The Making of a Therapist
A candid guide to the anxieties and inner experience of becoming a psychotherapist.
Cozolino writes for people at the start of clinical training, and treats the beginner's anxieties as the primary subject rather than a problem to be managed away. He argues that competence grows out of the therapist's own emotional maturity and self-knowledge, and that the fear, self-doubt, and shame of early practice are working material rather than signs of unfitness. Drawing on affective neuroscience and years of supervising trainees, he frames the therapist's capacity to stay regulated and reflective under pressure as the instrument that carries the work.
The chapters stay close to the consulting room. Cozolino addresses what to do with silence, how to field direct questions, how to sit with not knowing, and how to make use of supervision and one's own reactions to a client. He also attends to the practitioner's sustainability: the toll of the work, the pull toward premature reassurance, and the discipline of tolerating uncertainty long enough for something useful to emerge.
About the author
Louis Cozolino
Louis Cozolino is an American clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University's Graduate School of Education and Psychology in Los Angeles, where he has taught since 1986. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard. His work connects neuroscience with psychotherapy, attachment and human relationships, and he is the author of The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy. Alongside teaching, he maintains a clinical and consulting practice in Los Angeles.
Details
- 2004
- W. W. Norton
- W. W. Norton
- 240
- 9780393713947