The Dependent Patient: A Practitioner’s Guide

Virtually every mental health professional has worked with patients who are overly dependent – patients who have trouble asserting themselves within and outside therapy, alienate others with a pervasive pattern of clinging insecurity, and undermine their social and work relationships with frequent requests for help and reassurance. Such patients have always presented unique treatment challenges for therapists, but in today’s managed care-driven environment, with its emphasis on time-limited therapy and cost-effective treatment, the overly dependent patient can be even more challenging. The Dependent Patient: A Practitioner’s Guide presents an integrated, empirically based framework for diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of dependent psychotherapy patients. Rather than being bound to a single theoretical view, The Dependent Patient integrates ideas and findings from a broad array of theoretical perspectives. This book will be a valuable resource for any practitioner who works in an inpatient, outpatient, rehabilitation, or day treatment/partial hospitalization setting, regardless of the practitioner’s background and level of training.