Moving Beyond the Comfort Zone in Psychotherapy (Hardcover)

by Nancy A. Bridges (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Making emotional contact and inviting patients to use therapeutic relationships for their relational and developmental aims is a risky and intimate proposition. But, as the author of this book argues, therapists must be willing to engage deeply with patients to work from within the relationship extending the therapeutic relationship to reach the private experience of self and other and offer new relational experience. Moving beyond traditional thinking, the author presents a relational approach that integrates psychoanalytic thinking with the latest findings from infant research to give therapists the theoretical framework to orient the treatment and maintain psychic equilibrium and safety during times of arousing and destabilizing affect and relational scenarios. A therapeutic stance, which is fluid and open to intrapsychic and interpersonal influence, allows for the experience and elaboration of complex unconscious affects and shifting points of identification. Compelling clinical narratives bring the reader into the consulting room and show how the therapist may forge deep emotional connection within a bounded therapeutic relationship that relies upon mutual influence and self-revelation and opens up relational space to ultimately rearrange a patient's experience of self and other.

From the Inside Flap
"Wise as well as keen, this valuable book shows us the essential conditions for effective work."
--Dr. Leston Havens, Harvard Medical School and The Cambridge Hospital

"Nancy Bridges reminds us all that erotic feelings and fantasies permeate the increasingly intimate relationships that patients and therapists construct together over the course of treatment. There is no more useful lesson that contemporary therapists can learn."
--Gerald Schamess, Smith College School for Social Work

"Following in the heartfelt and highly empathic tradition of clinicians like Searles, Coltart, and Russell, Nancy Bridges makes us feel deeply about the therapeutic process and stimulates our intellectual curiosity about why and how we intervene. She says we must be knocked off our perches routinely if the process goes well. And she does not hesitate to provide dozens of case studies where she backs up her theoretical stand with detailed descriptions of actual interventions with her patients. Bridges' writing style is both accessible and emotionally engaging. "Moving Beyond the Comfort Zone in Psychotherapy" succeeds in the challenging task of making the reader comfortable with the notion of being uncomfortable as an essential part of the process. I highly recommend this book for everyone who is invested in translating relational theory into practice."
--Karen J. Maroda, Ph.D.

"Equipped with the best of traditional psychodynamic theory and new insights from infancy research and the relational perspective, Nancy Bridges takes her readers on a journey into the largely unexplored affective interior of the clinical encounter. Compelling case vignettes illuminate the shadowy recesses of such phenomena as therapeutic aggression, destabililzing sexual and aggressive arousal in both patient and clinician, the risks and rewards of therapist self-revelation, and the therapeutic management of exceptional patient requests. Joining Bridges on her courageous excursion beyond the clinical comfort zone is well worth the trip for beginners and seasoned clinicians alike."
--Jeffrey Applegate, Ph.D., Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College

"Nancy Bridges takes on the difficult topic of therapists' intense affective and erotic feelings about patients. She provides a balanced,broad -ranging rich discussion including the use of supervision and consultation. It will be an invaluable resource for therapists and their teachers."
--Malkah Notman, Harvard Medical School

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson; 1 edition (January 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765703440
• ISBN-13: 978-0765703446
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #397,835 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Book, February 22, 2005

By	Carolyn Stevenson (Durham, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Moving Beyond the Comfort Zone in Psychotherapy is a wonderful and important book. With insight and compassion, Ms. Bridges has written a book that will appeal to therapists and those in therapy alike but for different reasons.

Therapists will appreciate Bridges' use of intersubjective/relational, attachment, and developmental theories to explore the relationship between the therapist and patient in order to affect therapeutic change and growth.

As a psychotherapist, I appreciate the combination of sound, innovative theory as well as many case examples. Through these, Bridges helps therapists conceptualize and navigate their relationships with patients in an engaged, empathic manner that honors the safety and mutuality of the relationship by establishing negotiated rather than rigid boundaries. Bridges skillfully uses this framework to examine the often complex and intense feelings a therapist can have toward a patient (e.g., sexual and loving feelings as well as anger, hatred, and rage); exceptional requests (e.g., gift-giving, hugs, attending a patient's wedding); and disclosures by the therapist (e.g., balancing expressiveness and restraint). I found her perspective quite helpful in thinking about my work with patients: how to stay deeply engaged, even in the most challenging of circumstances, rather than distancing or acting out.

Those in therapy will also find this book helpful. It offers an inside view of therapy from the therapist's perspective. Bridges explores her feelings, thoughts, struggles, and clinical decisions as she navigates often complex and intimate therapeutic relationships.

A real contribution to the field.

Carolyn Stevenson, L.C.S.W., M.Div.