Crises in the Psychotherapy Session: Transforming Critical Moments into Turning Points

What do you do when your client flies into a rage or has a severe panic attack during a therapy session? Author Julian D. Ford explains how to harness such crises for breakthroughs.

Crises that erupt in the midst of a psychotherapy session can be overwhelming not just for the client but also for the therapist. Yet every crisis also can be a therapeutic breakthrough. With this book, therapists learn how to transform such critical moments in psychotherapy into powerful and positive turning points. Drawing from trauma and attachment theory and the essential principles of psychotherapy and crisis management, Ford explains how crises can be understood as episodes of extreme emotional dysregulation. With a series of indepth case examples, Ford shows how therapists can utilize emotion regulation as a practical framework to deescalate crises.

Each case study is a transcript of a psychotherapy session, complete with dialogue and commentary, featuring reallife expert clinicians who use a crisis as an opportunity to help clients face and resolve a sense of being damaged, betrayed, or abandoned.

With wisdom, compassion, and a deep understanding of human emotions, this book teaches essential skills that all therapists will need.