Annotated Psychotherapy demonstrates how an experienced psychotherapist develops and carries out the right treatment plan through interactions with the patient or client. In these pages, clinicians will find an explanation of everything the therapist says to patients or clients: why they say it, what they intend it to do, how it fits in with the treatment plan for that person, and, importantly, what might have been said that would be better.

Each of the eight sessions are presented in the form of a transcript that shows how a seasoned clinician might conduct the session what their internal judgments are and what reasoning or rationale they might have for the therapeutic interventions they choose. Discussion sections after each transcript and a glossary provide helpful explanatory material for the key ideas and concepts, making this book an enlightening resource for therapists working and training in psychotherapy, whether their background is psychology, social work, psychiatry, or counseling.


1. Introduction 2. General Principles of Psychotherapy 3. Therapeutic Communication Case One: Holly: A Troubled Teenage Marriage Case Two: George: An Unsettled Graduate Student Case Three: Ellen: A Nurse in a High Stress Job Case Four: Charles: An Older Man Facing an Existential Challenge Case Five: Sophie: A Discouraged Divorcée Case Six: Martin: An Isolated Young Researcher Case Seven: Dave: A Serial Adulterer Case Eight: Dorothy: A Struggling New Mother