Cambridge University Press Psychotherapy in Everyday Life (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives)

In this book, Dreier shows how clients make therapy work in their everyday lives. Therapy cannot fulfill its purpose until the clients can make it work outside the therapy room in relation to the concerns, people, and places of their everyday lives. Research on therapy has largely ignored these efforts. Based on session transcripts and interviews with a family of four about their everyday lives, Dreier shows the extensive and varied work the clients do to make their therapy work across places. Processes of change and learning are seen in a new perspective and it is shown that expert practices depend on how persons conduct their everyday lives. To grasp this, Dreier developed a theory of persons that is based on how they conduct their lives in social practice. This theory is grounded in critical psychology and social practice theory and is also relevant for understanding other expert practices such as education. Review '… the book is provocative. The important thing is what it provokes, which is consideration of what therapy means to clients when they're back home. Dreier's work is recommended for anyone interested in addressing this important question.' Theory and Psychology Book Description In this book, Dreier shines important new light on processes of personal change and learning in practice. About the Author Ole Dreier is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, where he received both his MA and his PhD. He is a leading scholar in activity theory and critical psychology in Europe and combines work on the development of theory with research directed at developing practices in the fields of psychotherapy, health care, and education. He is a member of the Danish interdisciplinary Center for Health, Humanity, and Culture and an approved specialist in psychotherapy and supervision. Dreier has held the Wilhelm-Wundt chair in Leipzig and has been affiliated with universities in Mexico, Germany, and the United States. He is a member of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology and the International Society for Cultural and Activity Research.