Therapist Performance Under Pressure Negotiating Emotion, Difference, and Rupture

This book draws on performance research from the cognitive and emotion sciences to help therapists negotiate the difficult emotional challenges they face in psychotherapy.
 
Therapists perform under pressure regularly, especially when encountering patients who evoke challenging emotions that mark ruptures in the patient–therapist alliance. Authors Chris Muran and Catherine Eubanks synthesize decades of accumulated clinical knowledge and experience to provide psychotherapists, supervisors, and trainees with effective strategies for recognizing and repairing ruptures. In doing so, they demonstrate how therapists from diverse theoretical orientations can transform ruptures from potential breaking points into opportunities for strengthening alliances with patients and improving outcomes.
 
Clinical illustrations show therapists how to negotiate basic and self‑conscious emotions and navigate individual and cultural differences. This book also reviews strategies and principles for therapist self-care and training via supervision to help therapists better regulate their emotions and become good models for their patients. This book also includes the complete Rupture Resolution Rating System (or 3RS) manual, a popular assessment tool for measuring alliance ruptures and repair strategies.

J. Christopher Muran, PhD, is Associate Dean and Full Professor at the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, where he directs its clinical psychology doctoral program. Since 1990, he has directed the Psychotherapy Research Program at Beth Israel Medical Center (now Mount Sinai Beth Israel), where he was also Chief Psychologist for 15 years; he is on the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty. He is past-president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research and past-editor of its journal. He has received several honors (including APA fellow status) and published extensively on change processes and the alliance.
 
Catherine F. Eubanks, PhD, is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University. She also serves as Associate Director of the Mount Sinai-Beth Israel Psychotherapy Research Program and is on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is past president of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration, and has received several honors, including early career awards from APA/Division 29 and the Society for Psychotherapy Research. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Her research concentrates on alliance rupture repair.

Preface: Positioning the Authors
Introduction: Pressure in the Therapeutic Relationship
Chapter 1. The Science of Performance Under Pressure
Chapter 2. The Science of the Therapist Under Pressure
Chapter 3. From Emotion to Rupture
Chapter 4. From Emotion to Repair
Chapter 5. A Way to Therapist Training
Chapter 6. A Way to Therapist Self-Care
Conclusion: In the Pressure Cooker
Appendix: The Rupture Resolution Rating System
References
Index
About the Authors