Some Stories are Better than Others: Doing What Works in Brief Therapy and Managed Care

There are countless stories that we deal with each day. There are the stories that we easily recognize as such: the novels we read, the movies we see, but there are may other more essential stories. These are the stories that we use to explain what happened to us twenty years ago or last week, those we use to explain why the world works the way it does, and those that we sue to "fix" the world when it doesn't work the way other stories said it should. And as the author points out in this collection of essays and interviews, some of these stories are better than others. This book is an investigation into which might be the better stories and how they can help clients reach their goals in therapy. The book contains fifteen essays and interviews written or co-written by Michael Hoyt. The collection represents Dr. Hoyt's recent thinking on helping clients with brief, future-oriented therapeutic approaches. Exploring a variety of post-modern, social constructionist, and solution-focused ideas in therapy,these essays try to offer ideas and reflections on doing what works to improve mental health. They also address the theoretical, practical, and ethical challenges produces by the managed care environment, giving the reader guidance in an area that is often confusing and, at times, alarming. Drawing on sports metaphors, literature, and movies, Dr. Hoyt offers a profound look at many of brief therapy's most pressing problems in an accessible package. It's depth of analysis, comprehensive coverage of brief therapy, and cutting-edge theory of future-oriented therapeutic approaches makes this collection a vital resource for all mental health professionals wrestling with time-limited treatment options in or out of managed care.

Michael F. Hoyt, Ph.D., is a senior staff psychologist at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Hayward, California.