Changing the Rules: A Client-Directed Approach to Therapy [Hardcover]

Duncan. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0898621089 | ISBN-13: 978-0898621082 | Publication Date: June 12, 1992

All therapists at some time or other are confronted with cases that do not fit the assumptions of their chosen theoretical model--clients who should get better do not, while others improve for reasons the model does not explain. One lesson that can (and should) be drawn from such cases is that the client's perception of the therapist's behavior and of the intervention process is a powerful factor in therapeutic success or failure. These relationship factors account for a significant proportion of change in psychotherapy, yet little has been written about how to utilize them. Filling a gap in the literature, this book presents a pragmatic application of these simple but difficult experiential lessons to the practice of individual, couple, and family therapy.

When should a therapist shift gears? And how is it done?
CHANGING THE RULES presents a flexible methodology for practice that encourages clinicians to utilize their clients' interpretations in constructing more effective interventions. Providing a developmental and empirical context for the approach, the book covers the initial interview and the selection, design, and delivery of interventions, as well as issues such as ethics and gender bias. Several case examples and two full-length studies demonstrate each stage of the therapeutic process, fully illustrating the approach and enabling the creative therapist to replicate it in practice.

Proposing a coherent framework for practice that empowers relationship effects, enhances therapist flexibility, and expands the repertoire of intervention strategies for working with individuals, couples, and families, this volume is an invaluable resource for clinicians, academicians, and students regardless of theoretical orientation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Refreshingly refocused on the client's frame of reference, CHANGING THE RULES humanizes the therapeutic encounter.... Duncan and his colleagues transcend the unproductive debate on common factors versus specific factors by integrating the relational power of therapeutic commonalities and the pragmatic specificity of technical eclecticism. Extensive case studies and astute syntheses of the research literature inform this balanced and engaging volume.' --John C. Norcross, Ph.D.

"The common response to difficulties and impasses in therapy is to blame the patient--for example, as resistant.' Comforting as this may be, this book suggests how it would be more useful to take out clients' realities' more seriously, and our own realities' of theory and technique less seriously with a resulting gain in both focus and flexibility.' --John H. Weakland, Ch.E., M.F.P.C.

"No one theory can do it all' should be the motto of this book! CHANGING THE RULES offers an innovative definition of eclecticism and a new way to conceptualize successful as well as failed therapy. The authors draw from their collective clinical experiences and extensive psychotherapy research to operationalize identified common factors' associated with successful therapy and develop an eclectic, client directed, brief therapy approach. At the heart of their approach is a primary emphasis on the client's subjective experience of therapy, the construction of a common therapist-client theoretical language, and the common factors context of the therapist-client relationship.' These combine to inform a therapy that is guided by the client and that leads to interventions that are within the client's experience.

"Drawing from their collective clinical experiences, the authors offer a generous variety of individual, couple, and family therapy case vignettes to illustrate pragmatic eclecticism. The authors do not provide a cookbook approach, but rather aim to show therapists how to integrate the client's theory and unique experiences with a diversity of therapist theories and techniques toward a more flexible intellectual framework to guide therapy, and thus most importantly, a more fruitful therapy for all involved." -- Harlene Anderson, Ph.D.

About the Author

Barry L. Duncan, Psy.D., is Director of The Dayton Institute for Family Therapy, a private treatment and training center in Centerville, Ohio. He is also a clinical assistant professor at Wright State University and past-president of the Ohio Division of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. In addition to maintaining a clinical practice, teaching graduate students, and training mental health professionals, Dr. Duncan frequently conducts workshops for therapists across the country in the approach presented in CHANGING THE RULES.

Andrew Solovey, L.I.S.W., is the Clinical Director of Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health Center in Chillicothe, Ohio. He also provides psychotherapy services to individuals and families at an inpatient rehabilitation center. Throughout his career, he has done clinical work with a wide range of clients in a variety of settings. He enjoys teaching and training psychotherapists, and his main interest is the challenge of searching for solutions in cases that are considered to be hopeless.

Greg S. Rusk, A.C.S.W., L.I.S.W., is in practice in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. He is a clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He has co-authored articles on eclectic psychotherapy with colleagues at The Dayton Institute for Family Therapy and has presented workshops on client-directed psychotherapy.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Guilford Press (June 12, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898621089
• ISBN-13: 978-0898621082
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,486,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barry L. Duncan, Psy.D., a therapist, trainer, and researcher with over 17,000 hours of clinical experience. Dr. Duncan is the director of the Heart and Soul of Change Project (www.heartandsoulofchange.com), a practice-driven, training and research initiative that focuses on what works in therapy, and more importantly, how to deliver it on the front lines. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to the mental health field, including the Wright State University School of Professional Psychology's first annual "Outstanding Alumnus Award," the Menninger Foundation's 15th Annual Award for Scientific Writing for the book The Heart and Soul of Change, and the Psychotherapy Networker "20th Anniversary All Time Top Ten Award" for the article "Exposing the Mythmakers," recognizing it as one of the most influential features in the magazine's history. Barry has over one hundred publications, including fifteen books. His latest books: The Heroic Client (2nd edition, Jossey Bass, 2004); Heroic Clients, Heroic Agencies: Partners for Change (Revised 2007 E Edition available at www.heartandsoulofchange.com); the 2nd edition of Brief Intervention for School Problems (Guilford, 2007); the 2nd edition of the Heart and Soul of Change: Delivering What Works (APA, 2010); and the forthcoming, On Becoming A Better Therapist (APA, in press). He is the co-developer of the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS), Session Rating Scale (SRS), Child ORS, and Child SRS, measures designed to give clients the voice they deserve and level the therapeutic process, as well as provide clients, clinicians, administrators, and payers with feedback about the client's response to services, thus enabling more effective care tailored to client preferences. Because of his self help books, he has appeared on "Oprah," "The View," and several other national TV programs. His latest self help book, What's Right With You, challenges the business as usual mentality of "What's wrong with you" and instead demonstrates how to rally natural resources and resiliencies to overcome life challenges. Barry conducts seminars internationally in hopes of inciting insurrection against practices that diminish clients and encouraging therapists to establish their own identity. He can be reached at [e-mail], www.whatsrightwithyou, and www.heartandsoulofchange.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The TRUTH about therapy, April 30, 2000

By 

Dr. Ira S. Katz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Changing the Rules: A Client-Directed Approach to Therapy (Hardcover)

Finally, the cat is out of the bag! Therapists listen up. Some of the best therapists in our business are telling us what we need to hear. And we better listen if we plan to be relevant to our clients and of value to our profession. The Truth of therapy is revealed in this wonderfully well written book. The rules have changed indeed.

In the ancient days of therapist-dominated therapy it was assumed that somehow we would descend like golden eagles and eaglettes upon the unknowing psychotherapeutic prey also known as patients and/or clients. It was assumed that based on our clinical wisdom we would be able to direct and provide the kinds of interventions and/or techniques that would make a curative difference. All this without narry a need to truly include those to whom we are entrusted to provide hope, freedom, and maybe some healing and cure along the way. Add to this mix the push of managed behavoiral care and endearment of brief is better approaches to psychotherapy all in the name of the almighty dollar, and we may have lost our way on the yellow brick road and have descended into Alice's bottomless pit in search of the white rabbit and not even know it! Sound a bit much? Step back, and ask yourself, as a therapist--"when was the last time you used "common factors" to determine your treatment plans? when was the last time you asked your patient and/or client for "their" direction on the interventions and/or techniques used to attain the psychotherapeutic holy grail?" If these questions seem alien to your gestalt then be assured that there is help out of this mess. There really is a better wasy to do what we do. It has always been there, but we have meely walked passed it, ever in search of yet another method.

The truth is that our patients/client'/s interpretation of what is going on in our therapy, the therapeutic alliance, transfeerence and all that good stuff- still matters. And when we focus on "common factors" we will indeed have more effective interventions in our therapy. "Changing the Rules" presents both a develpmental and empiracal focus, which is most comforting. The text takes us on a very practical and needed journey starting with the initial interview with our patient/client, then on to the design and delivery of the various therapeutic interventions that can positively impact the go and flow of what our patient/client wants- which may or may not be what we want. This is not a therapeutic cookbook with all kinds of cutesie receipes for success. It is a realistic, hardscrabble analyis of what we may have been in denial of for too many years. The lights are back on. We are indebted to the authors for taking the time to do the legwork, the research to once again remind us all of the power and potential of the work we are all blessed to be in. Finally, what sets this book apart form others is the special sections on gender bias and ethics- so important to be aware of and modify -if these are "blind spots" in our practice. I would higly recommend this book to anyone who is involved in psychotherapy. There are lessons for the new and seasoned therapists. In future additions of this work, I would like to see more material on ethnicity and age as therapeutic factors between and among therapist and patient and/or client. This is a book you will read and re-read many times.It will not gather dust on a therapeutic shelf. Well written and well worth the read. Ira S. Katz, PhD- Clinical Psychologist-Soledad, California