Cognitive Therapy for Delusions, Voices and Paranoia

From the Publisher
Psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists and nurses are increasingly involved in treatments which include psychological therapy, and particularly cognitive therapy, for serious mental disorders. The aim of this book is to guide such professionals towards better practice by treating the the individual symptoms of delusions, voices and paranoia, rather than by the categorisation of schizophrenia. The authors provide an introduction to their cognitive model and show how therapy depends crucially on the collaborative relationship with the client. While earlier approaches to these distressing symptoms depended on an overall model of schizophrenia which emphasised fundamental discontinuities with normal thought and psychological processes, the authors' approach is supported by substantial research that indicates that delusions, voices and paranoia lie on a continuum of differences in thought and behaviour, and do not arise from fundamentally different psychological processes. This book offers a practical, research-based and essentially hopeful approach to the assessment and treatment of psychotic disorders and also an argument for the development of a person model for treatment, which is based on the person's enduring psychological vulnerabilities.

Paul Chadwick, PhD, is Head of Clinical Psychology at the Royal South Hants Hospital, and Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Southampton. He has an international reputation for his ground-breaking, applied research over the past 20 years on cognitive therapy for psychosis and is lead author on an infl uential book written with M.J. Birchwood and P. Trower, Cognitive Therapy for Delusions, Voices and Paranoia, also published by John Wiley and Sons. Max J. Birchwood is Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Director of Early Intervention Service at the Northern Birmingham Mental Health Trust. He is also a Professor of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Peter Trower is the author of Cognitive Therapy for Delusions, Voices and Paranoia, published by Wiley.

Delusions and Voices; The Practice of Cognitive Psychotherapy; Cognitive Therapy for Delusions; Cognitive Assessment of Voices; Challenging Cases; From a Symptom Model to a Person Model?