Getting Started: An Introduction to Dynamic Psychotherapy

Getting Started provides answers to questions that confront all beginning therapists, such as How do I start? What do I say? What if the client challenges me? What if the client is silent? How do I deal with fees? What about confidentiality? How should I end the sessions? It also answers those fundamental general concerns, like: how does psychotherapy work? How can I be helpful to my patients? Many books claim to be simply written and easy for an inexperienced therapist to understand. This one really is. It is user friendly and written with a minimum of jargon. Dr. Joel Kotin gives numerous examples of common situations and problems that therapists regularly encounter and hen tells the reader how to approach them. Dr. Kotin’s tone is reassuring and supportive throughout.

Joel Kotin, M.D., is a clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the College of Medicine, University of California at Irvine. He is also training and supervising analyst at the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute as well as at the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute. As a consultant child psychiatrist to the Children’s and Youth Services of the Orange County Department of Mental Health, and director of Psychiatry at the Laguna Beach Community Clinic, Dr. Kotin has provided training to therapists from many disciplines, including psychology, social work, and psychiatric nursing. In the past, Dr. Kotin was a clinical associate at the National Institute of Mental Health, a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a member of the Executive Council of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He has published numerous professional articles on psychopharmacology and community psychiatry as well as on psychotherapy.