Practical Exercises for Mental Health Professionals

While  there are many successful books describing the theories and research of clinical psychology, there is a gap in content, providing structured and simulations to rehearse critical skills, mental health professionals need in the field.  Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills series aims to fill that gap. Authored and edited by leading experts, each volume in the series focuses on one subfield within mental health, providing concise and practical exercises for professionals. Each volume is based on an empirically based pedagogy that is structured, incremental, and tightly focused on the essential skills mental health professionals must acquire to obtain licensure/registration and enter the workforce.  Practical  Exercises for Clinical Psychology, volume one in the series, focuses, on providing concise and practical exercises. These exercises include repairing alliance ruptures, motivating patients to address barriers to change, suicidal behavior strategies and establishing boundaries/ limits. Each of these exercises has been tested by leading experts and clinics in the field. This book is based on an empirically based pedagogy that is structured, incremental, and tightly focused on the essential skills clinicians must acquire to enter the workforce and successfully treat patients. - Uses Deliberate Practice methodology to enhance clinical skill acquisition, which can be adapted for use by individuals, in supervision pairings, small peer learning groups, and/or in large group settings. - Focuses on evidence based 'common-factor' clinical communication skills that are proven to be related to improved therapeutic relationships and superior patient outcomes. - Each skill exercise comes with multiple levels of difficulty to allow individuals to train at their unique growth edge based on their level of training and experience.

Jordan Bawks, MD, is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto Psychiatry Residency program, and now works as a general adult psychiatrist at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, Ontario. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) at McMaster University in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, with a special interest in psychotherapy education and therapeutic communication. He is a post-academic Candidate at the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. During his psychiatric residency he was a core member of the PsychEd Podcast (psychedpodcast.org) and received several teaching awards, including the Resident Psychiatric Educator Award with the Association for Academic Psychiatry.