Evidence from Within: A Paradigm for Clinical Practice

This book squarely addresses the question: does interpersonal treatment, including psychotherapy, work? It proposes an innovative model of psychiatric and psychological assessment and treatment. Having read this book, the practitioner will have a set of invaluable, new techniques for conducting a results-oriented treatment. The book and the methods it advocates can be used as a practice guide for any office-based psychiatrist or mental health clinician. Emphasized is the practitioner’s responsibility to deliver a treatment that is effective and has built in provision for independent monitoring of treatment progress. Apart from psychometric assessment and self-report questionnaires, information about diagnosis and progress comes from collaboration between clinician and patient. The approach described has been evolved and tested by the author and his colleagues for over fifteen years. The book is clearly written and replete with clinical illustrations that capture the dilemmas typically faced by practicing psychiatrists and psychotherapists.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 0 Introduction Chapter 1 Orientation Chapter 2 Assessment in Psychology and Psychiatry. How Similar to Physical Medicine? Chapter 3 Integrating General and Specific Therapeutic Interventions Chapter 4 Our View Chapter 5 Our Method and Procedures: Adults Chapter 6 Our Methods and Procedures: Children and Adolescents Chapter 7 Delivery of Services: The Center for Collaborative Psychology and Psychiatry Chapter 8 Our Clinical Population: A Pilot Study Chapter 9 A New Paradigm for Psychotherapists?

About the Author :
Steven Frankel, M.D. is an associate professor at the University of California Medical School and founder and director of The Center for Collaborative Psychology and Psychiatry in Kentfield, California.

Review :
Counter to the conventional wisdom that psychotherapy is a private and confidential two-person interchange between therapist and patient, Steven Frankel presents a passionate advocacy of a therapy model involving therapist, patient, a psychologist-assessor, and often enough when indicated a family member, in an ongoing evaluative and monitoring process throughout the therapy, and into a continuing follow-up period thereafter. All the claimed advantages are vigorously propounded: far greater transparency and accountability, a more focused and self-correcting therapeutic course, a private-practice friendly situation and even economic advantage. It is a model offered for thoughtful consideration by the mental health professional practitioner world. What a gift this remarkable book will be to the entire community of therapists and clients seeking their counsel! It presents the therapeutic endeavor in terms that bring to mind "It takes a village to raise a child." Frankel's method is collaborative, dignified, and totally inclusive. He describes a shared commitment of all participants based in the conviction that dedicated tender care together with meticulous tracking are the most important elements—more than any particular therapeutic style—of successful therapy. Emphasized in this book are ways a therapist can and should confirm his or her clinical observations. The therapist takes responsibility for a therapy that is both fully collaborative and has, at each point in the work, been demonstrated to be effective. Steven Frankel writes about the interpersonal process of psychotherapy better than anybody I have read, sharing his own struggles, feelings, and mistakes with refreshing honesty. This book outlines a collaborative process for integrating psychological assessment into long term psychotherapy. With this method, the deeper issues of the client are illuminated, brought into the client-therapist relationship and clarified so that they may be worked on and resolved. Evidence from Within: A New Paradigm for Clinical Practice is a must read for anyone looking for new ways to help their clients. This is a very good book. As a neuropsychologist I am relieved to see a book for psychotherapists advocating a technique that depends on evidence, both test-derived and clinical. From point to point in treatment Dr. Frankel and his team want to see results. The treatment has to work, measurably, or it needs to be revised. The author says that this book can be used as a practice-guide for any mental health clinician, and indeed it can. It is a "must read," a sorely needed contribution to the field.