Routledge Creative Therapy in Challenging Situations: Unusual Interventions to Help Clients

Creative Therapy in Challenging Situations introduces readers to the innovative approaches that therapists sometimes take when standardized, paint-by-numbers routines don’t work. Each chapter presents the story of one or more difficult psychotherapy situations followed by the therapists’ descriptions of what they did and why, as well as the outcome that resulted. The authors and their stories span a wide variety of theoretical approaches and contexts, showing how clinicians can improvise beyond everyday scenarios and techniques. This collection of provocative, instructive vignettes from well-known practitioners often generates “You said what?!” reactions while encouraging readers to think creatively in the moment in order to reach healthy, innovative outcomes from the trickiest and most unexpected therapeutic scenarios. Review "It is my pleasure to highly recommend this book to therapists and to all the helping professions. There is much wisdom in these articles that carry on the strategic tradition of helping people to overcome their challenges." ―Cloé Madanes, author of Changing Relationships; The Therapist as Humanist, Social Activist, and Systemic Thinker; Strategic Family Therapy; and more "When what you’ve been doing with clients hasn’t been working and you find yourself hoping they’ll cancel their next appointment or quit therapy altogether, don’t despair. Creative Therapy in Challenging Situations is the antidote to stale and ineffective clinical thinking―it will spark your imagination, help you break through frustrating impasses, and make you fall in love with your work (and clients) all over again. Savoring each chapter triggered thoughts about my own creative moments and distant memories of hanging out with Steve de Shazer and learning to think the unthinkable. I love this book!" ―Michele Weiner-Davis, LCSW, author of Healing from Infidelity: A Divorce Busting Guide to Rebuilding Your Marriage After an Affair, Change Your Life and Everyone in It, The Sex-Starved Marriage, and more "Creativity is highly prized in the therapeutic endeavor, borne of a necessity to respond quickly and effectively to the rapidly shifting landscape and complexity of people’s problems. Michael Hoyt and Monte Bobele have shined a bright spotlight on diverse patterns of therapist creativity, drawing out examples of innovative interventions by an array of experts who insightfully explain ‘the methods to their (apparent) madness.’ Creative Therapy in Challenging Situations will undoubtedly challenge and enlighten even the most experienced clinicians." ―Michael D. Yapko, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of The Discriminating Therapist and Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis, 5th Edition "After I started reading this book, I found it hard to put down. It is simply fascinating. In a way, this is a modern version of Jay Haley’s classic book, Uncommon Therapy, about the work of Milton H. Erickson. Creative Therapy in Challenging Situations: Unusual Interventions to Help Clients is a thoroughly intriguing book that opens doors and possibilities." ―Rubin Battino, MS (Counseling), PhD (Chemistry), author of When All Else Fails: Some New and Some Old Tools for Doing Brief Therapy; Expectation: The Very Brief Therapy Book; Healing Language; and Ericksonian Approaches: A Comprehensive Manual (2nd ed.) "Such a brilliant collection! When conventional approaches to stuck cases fail, playful caring (or caring play) can succeed. Hoyt and Bobele gather clinical stories from the raconteurs of the brief and family therapy worlds in this collection of therapeutic interventions, and we reap the wisdom. More than once, I found myself exclaiming, ‘You said WHAT?’ as I read. Exceptional and inspiring!" ―Frank N. Thomas, PhD, LMFT, professor of counseling and counselor education at Texas Christian University, clinical fellow and approved supervisor at the American Association for Marriage and Family