Cultivating the Therapeutic Relationship in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This book provides an evidence-based, up-to-date overview of the centrality of the therapeutic relationship in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Contemporary scholarship on the importance of the therapeutic alliance, or working relationship between therapist and client, is examined. Other aspects of the therapeutic relationship that receive less attention in the CBT literature are considered, including transference and countertransference and the real relationship. In addition, other factors relevant to a successful therapeutic relationship are discussed in the content of CBT. Throughout the book, insights from theoretical orientations other than CBT are integrated, and clinical applications are presented. This book represents the pinnacle of psychotherapy integration and is relevant to all practicing mental health professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, and counselors, and psychotherapy process researchers.

Amy Wenzel, Ph.D., ABPP, is author or editor of over 25 authored and edited books and treatment manuals and over 125 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, many on the science and practice of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). She is Founder and Director of the Main Line Center for Evidence-Based Psychotherapy, a trainer-consultant with the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and an affiliated faculty member of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Dr. Wenzel has been awarded numerous grants to conduct empirical investigations of aspects of CBT from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (now the Brain & Behavior Foundation). Moreover, she has trained and supervised hundreds of clinicians to become certified cognitive behavioral therapists, she lectures internationally on CBT, she has been featured in several CBT video demonstrations published by the American Psychological Association, and she is on the editorial boards of Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, the Intenational Journal of Cognitive Therapy, the Journal of Rational Emotive and Cognitive Behavior Therapies and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Dr. Wenzel currently divides her time between clinical work, training and consultation, and scholarship, with her current interest focused on therapeutic relationship-focused CBT.