Therapist Performance Under Pressure: Negotiating Emotion, Difference, and Rupture

This book draws on performance research from neuroscience and cognitive psychology to help therapists negotiate the difficult emotional challenges they face in psychotherapy. Therapists perform under pressure daily when encountering clients who arouse challenging emotions that can rupture the therapeutic alliance. Authors J. Christopher Muran and Catherine Eubanks synthesize decades of accumulated clinical knowledge and experience to provide psychotherapists, supervisors, and trainees with effective strategies for assessing and repairing emotion-based ruptures. In doing so, they demonstrate how therapists of any theoretical orientation can transform emotional ruptures from potential breaking points into opportunities for strengthening alliances with clients and improving outcomes. Clinical illustrations show therapists how to negotiate basic and self‑conscious emotions and navigate individual and cultural differences. This book also reviews strategies and principles for therapist self-care, and training therapists via supervision to regulate their emotions and become good models for their clients. This book also includes the complete Rupture Resolution Rating System (or 3RS) manual, a popular assessment tool for measuring and repairing relationships.