Product Description

Therapist burnout is a pressing issue and self-care is possible only when therapists actively help themselves. The authors examine the literature from neurobiology, social psychology and folk psychology in order to explain how therapists suffer from an excess of empathy for their clients, and then they present strategies for dealing with burnout and stress.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64466 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Elaine Hatfield, Ph.D., author of Emotional Contagion
...Babette Rothschild establishes herself as a preeminent science writer, able to translate abstruse scientific concepts into practical clinical advice.

Laurie Anne Pearlman, Ph.D., coauthor, Risking Connection and Trauma and the Therapist
Babette Rothschild enlivens this highly readable, scholarly overview of the research with her conversational tone, applications, examples, and exercises.

Marion F. Solomon, Ph.D., author of Narcissism and Intimacy and Lean on Me
… a masterful job in laying out important principles and strategies to avoid compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout.

Customer Reviews

Thank you! This book will help many helping professionals.
I read Help for the Helper cover to cover as soon as it arrived and all I can say is WOW and THANK YOU!! This is a book that addresses the needs of helping professionals--all sorts! Babette Rothschild begins the book with a preface on "Common Sense;" something we all need for taking care of ourselves (and our clients, for that matter). She's become a kind of champion of Common Sense in psychology and I'm glad to see her apply this important life-tool to the self-care of professionals. Her three central chapters begin with theory of neurophysiology: on Empathy, Arousal and Clear Thinking. She then goes on to outline things we can easily do to combat the consequences of our work and avoid burnout, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue. Though the book examples are pointed to psychotherapists, the theory and the exercises will be useful to anyone (like me) in the helping professions. One thing that stands out is that she underscores us each finding the tools that help us best. She offers expert advice without having to be "the" expert. Consistent with her advocacy of common sense, she knows that each professional has to find his or her optimal combination of resources. For those who are interested in neurophysiology, this book covers cutting edge theories and research, including the recent discovery of mirror neurons. For the psychotherapist, sections on countertransference and projective identification offer a fresh view on these core concepts. I believe that anyone in the helping professions, including those who pitch in following disasters, will find this book to be a huge help for their own well-being.

Help for the Helper
I ordered this book for a friend, who is a trained psycotherapist. She says its very good. After reading it, however, although I am not a "helper" I can understand and use some of the strategies mentioned, to quite a good effect. I Found it really useful.