Brief Psychological Interventions in Practice

As the extent of mental illness in the population becomes clear, so the provision of care becomes one of the major tasks facing healthcare teams. As a result, a growing army of people is being trained to offer emotional and psychological support in primary care settings. This practical guide to using brief psychological interventions within a short consultation draws together techniques from a number of approaches including CBT, Solution Focus, Brief Therapy, NLP and hypnosis.

About the Author vii Introduction 1 1 GP or therapist – or both? 9 2 Problem- or solution-based? 19 3 How do we ‘think’? 31 4 Building rapport 41 5 Goal setting 49 6 Identity or behaviour? 63 7 Cognitive distortions 71 8 Seeding ideas 81 9 Reframing 91 10 Patterns: how? rather than why? 99 11 What if ? 105 12 Anchors and anchoring 117 13 Helping clients deal with anger 125 14 Helping build self-esteem 141 15 Helping with relationship problems 157 16 Resolving trauma and guilt 167 17 Helping with grief 177 18 Psychosomatic problems 185 19 Conclusion 199 Appendix I Client handout 201 Appendix II Clinical outcome routine evaluation 205 Appendix III Creative approaches 209 Appendix IV Anxiety and depression 215 Appendix V How to apply these ideas in practice – some case studies 217 Appendix VI Phrases that need challenge or qualification to help your client begin to gain a different perspective 243 Worksheets Evaluation of Stressors—Exploring thoughts and feelings—Exploring and challenging thoughts 245 References 249 Index 255