Symptom-Focused Dynamic Psychotherapy

301 Pages·2006·4.65 MB·English

by  Mary E. Connors

SYMPTOM-FOCUSED
DYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
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SYMPTOM-FOCUSE
DYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
MARY E. CONNORS
THE ANALYTIC PRESS
2006 Mahwah, New Jersey London
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© 2006 by The Analytic Press, Inc., Publishers
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
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lisher.
Published by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Connors, Mary E., 1953—
Symptom-focused dynamic psychotherapy / Mary E. Connors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88163-444-1
1. Psychodynamic psychotherapy. I. Title.
[DNLM: Behavior Therapy. 2. Behavioral Symptoms—therapy.
WM 425 C752S 2006]
RC489.4.P72C66 2006
616.89'4—dc22
2005054550
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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FOR MY BROTHER, ROBERT J. CONNORS
I951-20OO
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CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Chapter 1 Rationale for a Symptom-Focused 1
Dynamic Treatment
Chapter 2 Active Techniques in a Context of
Integrative Possibility 24
Chapter 3 The Decision to Use Active Techniques 69
Chapter 4 Cognitive Interventions 95
Chapter 5 Behavioral Techniques 116
Chapter 6 Suggestions for Intervention with
Specific Symptoms 150
Chapter 7 A Patient with Compulsive Behaviors 178
Chapter 8 A Patient with Generalized Anxiety 202
Chapter 9 A Patient with Binge Eating and
Depression 218
Chapter 10 A Patient with a Relational Dilemma 240
References 265
Index 281
vit
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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MY EARLY BEHAVIORAL TRAINING EMPHASIZED that psychother-
apy was something to "do." I learned a variety of active interven-
tion strategies, implemented them, and assessed the outcome. My
psychoanalytic training led me to think that perhaps therapy was
more about how to be with someone rather than what to do
(which was a relief, as I had little idea what I was supposed to do,
and how and when to do it!) Yet I liked the idea of being as effec-
tive as possible with the various problems that people brought to
treatment, and it seemed that knowing some specific things to do
at times might facilitate my ability to help. Gradually I began to
develop a psychotherapeutic style that incorporated symptom-
focused interventions into a dynamic treatment, and I found that
such integration seemed coherent as I employed it with my patients.
However, that is not what I was taught. When I began my
graduate program in psychology in 1977, the available theoreti-
cal paradigms were very different from current versions. The per-
spectives with which I became most familiar—psychoanalytic and
behavioral—were more distant from people's actual experience
than is the case today as well as more at absolute odds with one
another. The dominant psychoanalytic paradigm was drive the-
ory, and the behavioral theory that I was taught focused prima-
rily on classical and operant conditioning. I began seeing my first
patients when I was a young graduate student, and they displayed
some complex difficulties, including sexual fetishes, paranoid delu-
sions, and desperate relationship seeking. I found the theories I
knew to be disappointing in furthering my understanding of my
ix
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