Therapist Performance Under Pressure: Negotiating Emotion, Difference, and Rupture

by J. Christopher Muran, Catherine F. Eubanks

Overview

This book draws on performance research from the cognitive and emotion sciences to help therapists negotiate the difficult emotional challenges they face in psychotherapy.
 
Therapists perform under pressure regularly, especially when encountering patients who evoke challenging emotions that mark ruptures in the patient–therapist alliance. Authors Chris Muran and Catherine Eubanks synthesize decades of accumulated clinical knowledge and experience to provide psychotherapists, supervisors, and trainees with effective strategies for recognizing and repairing ruptures. In doing so, they demonstrate how therapists from diverse theoretical orientations can transform ruptures from potential breaking points into opportunities for strengthening alliances with patients and improving outcomes.
 
Clinical illustrations show therapists how to negotiate basic and self‑conscious emotions and navigate individual and cultural differences. This book also reviews strategies and principles for therapist self-care and training via supervision to help therapists better regulate their emotions and become good models for their patients. This book also includes the complete Rupture Resolution Rating System (or 3RS) manual, a popular assessment tool for measuring alliance ruptures and repair strategies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433831911
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
Publication date:	03/24/2020
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

J. Christopher Muran, PhD, is Associate Dean and Full Professor at the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, where he directs its clinical psychology doctoral program. Since 1990, he has directed the Psychotherapy Research Program at Beth Israel Medical Center (now Mount Sinai Beth Israel), where he was also Chief Psychologist for 15 years; he is on the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty. He is past-president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research and past-editor of its journal. He has received several honors (including APA fellow status) and published extensively on change processes and the alliance.
 
Catherine F. Eubanks, PhD, is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University. She also serves as Associate Director of the Mount Sinai‑Beth Israel Psychotherapy Research Program and is on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is past president of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration, and has received several honors, including early career awards from APA/Division 29 and the Society for Psychotherapy Research. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Her research concentrates on alliance rupture repair.

Table of Contents

Preface: Positioning the Authors
Introduction: Pressure in the Therapeutic Relationship
Chapter 1. The Science of Performance Under Pressure
Chapter 2. The Science of the Therapist Under Pressure
Chapter 3. From Emotion to Rupture
Chapter 4. From Emotion to Repair
Chapter 5. A Way to Therapist Training
Chapter 6. A Way to Therapist Self-Care
Conclusion: In the Pressure Cooker
Appendix: The Rupture Resolution Rating System
References
Index
About the Authors

What People are Saying About This

Leslie S. Greenberg

Written by leaders in the field, this text has all you want to know about rupture repair and resolution.

Paul L. Wachtel

Muran and Eubanks take their seminal work on ruptures and rupture repairs into new directions that go straight to the heart of the therapist’s experience.

Zindel V. Segal

Muran and Eubanks show how the all-too-common moments of struggle and confusion therapists face are seeded with the potential for clarity and resolution.

Louis G. Castonguay

Crises, toxic events, unsettling emotions, impasses, misalignments, unproductive processes, and negative exchanges are ubiquitous in all forms of therapy and with all types of clients. Such a daunting reality makes this book a necessity for therapists, irrespective of their level of experience and theoretical orientation.

Clara E. Hill

Therapists need to learn the basic therapeutic skills, practice them until they become second nature, and know how to use the skills under pressure. This book can help us hone our teaching of clinical intuition by learning about emotion regulation and other strategies that help us become better therapists.