Psych student needs help finding a good book

I am planning on going into psychology and hope to someday open my own practice as a clinical psychologist. I believe that I have a very good understanding of peoples personalities and their behaviors but I fail in the area of critical thinking. I lack the ability to disect peoples problems and find the root of the cause, and even if I did find it I probably wouldn't know what to do with the knowledge.

So far most of the books I read are just self-help books and are focused on helping the reader. I need something that aids me in helping others rather than just myself and teaches me the process of going about it. What books would you recommend to a beginning psych student who is interested in doing talk therapy? What are some other must read books for the field of psychology?

Thanks.

Good luck on your chosen profession..disecting people sounds awful painful for all involved..

I am not in the field, but do research in trying to understand personal issues...ran across a great site may help:

Psychjourney.com

plus my T has a book on his shelf that looks interesting titled:

The Heroic Client by Barry Duncan, Scott Miller

looks interesting....hope that you reach your goal..there is a huge shortage in both the Medical and Behavioral health industries..so students should get all the encouragement and support that we can give them...


The Heroic Client by Barry Duncan, Scott Miller

What level of beginning are you? Undergraduate? I am a graduate student, and I get a lot out of self-help books. There are ideas there that could be used with clients, and you will learn them best by trying them with yourself first. Another thing that I have learned is that you have to learn to listen, and to encourage people to do their own critical thinking. Even if you can see right down to the roots of their problems, they won't hear you until you can help them to feel heard and understood, and what you can help them to figure out themselves will make a much bigger difference than what you figure out for them.

A lot of what we use in graduate classes are similar or even the same books used in undergraduate classes. The topics just repeat and go deeper and broader, building on what you have already learned.

If you are interested in good books about therapy, I just checked Amazon.com and found some good titles under these searches: therapy, motivational interviewing, positive psychology, counseling.

there is a resourse list located and pinned in the dissociative disorders message board which I have listed a variety of books on many interest areas.

good luck and happy reading.

I'm studying adddiction counseling at a local technical college. I would say that the best thing you can do is find a way to work with a large variety of people. Learn good listening and communications skills. The first step to being a good counselor is listening to the client. What is he/she telling you? You also need to find a way to relate to the client. Can you imagine what the client is going through? How would you feel in a similar situation? You need to be able to accept the client whereever he/she may be in their journey. This can be hard. I am not in the field and so I don't know if I can do this. I think I can though because I have done it some for my friends. In other words, my best advice would be to find a way to talk to many people. I have learned a lot on people skills from cashiering. A good counselor also needs patience--especially if you get a client like me. My counselor probably didn't entirely see the root of my problem because she didn't know what it was that I wasn't dealing with. I suspect that a lot of the time, a counselor must allow the client to lead the way. So, you don't have to worry as much about being able to "dissect" the person's problem. I wouldn't want my counselor to "dissect" my problem. I want her to listen to me, try to understand where I am coming from, care about me and try to help as much as possible. My counselor sometimes doesn't have a clue as to what to do. I came in once and was so crappy that she kept trying to complement me and get a positive thought out of me. But, I didn't want to discuss the thing that was bothering me. I felt sorry for her that day. There will be sessions where the only thing that you can do is to try to let the client know that you care and want to understand. Sometimes that is enough.

Hehehe that's what graduate school teaches you! You can learn most all the proper and improper methods from books, but it will be the practical that helps you and your profs realize whether you CAN do clinic.

What books have you read? Why are you asking mentally unwell patients on a mental health support site, how to think critically? What information do you expect to receive? What questions have you asked others? What other course work have you done to learn critical thinking? Do you KNOW how to think this way in reference to other objectives? How much thinking about how things work together, how things affect each other in the world, have you done already? How old are you? Do you think you have had enough life experience to gather enough knowledge to guide others? Have you googled this for more resources? Can you figure out how all these questions go together?

Critical thinking means correct thinking in the pursuit of relevant and reliable knowledge about the world. Another way to describe it is reasonable, reflective, responsible, and skillful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do.

A person who thinks critically can ask appropriate questions, gather relevant information, efficiently and creatively sort through this information, reason logically from this information, and come to reliable and trustworthy conclusions about the world that enable one to live and act successfully in it

Good wishes!

I think you're getting some great advice here--wish I had this kind of feedback when I was starting out. It's typical for beginners to focus on dissecting people's problems and looking for root causes; based on what we see on television and in movies, it's easy to think that therapy works becuase of the brilliant insights of the therapist. The research paints a different picture, though. When people change in therapy, only about 15% of that change is due to your techniques, interpretations, etc. Another 15% is due to expectancy (a concept that is roughly equivalent to hope and placebo). 30% is due to the therapist's relationship with the client. And finally, a whopping 40% is due to whatever else is happening in the client's life outside of therapy.

Focus on active listening and communication skills. A big part of being a therapist is sitting across from another human being and entering into their world. All the theories and insights and diagnostic stuff that you'll learn in classes and books will be helpful, but it's got to run in the background while the biggest part of you is just with the other person.

Since you asked for specific reading suggestions, here goes--
Start with The Heroic Client and everything on www.talkingcure.com; over the next several years, you're going to be bombarded with books and (more influentally) professors who are going to tell you that their theory is the real one--the one that really explains how it all works. It's tempting and comforting to buy into that, but having a good background in common factors will help keep you grounded.

On Becoming a Person Carl Rogers
The Interpretation Of Dreams Freud
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Handbook David Burns
Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond Judith Beck
Using Reality Therapy Robert Wubbolding
Motivational Interviewing Miller & Rollnick
Gestalt Therapy Verbatim Fritz Perls
Theory and Practice of Group Therapy Irvin Yalom
Foundations of Family Therapy Lynn Hoffman
In Search of Solutions O'Hanlon & Weiner-Davis
Man and His Symbols Jung
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Bob Cialdini

Don't limit yourself to just reading psych--get into neuroscience, suicidology, or whatever interests you. (And don't be intimidated by the books on the medical shelf--with a little science background, anyone can read and understand books written for doctors.

Also don't limit yourself to books. Get into the library and read journals. Pick from all different psychological approaches.

This is stuff I wish someone would've told me when I was getting started. Good luck.

Also, most math and science courses teach critical thinking

Thank you all for your feedback. I am just entering the field and am happy that I have gotten so much help so that I can start off on the right foot.

Are there any tapes or cds available that have recorded therapy sessions from various psychologists for students to listen to? Something like that would help give me a better idea of what will be expected of me down the road.

Also, I am really interested in the brain. I love learning about neurons, neurotransmitters, synapses, but I am too weak in the area of science to do any hardcore work in it. Is there any way I can somehow tie that interest in with my main goal, which is doing talk therapy? Are there any offshoots to psychology that deal with the workings of the brain while still connecting with my goal?

Eindoofus, you are interested in neurons, neurotransmitters, etc. hmm; how would you feel coming to a psychologist and wanting her/him to take a genuine interest in what's in your heart and on your mind, yet T's mind is on the brain, the neurons and the neurotransmitters? I'd not like it at all, to say the least.

I do have one suggestion to make. I am basing it on my experience in the course of working with eight therapists. And that is, GET YOURSELF INTO GOOD COMPETENT THERAPY. There ain't nothin' like a therapist who has done her own catharsis, her own healing, and has a level of self-awareness that precludes her imposing her needs on the therapy hour. I work best with a T who has good healthy boundaries, a high level of self-awareness, professionalism, compassionate, takes a genuine interest in me and my problems and sincerely wishes for my good, is well-trained to deal with transference and countertransference, is respectful of my needs, and can deal well with whatever I bring into our work.

Those T's who had not done their own healing and hadn't gotten the right training, they were a waste of my time and energy and money.

Best of luck to you!
By the way, there's a book I picked up at Strand, it's called Four Years of Therapy. There's another great book I came across at Barnes and Noble, with actual sessions transcribed. I don't have the name of the book right now, when I find it I'll post.

I am still in my undergrad program, and I find that beig in therapy with a real good T is giving me so much hands-on training. I certainly look to her as my mentor for when I'll be doing work in this field.

Take care,

You might contact your areas local hospital's mental health unit. From being in some I can tell you there are lots of opportunities for psych students there. The places I was in always had psych student vollunteers and interns helping out and from mine and my fellow patients point of view at the time - we enjoyed it so much when the vollunteers and interns came in because they always had a fresh point of view and were usually willing to look beyond the theorys of "a negative call for attention" and "delusions". Some even helped by becoming partners in crime for good natured diversions of pranks and jokes that helped pass the long hours.

Not only will you get psych training but you will definately learn how to retain a sense of humor which is a huge part of how alot of mental health clients get through even the worst of situations sometimes.

and I love it that you are interested in the way the brain functions. one of the most interesting things on earth is how the human brain functions. My own therapist dabbles in that herself and her explaining the difference of thinking from the front of the brain versus reacting at the brain stem level during my depression management class made for one of the best class sessions in that group. And I was not the only one client that found that interesting. she would no more then get done explaining one thing and someone would ask her anther question or give her another personal life experience to go with what she was explaining to us.

So you go for it. there will be plenty of clients out there that will find your knowledge and information interesting.

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Evangelista said:
Good luck on your chosen profession..disecting people sounds awful painful for all involved..

I am not in the field, but do research in trying to understand personal issues...ran across a great site may help:

Psychjourney.com

plus my T has a book on his shelf that looks interesting titled:

The Heroic Client by Barry Duncan, Scott Miller

looks interesting....hope that you reach your goal..there is a huge shortage in both the Medical and Behavioral health industries..so students should get all the encouragement and support that we can give them...


The Heroic Client by Barry Duncan, Scott Miller

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post"> You can try Psychjourney but it is not all that great. Try APA

That is a good choice. I prefer Psychiatry but everyone has their own say.

<font color="darkblue">I enjoy the book The Owner's Manual for The Brain, by Pierce J Howard, PhD. It speaks in laymans terms.

I understand your eagerness to learn, but think you are getting the cart before the horse. There are hundreds of hours of learning ahead of the act of engaging in the talk therapy process. Perhaps having a few one on one counseling sessions with your own therapist will give you a good look at your own anxieties about this, help you with them, and show you how the process works. TC!

I like the study of the brain too. Its fascinating to take a course on phsyciological psychology. It was a hard yet interesting course. You sound very eager. I enjoyed reading (I can't find it right now). I think it is called Delivering Dr Amelia or something like that. It is written by a counselor about a composite of patients. I find it interesting how he doesn't really know where to go with her and so he is encouraging her to just lead the way for a while. I suspect that addiction counseling might have a stronger focus on brain/body physiology than regular counseling. In counseling, one educates the client on his/her problem. Illegal drugs will effect the brain and so I suspect I might be able to use some of my interest in neural stuff in that area. As for research, I might get into that some day. I would prefer the talk stuff though. I find that my T is no smarter than me. She just has the advantage of see me from another point of view and with less of a negative bias than I do. She also knows more techniques than I do.