ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces the reader to six factors associated with brain change in adults, along with the specific techniques of demonstrated efficacy associated with these factors: focus and repetition, creating and maintaining a collaborative alliance, inducing moderate levels of anxiety, facilitating multiple levels of emotional activation, creating "profound moments of meeting", and developing a coherent life narrative. In order to accomplish these goals, specific skills designed to help patients relinquish the defenses that interfere with optimal emotional activation and active collaboration with the therapist is required. This book becomes a resource for novice and experienced therapists alike, outlines a method of assessing and treating a wide range of patients in a consistently effective manner. In contrast, treatment models such as Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) have been explicitly designed to identify and resolve the underlying emotional problems causing symptomatic suffering.
