Psychotherapy with Adolescent Girls and Young Women: Fostering Autonomy through Attachment PDF
Preview Psychotherapy with Adolescent Girls and Young Women: Fostering Autonomy through Attachment
Psychotherapy with Adolescent Girls and Young Women Psychotherapy with Adolescent Girls and Young Women (cid:1) Fostering Autonomy through Attachment Elizabeth Perl THE GUILFORD PRESS New York London © 2008 The Guilford Press A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc. 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012 www.guilford.com All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America This book is printed on acid-free paper. Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Perl, Elizabeth. Psychotherapy with adolescent girls and young women : fostering autonomy through attachment / Elizabeth Perl. p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-10: 1-59385-651-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-59385-651-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Adolescent psychotherapy. 2. Teenage girls—Mental health. 3. Attachment behavior. I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Adolescent. 2. Psychotherapy—methods. 3. Parent–Child Relations. WS 463 P451p 2008] RJ503.P47 2008 616.89′140835—dc22 2007047335 About the Author Elizabeth Perl, PhD, is a board-certified clinical psychologist and an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. For the past 25 years, Dr. Perl has conducted individual and group psychotherapy in private practice, partial hospital, inpatient, university, and hospital clinic settings. This diverse population has included many adolescent and young adult women with a wide variety of emotional, familial, and rela- tionship problems. Dr. Perl has spoken nationally, published arti- cles, and appeared on television and radio addressing concerns of therapists, graduate students, parents, and young women. She maintains a private practice in Chicago. v Acknowledgments I have been fortunate to receive support and input from people withverydifferentkindsofconnectionstoadolescentexperience: teenage girls who have shared in therapy their current struggles, young women who have shown me that these issues may remain unresolved even in well-functioning adults, mothers in my prac- tice who work to stay connected to daughters while supporting their independent lives, and graduate students who bring per- spectivefromtheirownadolescentexperienceandwhoaskprob- ingandchallengingquestionsastheybegintoexploretheiriden- tities as therapists. This book grew out of interaction with patients and was shaped by conversation with close colleagues. Shawn Taylor, my longtime group cotherapist and collaborating colleague, knows my clinical work directly and so intimately that she was able to offer her own perspective on my interaction with patients. She brought to this conversation a broad grasp of the literature and a deep understanding of the therapeutic process that clarified or expanded my thinking, and at times even helped me to put into words my own motives for particular spontaneous responses. She also reviewed large parts of the text with painstaking care and attentiontodetail.DouglasGodfreygenerouslysharedhiswriting expertise, providing me with invaluable critique and guidance vii viii Acknowledgments thathelpedmetomoreclearlyandeffectivelydescribemyclinical work. Irwin Hoffman heightened my awareness of more subtle or conflicting underlying influences on a patient and on clinical interaction, challenging me to hold on to multiple perspectives and possibilities so as to better capture the nuanced complexity and ambiguity of therapeutic experience. I also very much appre- ciate the thoughtful comments and feedback I received from Jean O’Mahoney,JoeBehen,andPeterZeldow,eachofwhomreviewed chapters of the book. Wayne Miller contributed to this work far beyond the role of a supportive spouse. I developed my thinking in endless conver- sation with him. He always pushed me to be honest about my reactions to patients and to write in a manner that would be understandable to a reader inside or outside of psychology. Contents Introduction 1 1 The Mother–Daughter Bond and Its Implications 13 for Understanding the Therapeutic Relationship 2 Embracing Resistance and Building Attachment 40 3 When Parents Collude 65 with Their Daughter’s Resistance 4 Challenging Resistance and Sustaining Attachment 83 5 The Going Gets Tough When the Patient Gets Angry 102 6 When Attachment to a Therapist Is Not Therapeutic: 117 Recognizing Malignant Regression 7 Beyond Idealization: 136 Fostering Genuine Intimacy and Mutuality ix x Contents 8 Repetition as a Path to New Experience 151 9 Allowing for Attachment after Therapy Ends 168 References 189 Index 192
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