Psychotherapy is a treatment that most people know of, but few understand. This is because the inner workings of the therapy process are primarily discussed by professionals in scholarly journals and conferences. The general public is typically left out of the conversation. As a result, a treatment that has healed millions of patients remains shrouded in mystery and misconception. In this short volume, Dr. Drew Permut, a clinical psychologist with over 30 years of psychotherapy experience explains how the process works. Drawing on over a dozen case histories, he takes the reader into the mind of the therapist in the complex process of working with patients. He dispels the notion that therapy is about analyzing the patient in an objective fashion. Instead, he shows how intensive training teaches the therapist how to enter into the patient's actual subjective experience. The properly-trained therapist can both think and feel what the patient experiences. This awareness, combined with academic preparation, clinical experience, personal therapy, and intuitive talent then enables the psychotherapist to communicate with both the conscious and unconscious aspects of the the patient's mind. The result is an enormously powerful process that not only heals deep wounds, but transforms patients' lives.
Dr Drew E Permut received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from George Washington University in 1979. He subsequently served as clinical supervisor of the alcoholism treatment program for the city of Alexandria, Virginia, clinical consultant to the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, and consulted to Different Drum School in Alexandria. For over thirty years, he has maintained a private psychotherapy practice in Washington, DC focusing on the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, addictions, and relationship problems. He is married to Dr. Deborah Shelkrot Permut, and has four children
