Constructive Psychotherapies

Dr. Raskin has succeeded where many others have failed. He has given constructive psychotherapy a clear, vibrant, contemporary voice. In lucid prose, with the use of helpful case examples, Raskin crystallizes how constructive theory and practice combine to simplify and amplify the work of today's clinicians. Others who have attempted this feat have either drifted into abstract philosophy or provided a reductionistic list of disconnected clinical suggestions. For my money, Raskin's eminently readable narrative provides the coherent guide for which we have long been waiting.--Jay Efran, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA People experience life through frameworks of meaning they create for themselves--both singly and collectively. With this fundamental postulate, Jonathan D. Raskin lucidly, comprehensively, and sometimes irreverently cuts through the fog of abstraction that often obscures the genuinely novel and exciting contributions a constructive approach makes to the practice of psychotherapy. Synthesizing developments in personal constructivism, coherence theory, social constructionism, narrative therapy, and contextual approaches, this deceptively compact and engagingly readable book invites the reader to imagine how a vast range of human struggles can be dissolved in a heartbeat through a shift of stance or framing. Dozens of diverse case vignettes vividly conjure the transformative power of language and relationship to challenge and change how clients configure their worlds and, with this, themselves. I recommend this volume to all therapists yearning to infuse new vision into their work by experimenting with the principles and procedures of Constructive Psychotherapies.--Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, coeditor, Journal of Constructivist Psychology; Director, Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, Portland, OR