Search results for ""Author Paul J. Leslie""

This book is designed to assist counsellors who would like to use and understand the psychotherapeutic strategies of Milton Erickson but often find it confusing, intimidating or unrealistic. Using colourful case studies and stories told in everyday language, this work will educate and help professionals in being able to understand how to adapt and apply creative and resourceful therapy interventions based on the concepts of Ericksonian psychotherapy. It will also assist clinicians and therapists in easily implementing the concepts of Ericksonian psychotherapy into their work in order to energise and revitalise their therapy sessions. Subjects explored include client resistance and client potential, the role of imagination and playfulness in the therapeutic work, and the healing possibilities hidden within stories and metaphors.

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This book will assist therapists in easily implementing the concepts of strategic and solution-oriented applications into one’s therapeutic work with depressed clients. The focus of these brief therapy approaches is on the clients’ resources and potential rather than on their deficits and pathology. These ideas have their roots in the work of Milton H. Erickson, the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, and Bill O’Hanlon’s Solution Oriented Therapy. The methods and applications recognise the significance of how clients perceive their problems, the importance on assisting clients to be validated and understood in the realm of their experiences, and the creation of change in their views and actions concerning their individual situations. Perceptions and Possibilities is designed to assist therapists in finding new ways of moving their therapy sessions away from an entrenched focus on client pathology. Instead, therapists are encouraged towards brief and effective interactions with a focus on future-oriented possibilities. Paul Leslie presents established and cutting-edge research, colourful case studies, and stories told in everyday language to engage, educate, and aid mental health professionals. The aim is to enable them to understand how to easily adapt and apply creative and resourceful therapy interventions to help clients who are suffering from depression. This book is highly recommended for psychologists, counsellors, and psychotherapists, particularly those who are interested in exploring brief therapies, postmodern/Ericksonian approaches, and solution-focused, systemic, and strategic therapies.

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Transforming Themes challenges the dominant view of psychotherapy as a structured, reductionist process. Instead, it views psychotherapy as an alive, unrehearsed interaction that embraces healing when it is focused on the role of ‘therapeutic themes’. These themes are the entrenched frames of references or contexts from which clients perceive their lives. In any interaction, each participant has a unique worldview. When clients come to therapy, they bring their problems in the form of a theme: ‘the woman who can’t forgive’ or ‘the child who is a terror’. Any potential statement or action performed within this theme merely strengthens the problem. Only when the theme of the therapy session has shifted can clients gain access to inner resources to shift perspectives and begin inner transformation. Effective therapy results from moving clients into more flexible, empowering themes. These changes occur as a result of the dynamic interaction between therapist and client, which embraces improvisation, creativity, and novelty, rather than adherence to specific theories or techniques. Using historical and modern research and colourful case studies, this work will help professionals understand how to easily adapt and apply creative and resourceful therapy interventions, no matter what therapeutic orientation they endorse. This book will enable therapists, counsellors, psychologists, and social workers to gain access to creative, effective methods which help their clients heal while increasing effectiveness and enjoyment in clinical work.

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