Just when you thought you couldn't be amazed by something along comes this book. I don't really know who a lot of the therapists are but that didn't keep me from being entranced by this book. The stories of people whose lives are so incredibly complicated either by their own making or by what life had handed them was incredible. I really enjoyed the ways that the counselors were able to help these people with their predicamants. Makes one realize how blessed one's life truly is in comparison to what other people deal with!!

A wonderful book full of unforgettable psychological trials and triumphs. This book reels you in with the bizarre, takes a glimpse at the various therapy techniques used today, AND makes you really step back, reconsider, and re-evaluate your own perceptions of what is considered strange. If you want to think even further outside the box, READ THIS BOOK!

There are some books you come across in your lifetime that you feel compelled to pick up and never put down. This is one of those books. If you are at all interested in human nature, then this is a must read. The stories are well-written and offer diverse portraits of human strife from behind the therapists door. The stories are sad, funny, bizarre and touching and provide a rare glimpse into the thought process and theories of therapists.

Growing a Therapist is fabulous book that reveals the struggles of what it means to live life and be human. In his book Growing a Therapist, Dr. Jeffrey Kottler speaks not only to those in the counseling profession, but to everyone. Through a series of anecdotes about his life experiences, Kottler takes readers on a remarkable journey of overcoming the obstacles most people face in life, but are afraid to admit. Growing a Therapist will captivate readers with its honesty, humor and traumatic experiences. For the first time, readers have the opportunity to hear someone talking to them about the imperfect and flawed world which makes us vulnerable, and at the same time gives us strength. It is a definite must read for anyone who wants to explore new ways at surviving in a demanding world full of both suffering and joy. In doing so, we are able to find the balance we need in life to overcome our fears and begin living life to our fullest potential. By reading this book, you will learn not only how to be a caretaker of others, but how to be the caretaker of yourself. -- Jeanne Lightly

This important contribution to the clinical literature has an added bonus of being as riveting a page-turner as any novel!

Dr. Kottler is brave to write so personal in his memoirs in Growing A Therapist. I found this book to be enlightening, entertaining and refreshing. I now can view the world in a whole different light. A definite must read!

This was required reading for my first semester as a psychology grad student and I found it completely motivating and reassuring. It's an easy, enjoyable read and I highly recommend it to any psychology student who wants to be a practicioner.

Kottler emphasizes the professional relationship as primary to change versus specific techniques or orientations. If you're in the field and you need a boost, pick this book up!

Kottlers' approach to treatment comes alive, thanks to the interweaving of narrative with a wealth of clinical information.

A must read for anyone who does therapy for a living.

Kottler is a wonderful writer, and it is unfair that someone so young can have such a gifted view of human beings, our true needs, and how to help people in practical, professional, loving ways. Somewhere in your life there is a friend or therapist that will love this book, and thank you for getting it.

Addressing therapeutic functions like empathy, containment, and countertransference, and following a group's evolution from a state of fusion to emerging separateness, dependent and interdependent, Dr. Kottler applies his psychodynamic approach to group treatment, informed by object relations and self-psychology, and complete with guidelines for technique and practical suggestions for group leaders.

Addressing therapeutic functions like empathy, containment, and countertransference, and following a group's evolution from a state of fusion to emerging separateness, dependent and interdependent, Dr. Kottler applies his psychodynamic approach to group treatment, informed by object relations and self-psychology, and complete with guidelines for technique and practical suggestions for group leaders.

If you are a beginning or experienced therapist, you won't find a better wake up and reminder call to client and therapist care than Jeffrey Kottler provides. Easily readable, refreshingly honest, this book offers experienced insights into therapist/client interaction which are liberating to say the least. Not only did I benefit greatly from reading this book, but best of all, so did my difficult clients.

Jeffrey Kottler's emphasis is on preventing treatment from remaining superficial. His book adds an important dimension to the literature. It describes a special kind of respect for the patient and the latent meanings of the patient's manifest utterances, and it stresses the use of the transference as a prime tool in deepening the treatment. The book is especially welcome as a balance to the proliferation of therapies that overlook the unconscious.

A book of originality, skill and daring, possessing exceptional synthetic power. Drs. Kottler and Hazler have come up with the framework that deals respectfully and elegantly with the transition from student to professional therapist.

A book of originality, skill and daring, possessing exceptional synthetic power. Drs. Kottler and Hazler have come up with the framework that deals respectfully and elegantly with the transition from student to professional therapist.

In this intriguing study, bestselling author Jeffrey Kottler provides insightful and surprising answers to questions such as: Why do we cry? How are tears interpreted in different cultures? When is crying therapeutic and when does it become self-destructive? This text challenges conventional attitudes toward tears and shows how valuable they can be.

This brings out my feelings that I have tried to express many years

Should be required reading for educators.

Kottler and Zehm have written a deeply thoughtful and helpful book. Everyone who does this work needs brave and detailed books like this--books that in their thick description walk the walk, providing expert guidance, reassurance, and innovative technical suggestions that create space for dialogue.

The cultural and social conditions under which psychoanalysts work have changed radically in the last few years. Many standard textbooks on technique no longer speak to the currently embattled generation of therapists. Drs. Kottler and Hazler have mastered the discipline, and they convey it with freshness and an understanding of the special difficulties of these times.

In the managed care climate of abbreviated treatment and psychopharmacological cures, Jeffrey Kottler and Richard Hazler provide a breath of fresh air that will satisfy and fortify both beginning and experienced clinicians.

The issue addressed here has created much pain and disorganization in families. The book's importance lies in the authors' unique and excellent insights into the internal dynamics of individuals involved in substance abuse, and how those personal dynamics lock them into old and unfulfillable expectations. For anyone involved in treating the abuser, it provides critical guildelines for successful intervention.