Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy
ISBN: 978-1-4338-4426-3Available formats
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In Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, Dr. Patricia Coughlin demonstrates and discusses this evidence-based approach. Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy, or ISTDP, is a brief psychotherapy originally developed by psychiatrist Habib Davanloo based on his examination of videos of therapy sessions. The goal of this therapy is to help clients move past their defenses to get at and process their true feelings. ISTDP has been successfully used for common presenting issues such as anxiety and depression as well for other issues, including some considered the realm of physical medicine such as pain, digestive issues, and neurological disorders. In this program, Dr. Coughlin works with a client who presents with a dilemma involving career choice. As the session proceeds, Dr. Coughlin identifies the defenses that are keeping the client from engaging with her life. This therapy demonstration is framed by an interview conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Magnavita in which Dr. Coughlin first provides a concise overview of ISTDP and, after the demonstration session, discusses key highlights that vividly illustrate this approach.
Patricia Coughlin (Della Selva), PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 40 years of clinical experience. She has held faculty positions at Northwestern University Medical School, Albany Medical College, and the Thomas Jefferson School of Medicine. Currently, she is clinical faculty at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Over the past 20 years she has written professionally, given presentations at professional conferences and conducted workshops for mental health professionals internationally. Dr. Coughlin obtained her undergraduate degree from the Honors College at Ohio University (1976), where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and won the Distinguished Professor Award for outstanding undergraduate student in Psychology. She went on to obtain a masters degree (1978) and doctorate (1980) in clinical psychology from Syracuse University. Her residency was completed at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. Upon completion of her residency, Dr. Coughlin was asked to join the faculty and was named chief psychologist of the rehabilitation program at the Institute of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She maintained a private practice in Chicago from 1981 through 1987.
In 1987 Dr Coughlin began her training in intensive short term dynamic psychotherapy in 1988—first at the Ontario Institute, then at the Institute in Rochester, New York; and finally in Montreal, Quebec with Dr. Davanloo, the creator of this method of psychotherapy. She currently maintains a private practice in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Dr Coughlin has written four books, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Her books are Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy: Theory and Technique (1996/2004), Lives Transformed (with David Malan, 2006), Maximizing Therapeutic Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy (2016), and
Facilitating the Process of Working Through in Psychotherapy: Mastering the Middle Game (2022).
APA Videos of Related Interest
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) With a Male Client
Diana Fosha
Clients Struggling With Perfectionism
Paul L. Hewitt
Culturally Informed Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Pratyusha Tummala-Narra
Psychodynamic Therapy Skills
Hanna Levenson
Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy
Donald K. Freedheim
Working With Emotion in Psychodynamic Therapy
Norka T. Malberg, Leslie S. Greenberg, and Michael A. Tompkins
APA Books of Related Interest
Clinical Decision Making in Mental Health Practice
Edited by Jeffrey J. Magnavita
Elements of Personality
Robert F. Bornstein
Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy
Pratyusha Tummala-Narra
Understanding Mechanisms of Change in Psychotherapies for Personality Disorders
Ueli Kramer, Kenneth N. Levy, and Shelley McMain
Undoing Aloneness and the Transformation of Suffering Into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0
Edited by Diana Fosha
Working With Emotion in Psychodynamic, Cognitive Behavior, and Emotion-Focused Psychotherapy
Leslie S. Greenberg, Norka T. Malberg, and Michael A. Tompkins

