Overcoming Resistance in Cognitive Therapy [Paperback]

This practical guide presents Leahy's multidimensional model of resistance in cognitive therapy. Richly illustrated with case examples and session vignettes, the book addresses a variety of ways that clients may resist basic therapeutic procedures: noncompliance with agenda setting and homework assignments, splitting transference with other therapists, inappropriate behavior, and premature termination. Underlying processes of resistance are explored, from the desire for validation to risk aversion and self-handicapping. Also highlighted are ways that the therapist's own responses may inadvertently impede change. Provided are innovative tools for getting treatment back on track, including targeted interventions, in-session experiments, and questionnaires and graphic models to share with clients.

This book fills a major gap in the cognitive therapy literature, one that may often account for failure to attain therapeutic goals. The author, while committed to a cognitive model, shows a willingness to mine other therapeutic traditions for ideas that cognitive therapists can use. He has developed a well-thought-through typology of types of resistance, and provides a richness of clinical example and precise formulations of actions the therapist can take to help the patient overcome each type. This book will be an excellent text in courses in all the therapeutic disciplines. It will be especially useful for students in such professions as social work, who will encounter many clients who are induced by environmental and socialization influences to erect barriers to change. --Charles Garvin, PhD, School of Social Work, University of Michigan

For any cognitive-behavioral clinician who has ever asked, 'Why am I having such a difficult time helping my client change?', Leahy has provided an engaging, thought-provoking, integrative text that addresses this question most effectively. The text will appeal to therapists at all levels of experience, offerl“.