Addressing Challenging Moments in Psychotherapy

"This book is the wonderfully rich distillation of 48 years of experience treating individuals, couples and groups in a variety of settings. Dr Gans shows his considerable wisdom and compassion throughout the variety of clinical examples. He covers a wide variety of therapeutic challenges ranging from threatened suicide to seemingly casual remarks. The book offers a compelling combination of thoughtful and sophisticated analysis with eminently clear writing and will help clinicians at all levels to reflect more deeply about each therapy session they conduct." Eleanor F. Counselman, EdD, ABPP, CGP, DLFAGPA, Distinguished Fellow and immediate past President, the American Group Psychotherapy Association

"Dr. Gans writes with clarity and deep appreciation for the psychotherapeutic process. His book illuminates the ways in which effective therapists must use themselves expertly as therapeutic agents, fully integrating their knowledge, understanding, compassion and humanity. Throughout, he demonstrates how the values of therapist decency and deep care for our patients, interface with our theories and techniques. Gans writes with passion, wisdom, humor and abiding respect for his patients and their inspiring courage and resilience." Molyn Leszcz, MD, FRCPC, CGP, DFAGPA, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto and President, the American Group Psychotherapy Association

"It is a cause for celebration when a highly experienced, trusted clinician and teacher, such as Jerry Gans, delivers a work that is as fresh, original, stimulating, provocative and helpful as this book. It reflects a current wish for more creative and innovative ways of working and offers numerous valuable ideas for interacting with clients in unconventional but impactful ways, in individual, couple and group therapy. Paradox, irony and surprise abound. The author offers not just his own ideas but encourages readers to find their own voice as psychotherapists: free, spontaneous and playful." Morris Nitsun, Training Analyst, the Institute of Group Analysis, London, and author of The Anti-Group and The Group as an Object of Desire

"In his book, Dr. Gans weaves selected clinical pearls. Shame, marital discord, countertransferance and pain—Gans illuminates different aspects related to relationships. Skillfully and lovingly he leads us to the depth of the challenge inherent in the therapeutic encounter. With characteristic eloquence and sincerity, he captures the reader's heart as he shares interventions, explains rationale and shares powerful insights." Sharon Sagi Berg, MA, Group Analyst, Psychotherapist, Director of Tel Aviv Schema Therapy Center

"There are many useful books on beginning and continuing psychotherapy, but I sincerely doubt there are many as enjoyable to read as this one. Using a wealth of telling examples from psychotherapy and supervision, including candid examples of his own work and countertransference processing, Dr. Gans addresses matters that speak, first, to the primary concern of novice therapists: ‘What do I say?’; and to the concerns of more advanced therapists: ‘How do I get this therapy unstuck?’…The text positively bristles with clinical examples from both his private practice and his extensive supervisory role. With laudable candor, like all great teachers, he often imparts his own personal countertransference difficulties and their resolutions to illustrate a point. The net effect is that this book will provide a kind of short-cut to the depth of his experience in a readily accessible form. The writing is clear and vivid and will remind clinicians of every stripe of their actual practices." - Thomas G. Gutheil, MD, Psychiatric Times, September 2021

"As the sun sets on Dr Gans’ long career as therapist, psychiatrist, and teacher, we are served a delicious meal of clinical wisdom; a meal that will nourish our creativity for years to come…he brings an astonishingly fresh and innovative approach to the challenging moments we experience in psychotherapy." -Dale C. Godby, Ph.D,International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 72

"Dr. Gans has written a clear-eyed, intelligent, and pragmatic depiction of one man's successful practice of that endangered species, long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. His basic belief that ‘people are doing the best they can’ clearly extends to therapists and patients alike. In these challenging years of pandemic practice, what could be more necessary or welcome?" - Betsey Edwards

"…a must read for the novice and seasoned clinician alike." – Fran Weiss,American Journal of Psychotherapy, 75(2), p. 102

"During the journey of becoming a therapist and developing one's own professional identity, each trainee has to rely on teachers and supervisors who hopefully provide relevant theory but most importantly, clinical insight and guidance... I do not know Jerome Gans personally, but I do feel like I have gained another good teacher on equal footing who it is worth learning from. His book has certainly 'enhance[d] the treatment of [my] patients and [has brought] new life to [my] clinical practice' (p.7)." - Maria Puschbeck-Raetzell, Group Analysis

"Of the multitude of books about psychotherapy, there are few that offer the recurring wisdom leavened with humility to be found in Jerome Gans’ Addressing Challenging Moments in Psychotherapy. Early in the book, Gans writes, with his typical wit: "When I arrived at Massachusetts Mental Health Center in July 1968 to begin my psychiatric residency, I was smarter than I would ever be again" (p. 18). There is a genuine modesty in the pages of this book, but it is always combined with the wisdom that psychotherapy is a complex process, as much art as science, and the recognition that an intervention for one person might not be the best intervention for another... Gans offers the fortunate reader many gems as he makes evident how he deeply loved his work and his patients and grew profoundly as a result. As he says, "Being intimately involved in our patients’ lives provides us with lessons for life, opportunities for self-reflection, an appreciation for human suffering and resilience, and a unique exposure to life’s paradoxes and apparent mysteries" (p. 38)." - Joseph Shay, PhD, Psychodynamic Psychiatry