Mastering Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy

Over two decades, on two continents, Josette ten Have-de Labije and Robert J. Neborsky have struggled to define and perfect the therapeutic methods of Habib Davanloo. Between the two of them, they run active training groups in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., London, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Scandinavia.

In individual practice, in teaching situations and in partnered study, they have worked carefully to translate the theory and application of the revolutionary clinician's approach. This textbook defines the terms: observing ego, attentive ego, punitive superego, transference, transference resistance, unconscious therapeutic alliance, working alliance, unconscious impulse, in very precise and clinically meaningful ways.David Malan advised that Davanloo's technique needs to be modified and softened if it is to be accepted by the majority of therapists Readers will discover that ten Have-de Labije and Neborsky have surpassed Malan's advice and have taken the practice of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy to a new plateau.

Mastering Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy translates Davanloo's intuitive genius into precise language and operations that students can learn in a systematic and clear way. Thus, applying their methodology fulfills the promise of short term, effective, and safe psychotherapy for a broad spectrum of highly resistant psychoneurotic and characterolgically disturbed patients.

Review: 'This is the best description and guide to intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy. It is practical, detailed, easy to follow, and a fantastic resource to any training programme for this treatment modality.'- Professor Peter Fonagy, PhD, FBA, Head of Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology and Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre, London'Josette ten Have-de Labije and Rob Neborsky offer a detailed analysis of how one can rapidly utilize an effective therapeutic alliance to allow clients to gain clarity about their emotional vicissitudes.

They do this with a judicious blend of psychoanalytic theory, illuminating case studies, and sensitive descriptions of intrapsychic emotional dynamics that need to guide effective therapeutic transitions. With vivid transcriptions of the necessary challenging interactions that must be initiated between therapists and patients, Labije and Neborsky highlight how skilled clinicians can effectively help clients develop the mental clarity and insight needed to break through maladaptive defenses that have long been used to resist needed change.

Mastering Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy is an invaluable resource for clinicians seeking guidance on how to break through to the hidden feelings that lie beyond the anxiety engendering defenses that so often retard the seeking and restoration of emotional coherence and thereby mental health and vitality.'- Jaak Panksepp, PhD, Baily Endowed Professor of Animal Well Being Science, Washington State University, author of Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions'Through the year, I have had the privilege of participating in several workshops given by Drs ten Have-de Labije and Neborsky.

At each juncture, I emerge as a better clinician. Thus, I began reading their latest contribution with great enthusiasm and anticipation. And I was not disappointed. Indeed, I was rewarded with a scholarly yet pragmatic, comprehensive yet concise, clear and articulate guide to this powerful, transformative therapy, ISTDP.

Master teachers, ten Have-de Labije and Neborsky beautifully illustrate each major point with pithy case vignettes, often demonstrating both the less informed and the more accurately targeted therapeutic responses. Each chapter is a gem, but the ones on fostering the working alliance and treating patients with are especially meaningful to me, given my own clinical interests, and chapters that I will surely reread.

As a clinician, this is a book that will stay on by bookshelf, ready to be referenced as specific patient issues arise. As a psychiatry trainin