Making Room for the Disavowed Reclaiming the Self in Psychotherapy

In this uniquely integrative book, Paul L. Wachtel describes powerful clinical strategies to make room for aspects of the self that were sidetracked in the course of development. Wachtel explores how early attachment experiences can lead people to turn away from certain thoughts and feelings, building a sense of self and ways of interacting on only a limited range of adaptive resources. His approach draws on psychodynamic, humanistic, systemic, and acceptance-centered cognitive-behavioral perspectives, as well as attention to the impact of race, class, and culture. Filled with rich case material, the book illuminates how a therapeutic approach anchored in the present can help heal the wounds of the past.

See also Wachtel's Therapeutic Communication, Second Edition: Knowing What to Say When, as well as Mastering the Clinical Conversation: Language as Intervention, by Matthieu Villatte, Jennifer L. Villatte, and Steven C. Hayes.

Paul L. Wachtel, PhD, is Distinguished Professor in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at The City College of New York. He is also a faculty member at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Dr. Wachtel has been a leading voice for integrative thinking in the human sciences and is a cofounder and past president of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration. He is a recipient of the Hans H. Strupp Memorial Award from the Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society; the Distinguished Psychologist Award from Division 29 (Psychotherapy) of the American Psychological Association (APA); the Scholarship and Research Award from Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of APA; and the Sidney J. Blatt Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychotherapy, Scholarship, Education and Practice.

I. Introduction
1. Making Room for Thoughts and Feelings: Attachment, Self-Acceptance, and Emotional Immediacy
2. Silos, Stereotypes, and the Evolutionary Links between Diverse and Competing Approaches
3. What Is the Appropriate Evidence Base for Responsible Clinical Practice?
II. Beyond Pathologizing: The Dialectics of Acceptance and Change
4. From Interpreting Wishes and Feelings to Making Room for Them: The Problem with Uncovering “the Truth”
5. The Roots of Pathologizing and Accusatory Interpretations
6. Anxiety, Exposure, and the Path to Self-Acceptance
7. Making Room in CBT: From Beck and Ellis to the Dialectics of Acceptance and Change
III. Attachment and the Lifelong Dynamics of Development 
8. Self-Acceptance and Self-Rejection: The Critical Impact of Attachment
9. Working in the Present on the Consequences of the Past
IV. Living-in-the-World
10. Experiencing, Emotional Immediacy, and Self-in-Action
11. Living in Contexts: From the Relational Matrix to the Impact of Culture and Society
12. The Many Faces of Psychotherapy
References
Index