Brief Dynamic Therapy

Hanna Levenson provides an overview of brief dynamic therapy, a time-efficient treatment in which the therapist maintains a focus on specific client goals within a psychodynamic conceptual framework.

Common characteristics of these approaches include time management, defined focus, circumscribed goals, active therapist participation, rapid assessment, prompt intervention, an awareness of unconscious processes, and techniques that quickly foster a strong alliance with the client.

This concise volume focuses largely on one popular model in particular: time-limited dynamic psychotherapy (TLDP). TLDP is an integrative approach that uses techniques from attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, affective–experiential learning, and systems orientations to help clients with long-standing, dysfunctional ways of relating to others. The author explores this integrative, culturally-sensitive approach, its theory, history, the therapy process, primary change mechanisms, empirical basis, and future developments.

This revised edition includes updated case examples, as well as a wealth of new research findings — including process-outcome studies — that affirm treatment effectiveness, explain how alliance ruptures are repaired, and new research on the "reconsolidation process" that demonstrates how sudden, dramatic change happens in brief dynamic therapy.

Hanna Levenson, PhD, has been specializing in the area of brief psychotherapy as a clinician, teacher/trainer, and researcher for 40 years. She is the author of more than 75 papers and two books, the Concise Guide to Brief Dynamic and Interpersonal Psychotherapy (2002) and Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy: A Guide to Clinical Practice (1995), which was selected by the Behavioral Science Book Service as a "book-of-the-month." In 2000, she founded the Levenson Institute for Training, a center where mental health practitioners can receive in-depth training and certification in integrative, focused therapy. Dr. Levenson is a professor of psychology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. From 1991 to 2011, she was director of the Brief Psychotherapy Program at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, and from 1979 to 2000, she was clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine, and director of the Brief Psychotherapy Program at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Dr. Levenson's professional career reflects a dialectic between intrapsychic and relational perspectives, insight and experiential learning, and clinical practice and scientific inquiry. Originally specializing in personality theory and social psychology at Claremont University (PhD 1972), she later retrained in clinical psychology at the University of Florida, Coral Gables, then interned at Langley Porter Institute (University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine). In addition to her teaching and writing, she maintains a private practice in Oakland, California, and is also a certified therapist and supervisor in emotionally focused couples therapy. In 2011, she was presented the Distinguished Contribution to Psychology as a Profession Award by the California Psychological Association.

Series Preface
How to Use This Book With APA Psychotherapy Videos

1. Introduction
2. History
3. Theory
4. The Therapy Process
5. Evaluation
6. Future Developments

Glossary of Key Terms
Suggested Readings
References
Index
About the Author
About the Series Editors