Effective Psychotherapists

Clinical Skills That Improve Client Outcomes

By: William R. Miller PhD, Theresa B. Moyers PhD

Narrated by: Michael Quinlan

What is it that makes some therapists so much more effective than others, even when they are delivering the same evidence-based treatment? This instructive book identifies specific interpersonal skills and attitudes—often overlooked in clinical training—that facilitate better client outcomes across a broad range of treatment methods and contexts. Reviewing 70 years of psychotherapy research, the preeminent authors show that empathy, acceptance, warmth, focus, and other characteristics of effective therapists are both measurable and teachable. Richly illustrated with sample dialogues, the book gives practitioners and students a blueprint for learning, practicing, and self-monitoring these crucial clinical skills.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 The Guilford Press (P)2024 The Guilford Press

Critic reviews

"This volume should be required reading for anyone entering the mental health professions. Clear, easy to read, and eminently practical, it offers a needed counterbalance to the focus on manuals and therapeutic techniques that characterizes so much of therapist training. The text lays out the basic skills that any therapist, using any model of intervention, needs in order to be effective. What a refreshing perspective! The field of psychotherapy needs the wisdom in this text. We need to be reminded of the basic truth that interventions offered with skilled compassion and empathy are the essence of effective psychotherapy."—Susan M. Johnson, EdD, Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada; Distinguished Research Professor, Marital and Family Therapy Program, Alliant International University, San Diego

"At long last, a book about the most important factor in psychotherapy—the person who delivers the treatment. And who better to author a book about effective psychotherapists than Miller and Moyers? Discussing the most crucial skills that therapists need to learn, this is a clinically focused presentation with a solid scientific basis. To top it off, Miller and Moyers discuss how the skills should be taught and learned through deliberate practice. This is an invaluable read for any practicing therapist and essential for all trainees. It is a solid supplemental text for a counseling theories course or primary text for a course on basic clinical skills."—Bruce E. Wampold, PhD, ABPP, Department of Counseling Psychology (Emeritus), University of Wisconsin-Madison

“If I had a dime for every time I heard a therapist say, ‘The relationship is the most important ingredient in psychotherapy,’ I’d be wealthy. Finally, we have a book that translates this old bromide into clinical skills that actually improve client outcomes. If achieving better results is your professional development objective, Effective Psychotherapists provides the roadmap to success.”—Scott D. Miller, PhD, Director, International Center for Clinical Excellence