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Linda Farris Kurtz

The first volume to address both self-help and support groups and provide a clear distinction between the two, Self-Help and Support Groups dispels misunderstandings and inaccurate assumptions about how they function, whom they attract, and how they help participants achieve goals. Author Linda Farris Kurtz informs students and practitioners in the human services about the concepts, theories, and research involving self-help and support groups. She provides practical advice and direction to professionals for working with these groups while analyzing self-help/support organizations on three different levels - in terms of the groups themselves, the groups' members, and the practitioner's interaction with the groups. In addition, this comprehensive volume discusses the most prominent representative associations as examples of different types of groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery, Inc., National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the Alzheimer's Association. It also examines the rise of telephone and on-line self-help, considering the advantages, and disadvantages of this style of group interaction. As an added bonus, each chapter includes exercises and discussion questions.

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Kathleen Degen and Ellen Nasper

By the mid-eighties, the provision of psychotherapy for people who could not get out of bed, bathe, get dressed, prepare meals, and manage their own money had diminished. Treatment centered on case management and rehabilitation. This virtual elimination of psychotherapy made sense economically as well as therapeutically: traditional psychotherapy had little success with people suffering from schizophrenia. However, the advent of novel antipsychotic medications has created a need for psychotherapy tailored to this population. Sudden reduction in pervasive, persistent delusions and hallucinations, and recovery of motivation, energy, volition, and the ability to experience pleasure from something other than cigarettes is a mixed blessing. Patients are relieved of terrible suffering but left with new problems. Shedding the lifelong identity of a mental patient, they no longer need case management but require help adjusting to major changes in their thinking and functioning. Kathleen Degen and Ellen Nasper describe group therapy that helps patients identify and cope with unexpected, intense feelings such as sadness or painful memories of childhood trauma, increase their interpersonal skills, and advance their sense of self beyond that of their label as mental patients. Degen and Nasper show how to build on the phenomenal changes that the new medications provide.

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John Sommers-Flanagan, Rita Sommers-Flanagan

Student-friendly and comprehensive, Counseling and Psychotherapy Theories in Context and Practice, Second Edition provides an in-depth understanding of the origins, development, and key figures of each major theory and strongly emphasizes the application of these theories in real-world practice. Pedagogical features include opening chapter outlines, "Putting It In Practice" boxes, practitioner reflections, ethical highlights, case examples, as well as chapter summaries, chapter glossaries, and recommended readings and resources. The Second Edition includes a new section on treatment planning in each chapter and increased coverage of multicultural issues.

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Marcela Serrano

"Un grupo de mujeres, muy distintas entre sí y que nunca se han visto antes, comparten sus historias. Natasha, su terapeuta, ha decidido reunirlas en la convicción de que las heridas empiezan a sanar cuando se rompen las cadenas del silencio. No importa el origen ni la extracción social, la edad o la profesión: todas acarrean sobre sus hombros el peso del miedo, la soledad, el deseo, las inseguridades. A veces ante un pasado que no pueden dejar atrás; otras, ante un presente que no se parece a lo que habrían deseado, o un futuro que las asusta. Madres, hijas, esposas, viudas, amantes: guiadas por Natasha, las protagonistas aceptan el desafío de comprender y reinventar sus vidas."-- Page [4] of cover. Ten women, who are very different and who have never seen each other, share their life stories. Natasha, a therapist, has decided to bring them together since she is convinced that wounds begin to heal when the chains of silence are broken. Regardless of origin, social class, age or profession, all of them carry the weight of fear, loneliness, desire and insecurity.