The Complete Adult Psychotherapy Treatment Planner (PracticePlanners®)

As a graduate student, what I find useful about this book is that after you study a particular disorder---from the DSM-IV-TR itself, a good psychopathology text (see Davison & Neal's Abnormal Psychology), and the DSM's Diagnostic Criteria handbook, The Adult Psychotherapy Treatment Planner completes the loop.

I bought this book after taking a case studies class where the instructor did an absolutely miserable job in showing us the rhyme and reason behind a good treatment plan. Not satisfied that I knew enough about this critically important piece in the counseling process, I did some research and found this book to be the most highly regarded in this genre.

As subsequent classes deal with child and adolescent psychopathology, family psychopathology, etc. etc. I will be getting the treatment plans that correspond with these issues.


Thank You.   March 20, 2001
16 out of 29 found this review helpful

Just what I needed, such a time saver now I can actually use my brain power to help not just write about it--Thanks again.


the best book   March 9, 2001
29 out of 31 found this review helpful

If you are in the Human Service field. This book is a must. It has helped me so much. I've had this book for over 7 years and if you are learning to write service plans, you will need to get this book and the others as well. Believe me, get this book. It is worth the price and beneficial as well.


Very focused, great for instruction, keeps things moving.   December 17, 2000
Elizabeth M. Cole (Pikeville, KY United States)
95 out of 97 found this review helpful

Excellent for learning how to write treatment plans, as well as for generating more alternatives for interventions. Working with the client to select the most important goals and most compelling interventions helps the client to take a more active approach to the tasks, and increases hope. The intro section teaches how to write a treatment plan, very good for grad students. I don't bill insurance, so instead of DSM-IV diagnosis as the sixth element, I write evaluation benchmarks. Another reviewer feared a cookbooky approach that reduces the human element in counseling/therapy. I disagree; developing and writing a treatment plan with a client helps to clarify what he/she really wants, instructs the client on the therapeutic process, and keeps in mind the desired outcomes. It keeps things moving forward. The transparency of the process keeps the counselor/therapist from being a mysterious expert figure, and empowers the client; some counselors/therapists may not like that, though. Those of us who work in time-limited settings can't afford months of wandering through a mysterious fog. Planning and goal-setting in therapy is part of the human process, not separate from it.