Symptom-Focused Dynamic Psychotherapy

"This is a book filled with uncommon clinical wisdom. The interventions suggested by Connors are consistently informed by deep understanding of their meanings for the patient, and her attention to character, transference, and countertransference is masterful. At the same time, she demonstrates clearly how the deeper aims of psychoanalytic work can be enhanced rather than compromised by thoughtful inclusion of methods whose origins lie outside the psychoanalytic tradition. Connors is theoretically sophisticated, but it is the patient and his or her suffering, rather than theoretical 'purity,' that is the central focus of her work."

- Paul Wachtel, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology, City College and CUNY Graduate Center

"Symptom-Focused Dynamic Psychotherapy integrates active, instructional, and cognitive-behavioral techniques with psychodynamic principles in an impressively thoughtful, comprehensive, and compelling way. Grounding her synthesis in contemporary self-psychological and relational theory, Connors shows how the skilled application of symptom-focused techniques is often the most attuned, relationally responsive intervention a therapist can make. Moreover, Connors' conceptual clarity and clinical wisdom combine to make this book highly useable not only as a guide for experienced clinicians of various theoretical persuasions, but as a comprehensive text for graduate and professional students in the mental health fields."

- Steven Stern, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis

"Connors' writing reflects both rigorous scholarship and great personal warmth. The comprehensiveness of her treatment of her material and the clarity of her prose will be appreciated by teacher, student, and clinician alike. It is also the particular gift of this volume that the working clinician is offered a pathway through which neither depth-psychological understanding nor symptom-focused relief has to be sacrificed in providing sound clinical care."

- Jill R. Gardner, Ph.D., University of Chicago

"This volume might well be a valuable addition to the syllabus of a graduate course in which psychoanalytic or psychodynamic therapy is a central topic. The book is clearly written and well organized and is an accessible read..."
- PsycCRITIQUES