This book provides the reader interested in psychotherapy some insights into developments in the area in the USA. The provision of psychotherapy in the UK has been predominantly based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Despite this approach originating in the USA it is not a dominant model in this collection of papers. In fact no model is over represented, but perhaps the psychodynamic model features least. The contributions cover individual, couple and group approaches. The first part concerns individual therapy and presents chapters on the use of fairly new approaches of dialectical behaviour therapy, positive psychology, mindfulness and then not so new behavioural relaxation training. These are followed by chapters on work with specific populations including people with autism, people who have suffered abuse and people who have been bereaved. Whilst the chapter on autism is clearly about the use of CBT the other two chapters are no so clear as to the underlying model to their approach.
The group therapy section only has one contribution on work with trauma survivors. The model here is interactive behavioural therapy; unfortunately there is a lack of literature on this approach for the reader to follow up. The next section contains two chapters covering family interventions and then work with couples. The chapter on couples is particularly interesting as this is either an unmet area or an emerging area of need. Thus the discussion and suggestions in this chapter are very welcome. The final section of the book concerns issues of effectiveness, ethics and training. These are all very welcome contributions to the literature. The chapter on effectiveness reviews the reviews and then the published studies. The evidence base remains thin with most reviews are positive, but most published reports concern CBT and psychodynamic psychotherapy rather than the models covered in this book.
Edited books tend to reflect what is going on at the time and in this case in the USA and this book does just that. The value of this book in the range of models and modalities covered and the issues raised. It will help us reflect on our current practice whilst also broadening our thinking.
