Brief Psychological Interventions in Practice

As the extent of mental illness in the population becomes clear, so the provision of care becomes one of the major tasks facing healthcare teams. As a result, a growing army of people is being trained to offer emotional and psychological support in primary care settings. This practical guide to using brief psychological interventions within a short consultation draws together techniques from a number of approaches including CBT, Solution Focus, Brief Therapy, NLP and hypnosis.

About the Author vii

Introduction 1

1 GP or therapist – or both? 9

2 Problem- or solution-based? 19

3 How do we ‘think’? 31

4 Building rapport 41

5 Goal setting 49

6 Identity or behaviour? 63

7 Cognitive distortions 71

8 Seeding ideas 81

9 Reframing 91

10 Patterns: how? rather than why? 99

11 What if ? 105

12 Anchors and anchoring 117

13 Helping clients deal with anger 125

14 Helping build self-esteem 141

15 Helping with relationship problems 157

16 Resolving trauma and guilt 167

17 Helping with grief 177

18 Psychosomatic problems 185

19 Conclusion 199

Appendix I

Client handout 201

Appendix II

Clinical outcome routine evaluation 205

Appendix III

Creative approaches 209

Appendix IV

Anxiety and depression 215

Appendix V

How to apply these ideas in practice – some case studies 217

Appendix VI

Phrases that need challenge or qualification to help your client begin to gain a different perspective 243

Worksheets

Evaluation of Stressors—Exploring thoughts and feelings—Exploring and challenging thoughts 245

References 249

Index 255

Dr Ann Williamson has been a GP for more than thirty years and uses hypnosis and Brief Therapy both formally and informally with many of her clients. She also lectures at Manchester, Chester and Salford Universities. Dr Williamson has been involved with training health professionals in hypnosis for many years with the British Society of Clinical & Academic Hypnosis (BSCAH).

As many as 1 in 4 people have a form of mental illness and the provision of suitable mental health care is one of the major tasks facing general practitioners and health care teams. As a result, there is a growing army of people that are being trained to offer emotional and psychological support to people in primary care settings. For health professionals, the time pressures and demands on consultations are huge, leaving many feeling that they do not have the time to engage in effective psychological interventions with clients.

This book provides a practical guide to using brief psychological interventions within a short consultation, drawing together techniques from a number of different approaches including CBT, Solution Focus, Brief Therapy, NLP and hypnosis. It provides the evidence behind the approaches and guidelines on how to implement techniques in everyday clinical work. Each chapter provides case examples, key points in text boxes, and helpful chapter summaries.

Brief Psychological Interventions in Practice is a must have resource for primary care mental health workers; GPs; practice and specialist nurses; counsellors and students on primary care mental health courses.