in the counsellor and the relationship ‘to explore the previously feared edges of his awareness’ (Mearns and Thorne, 1988, p.126).

In the 1890’s Sigmund Freud, a German neurologist developed a theory later to be called psychoanalysis, which allowed individuals to tell their problems to a ‘psychoanalyst’ an individual trained in interpreting the ‘subconscious’. He played an important part in the history of counselling but the actual word “counselling” did not come into everyday language until 1960’s.

“The Book Thief” presented a story filled with various themes that comprised a powerful plot line. Although there were many themes in the story, there was one that stood out to me more than others. In the process of reading the book, the theme of suffering affected me the most. The definition of the word suffer is to experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant. Different characters within the story are subjected to dreadful feelings and are therefore suffering. Through my analyzation, I observed the three different types of suffering that the characters experienced: guilt, feelings of emptiness, and anxiety. The characters of “The Book Thief” experience these three types of suffering in different ways.

In this Fascinating book Love’s Executioner and other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom, we can appreciated different techniques used in a session of Psychotherapy, this book was easy to read and understand and especially it was very addictive, making it the perfect tool and inspiration for psychology students who are starting to appreciate this career more deeply. There are ten different cases offered in this book, some patients share similar symptoms but still have different mental dysfunctions. Out of the ten cases I picked three:

Gestalt therapy, which was founded by Fritz and Laura Perls in the 1940s, teaches the therapists and their clients the phenomenological awareness method, where feeling, perceiving and acting are differentiated from interpreting and rearranging the pre-existing attitudes. Gestalt therapists and clients’ dialogue, thus communicating their phenomenological perspectives, and their differences in perceptions form the basis and focus of experimentation and continued dialogue. The desired outcome of the therapy process is for the client to become aware of their actions, how they are acting, and the ways they can change their actions and learn to accept and appreciate themselves. Here, the emphasis is mainly on the process rather

With these attributes, they will have the fundamentals of creating a strong therapeutic alliance with their clients. The therapists should be encouraged in “treating new cases as unique and constructing new theories to fit them, rather than depending on categories of established theory and technique” (Safran & Muran, 2000). Although this does not mean that standard techniques are useless, flexibility and creativity in application of these theories is considered the most important skill of a good therapist.

In Treatment’s Dr. Paul Weston appears to largely use psychodynamic theory during his sessions with Sophie, the teenaged gymnast who is seeing him after an accident which is believed to have been a potential suicide attempt. However, as is the case with most therapists, Paul does not focus solely on psychodynamics when treating Sophie, drawing on the universal qualities of all therapists as well as some cognitive techniques. There are several instances of this unique blend of techniques throughout Sophie’s episodes, as well as the continual theme of psychodynamics that seems to be Paul’s main practicing theory.

Irvin Yalom (2012) initiates thought-provoking moment after thought-provoking moment in his work, “The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients.” There is an authentic yet profound air in Yalom’s work and in his recorded therapy. It would be difficult to sum up the importance of what Yalom addresses in one paper, but I will attempt to note the parts of Yalom’s writing which stood out most to me. I hope to cover Yalom’s thoughts on avoiding diagnosis, letting the patient matter, using the here and now, therapist transparency, feedback, and freed & responsibility as in-depth as possible. Moreover, I hope to address how these thoughts will impact my own approach to therapy and how they interact with my faith.

Holly Forester-Miller, Ph.D. Thomas Davis, Ph.D. Copyright © 1996, American Counseling Association. A free publication of the American Counseling Association promoting ethical counseling practice in service to the public. -- Printed and bound copies may be purchased in quantity for a nominal fee from the Online Resource Catalog or by calling the ACA Distribution Center at 800.422.2648. ACA grants reproduction rights to libraries, researchers and teachers who wish to copy all or part of the contents of this document for scholarly purposes provided that no fee for the use or possession of such copies is charged to the ultimate consumer of the copies. Proper citation to ACA must be given.