Good Goodbyes

Good Goodbyes is a fitting culmination of the Novicks' esteemed contributions to the literatures on termination, child and adult psychotherapies, and the 'two systems' model of self-esteem regulation. This thorough, practical, and wise volume on how to productively approach the ending of psychotherapies will be a great resource for experienced therapists and an invaluable guide to clinicians in training. -- James Hansell, Ph.D, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
With generously supplied illustrative clinical vignettes, Kerry Kelly and Jack Novick have assembled a most valuable presentation concerning treatment termination. They demonstrate how the prospect of termination shapes the work of the entire collaboration, from its very onset through and beyond the final day that patient and analyst meet. Their detailed exposition, organized along the lines of a reader's expectable questions, throws clarifying light on an aspect of the treatment enterprise hitherto accorded but meager attention. -- Stephen K. Firestein, M.D.
The Novicks have produced an excellent and most original book on termination in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy…At last we have an approach that conceives termination so fully, that it includes the concerns, and reasonable preparations for the patient self care after termination. -- Henry Krystal, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Michigan State University
Jack and Kerry Kelly Novick have written a very interesting book that grapples with the difficult issue of termination. I highly recommend this book to both beginning and advanced therapists and analysts. It will give them many ideas about many different ways to think about termination. -- Fonya Lord Helm, PhD, ABPP * Psychologist-Psychoanalyst *
Deciding when to end clinical therapy and how to end it well can be a mystifying process. In Good Goodbyes: Knowing How to End in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Jack Novick and Kerry Kelly Novick share insights from their vast combined experienceto diminish the mystery of therapeutic closure. The book, which is firmly based in psychoanalytic theory, uses a question format to explore the many hows, whys, whats, and whens of termination. The authors outline treatment stages along the path to the therapeutic conclusion, all the while fine-tuning a constructive approach for supplying the good in goodbye. As psychoanalysts, teachers, and supervisors, the Novicks bring a refreshing perspective to ?endings, beginnings, and the work needed for a goodgoodbye? (p. xi), filling in gaps not previously addressed. The layout is especially helpful for locating information to apply in practice settings. Fortunately, each chapter includes illustrations that allow practitioners with little training in psychoanalysis to understand key concepts without a deep grounding in psychoanalytic theory. Some of the new insights into termination do generalize across theoretical orientations. Although it is comprehensively psychoanalytic, Good Goodbyes presen * PsycCRITIQUES *
Deciding when to end clinical therapy and how to end it well can be a mystifying process. In Good Goodbyes: Knowing How to End in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Jack Novick and Kerry Kelly Novick share insights from their vast combined experience to diminish the mystery of therapeutic closure. The book, which is firmly based in psychoanalytic theory, uses a question format to explore the many hows, whys, whats, and whens of termination. The authors outline treatment stages along the path to the therapeutic conclusion, all the while fine-tuning a constructive approach for supplying the good in goodbye. As psychoanalysts, teachers, and supervisors, the Novicks bring a refreshing perspective to “endings, beginnings, and the work needed for a good goodbye” (p. xi), filling in gaps not previously addressed. The layout is especially helpful for locating information to apply in practice settings. Fortunately, each chapter includes illustrations that allow practitioners with little training in psychoanalysis to understand key concepts without a deep grounding in psychoanalytic theory. Some of the new insights into termination do generalize across theoretical orientations. Although it is comprehensively psychoanalytic, Good Goodbyes presents a solid contribution to understanding the process of properly ending psychotherapy. Applying the lessons set forth in this text will enhance the long-term positive changes that are possible through effective psychotherapy. * PsycCRITIQUES *
Nearly every therapist has watched in helpless agony when the good work of a patient's therapy is spoiled by a bad ending. In Good Goodbyes, the Novicks help us to minimize the possibility of such painful occurrences. Through an easy-to-follow series of questions and answers they walk us through the phases of intensive analytic treatment: from evaluation to beginning; from middle to pre-termination; and finally, from the much neglected phases of termination to post-termination. Through vivid and compelling child and adult clinical vignettes, they illuminate the challenges and satisfactions inherent in such work. Moreover, they demonstrate that when a treatment culminates in a "good, goodbye", a patient's system of self regulation can be transformed from one that is joyless, constricted and closed to one that is healthy, alive and open. -- William B. Meyer, MSW, BCD, Department of Social Work, Duke University Medical Center