Innovations in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy provides clinicians with a powerful arsenal of contemporary, creative, and innovative strategic interventions for use in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The volume begins with one of the most sophisticated available analyses of the evolution of CBT, from its first applications to depression in the 1960s and 1970s through its most modern uses. Each subsequent chapter focuses on a specific CBT strategy and describes both the traditional applications of these strategies and innovative applications. Each chapter also includes directions for future research to evaluate these innovative applications, as well as other creative ways the strategies could be applied in clinical practice. Throughout the book clinicians will find empirical research to back up recommended strategies, and they’ll be able to turn to the book’s website for valuable handouts, worksheets, and other downloadable tools.

Wenzel, Dobson, and Hays elucidate and portray some of the key principles and therapeutic processes that are practiced by effective cognitive behavioral therapists. The organization roughly follows the temporal sequence of a typical application in that they begin with a discussion of the usual ways they think broadly about the field and then conceptualize the cognitive behavioral approaches to psychotherapy. They cover assessment and case conceptualization, session structure and behavioral strategies, problem solving, cognitive restructuring of automatic thoughts and underlying beliefs, relapse prevention and the completion of treatment, culturally responsive cognitive behavioral therapy. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Countless studies have established the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for many manifestations of depression and anxiety. In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perinatal Distress, Wenzel and Kleiman discuss the benefits of CBT for pregnant and postpartum women who suffer from emotional distress. The myths of CBT as rigid and intrusive are shattered as the authors describe its flexible application for perinatal women. This text teaches practitioners how to successfully integrate CBT structure and strategy into a supportive approach in working with this population. The examples used in this book will be familiar to postpartum specialists, making this an easily comprehensive and useful resource.

Countless studies have established the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for many manifestations of depression and anxiety. In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perinatal Distress, Wenzel and Kleiman discuss the benefits of CBT for pregnant and postpartum women who suffer from emotional distress. The myths of CBT as rigid and intrusive are shattered as the authors describe its flexible application for perinatal women. This text teaches practitioners how to successfully integrate CBT structure and strategy into a supportive approach in working with this population. The examples used in this book will be familiar to postpartum specialists, making this an easily comprehensive and useful resource.

Wenzel helps couples who have experienced pregnancy loss, infertility, and other reproductive losses cope, heal from the loss, find perspective and meaning, achieve acceptance, and take care of themselves using cognitive behavioral therapy strategies. She describes the grieving process and tools to use in the first weeks following a loss; to reconnect and become actively engaged in life; for coping and managing disturbing thoughts and images; for interacting with others and dealing with situations that might be reminders of the loss, such as seeing women who are pregnant or families with small children; to make decisions about reproduction in the future; for mindfulness; and to find meaning. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Postpartum depression is hard on a marriage. In their private practices, authors Karen Kleiman and Amy Wenzel often find themselves face-to-face with marriages that are suffocating, as if the depression has sucked the life out of a relationship that was only prepared for the anticipated joy of pending childbirth. What happens to marriage? Why do couples become angry, isolated, and disconnected? Tokens of Affection looks closely at marriages that have withstood the passing storm of depression and are now seeking, or in need of, direction back to their previous levels of functioning and connectedness. The reader is introduced to a model of collaboration that refers to 8 specific features, which guide postpartum couples back from depression. These features, framed as “Tokens,” are based on marital therapy literature and serve as a reminder that these are not just communication skill-building techniques; they are gift-giving gestures on behalf of their relationship. A reparative resource, Tokens of Affection helps couples find renewed harmony, a solid relational ground, and reconnection.

Wenzel (clinical psychology, U. of Pennsylvania) shows psychotherapists how to implement cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) using principles of strategic decision making. She explains how therapeutic interventions should be based on four principles of strategy: they emerge from the cognitive case conceptualization of the patient's clinical presentation, are implemented collaboratively with the patient, allow the patient to leave the session with something more than brought into it, and are committed to by the therapist. She describes a process for making clinical decisions using these principles, for those already familiar with the basics of CBT. She discusses decision points therapists will face relating to case conceptualization and treatment planning, session structure, and common strategies like psychoeducation and motivational enhancement, cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation, problem solving, exposure, affective coping skills, and relapse prevention, and illustrations of the clinical decision-making process through case studies of chronic depression, multiple anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder with comorbid borderline personality disorder and substance use. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Having suffered a miscarriage while writing this book, Wenzel (U. of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) empathizes with pregnant women's anxiety. She distinguishes between normal anxiety experienced by mothers to-be and clinical anxiety disorders that women either bring into, or experience for the first time, in pregnancy and the postpartum period. Drawing on research and a biopsychosocial model, she discusses the prevalence of perinatal anxiety, symptoms, sociodemographic and psychological correlates, warning signs, co-morbidity with depression, measures used to assess specific disorders, and management options. Resiliency can result from successfully dealing with these issues. The book includes case examples and self-help resources. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Authors Kleiman, director of the Postpartum Stress Center, and Wenzel, founder of the Hope & Resiliency Clinic, break the silence surrounding motherhood and scary thoughts--patterns of intrusive thoughts that some new mothers have about harm coming to their babies by accident, by illness, or by their own actions. The book is directed to postpartum mothers and their supporters, including doctors, therapists, and other professionals. The authors use plain language to explain the nature of different types of scary thoughts within the context of postpartum motherhood and within the context of symptoms of anxiety and depression, taking care to emphasize how common such thoughts are. They explore barriers to disclosing scary thoughts and discuss implications of these barriers that healthcare practitioners should be aware of. The authors then describe actions women can take right away to feel better, and review different types of talk therapy and medications and the research behind them. Each chapter concludes with key points for mothers and a clinician note. A personal treatment plan template is provided so readers can keep a record of their experiences and progress. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Handbook of Relationship Initiation is the first volume to focus specifically on the very beginning stage of relationships – their origin. In this Handbook, leading scholars on relationships review the literature on various processes related to the initiation of relationships: how people meet, communicate for the first time, and begin to define themselves as being in a relationship. Topics include attraction, mate selection, influence of social networks on relationship initiation, initiation over the internet, hook-ups among young adults, and flirting and opening gambits. In addition, the dark side of relationship initiation is considered, including unwanted relationship pursuit and barriers to relationship initiation including social anxiety.

This volume provides an overdue synthesis of the literature on this topic. It is especially timely in view of the growing prevalence on relationship initiation online, through matchmaking and other social networking sites, which has increased awareness that science can be used to understand, create, and facilitate compatible matching.

This Handbook provides an essential resource for an interdisciplinary range of researchers and students who study relationships, including social psychologists, communication scientists and scholars of marriage and the family.