The Discriminating Therapist: Asking How Questions, Making Distinctions, And Finding Direction in Therapy – Michael D. Yapko

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Instead of analyzing why someone makes the choices they make, The Discriminating Therapist focuses on how people choose. Dr. Yapko developed this innovative and practical perspective for helping therapists identify and target therapeutic goals in order to make therapy more effective by helping clients make better, life enhancing decisions.

Conventional wisdom can guide us but may also confuse us when good pieces of advice contradict each other. Consider these examples:

• Look before you leap BUT he who hesitates is lost.
• If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again BUT there’s no sense in beating a dead horse.
• Better to be safe than sorry BUT nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So which piece of sage advice is best to follow? The only reasonable answer: It depends. The Discriminating Therapist addresses the obvious follow-up question, “It depends on what?”

What factors should our clients take into account when they try to answer questions such as these:

• How do you know whether to listen to your feelings or override them?
• How do you know whether you should stay in or leave a relationship?
• How do you know whether you’re taking a sensible or foolish risk?

The Discriminating Therapist provides answers by describing how therapists can quickly identify key discriminations the client needs to make, then teach a discrimination strategy that can help solve problems surprisingly quickly. Twelve common discriminations are addressed, and typical examples of problems every therapist encounters are provided with an innovative, practical perspective to guide effective treatments. The Discriminating Therapist makes identifying and hitting therapeutic targets faster and easier.

Therapy has often focused on explaining why people do what they do but too often do not identify what can be done differently. In The Discriminating Therapist, Dr. Yapko offers concrete ways to define problems in solvable terms then gives therapists the tools to do the same in their practice.