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Cases that leave us feeling stuck on how to best help are inevitable. Mary Jo Peebles brilliantly and clearly takes into the room as therapists and describes what it actually looks like to help ourselves and our patients make transformative moves forward.

Nancy McWilliams' books are comprehensive, clear, and some of the best writings out there in the world of post-modern psychotherapy. These volumes are designed as complementary to our traditional psychiatric view of mental health issues by discussion of treating the whole person and not just a diagnosis. Another must-read in our field.

The most important step in building an effective psychotherapy plan with our patients is at the beginning. Peebles' book walks us through how to solidify this alliance from the start. I consider this a must-read for any beginning therapist and a great refresher for seasoned therapists.

"In this book I will be attempting to speak about an acquired art. Acquired  because it's something more than studied or even practiced. It comes upon you gradually as you position yourself to take it in and practice what you know to practice". 

"Every time a patient leaves and, perhaps especially, when the departure is sudden or one-sided - whether the patient no longer wants the therapy, decides to move, loses interest in the work, or no longer likes the therapist - it resonates, if only momentarily". Anne J. Adelman and Kerry L. Malawista have edited for us a comprehensive writing on the feelings, thoughts, and experience of being the therapist who mourns when we lose a patient. This book allows us to pay needed attention to the *self* of the therapist - the part of us that may get pushed to the wayside as we, very necessarily, focus on the other person in the room.

Deborah Anna Luepnitz, Ph.D. beautifully tells five stories of her experience working as a psychotherapist that bring to life what happens in the therapeutic relationship. It is not academic, it is relational. We can see ourselves in it.