Case Studies in Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: If I Could Turn Back Time
New Release - Now Available on Amazon
Invites the reader behind the closed door of the psychotherapy office through a selection of nine lengthy, riveting psychotherapy and psychoanalytic case studies. Each story delves into the hearts and minds of memorable patients, and me as their therapist, as we grapple together with loss, betrayal, anxiety, depression, suicidality, substance abuse, and more.
In this book, I examine the challenging and moving interactions between patient and therapist - the collaborations that take place in depth psychotherapy that lead to meaningful change.
In each case study, I highlight the misattunements, ruptures, and enactments that occurred, and at times, threatened to derail the treatment. Perhaps most importantly, I explore in each story what I might have done differently – if I could turn back time.
Through my work with eight individual patients and one couple, I take the reader from the first session to the last and highlight the unique challenges that different patient populations and personality styles may present. Whether it’s working with the suicidal patient, the substance abuser, or the chronically rageful patient, this book focuses on issues around transference, countertransference, ethical considerations, and what I believe to be the most critical agent of change: the patient-therapist relationship.
Editorial Reviews
“While it is often said that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes, few analysts dare to revisit what went wrong. Beth Feldman, however, boldly steps into that space, offering nine riveting case studies from her clinical practice. With rare transparency, she invites readers behind the closed doors of the therapy room and into the mind of an analyst grappling with the emotional and intellectual challenges of treatment―both during and long after it ends. Feldman's gift for storytelling shines on every page, guiding us through moments of laughter, tears, anxiety, and awe as we witness the profound transformations that reshape both therapist and patient.”
Danielle Knafo, PhD, psychoanalyst, professor, author
“Dr. Feldman offers us an inimitable look into her inner world as she shares her experience of compelling clinical encounters with eight individual patients and one couple. She bravely illustrates misattunements, ruptures, and repairs with an openness that is courageous and admirable and offers us an imaginative series of reflections on what she might have done differently, if only she could ‘turn back time.’ In these accounts, Dr. Feldman unveils her own vulnerability, taking us behind the clinical curtain, and sharing the experiences of growth, regret, and longing that are part and parcel of the practicing clinician’s life.”
Jean Petrucelli, Ph.D., training & supervising analyst, The William Alanson White Institute, faculty & clinical consultant, NYU Postdoctoral Program