A Safe Place: Laying the Groundwork of Psychotherapy

by Leston Havens

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Author: Leston Havens

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 0674000862
ISBN 13: 978-0674000865

Drawing on his rich experience, Havens offers an extraordinary journey through the vast and changing landscape of psychotherapy and psychiatry. Closely examining the dynamics of the doctor–patient exchange, he locates and describes the elusive therapeutic environment within which psychological healing most effectively takes place.

Review

“Havens's views on psychotherapy and the work of mental health practitioners are interesting and provocative. Sitting beside Leston Havens and letting him share thoughts with you is time well spent.”―Simon H. Budman, Contemporary Psychology

“With considerable insight, Leston Havens offers us a fine new glimpse into the art of psychotherapy… What every reader will get from reading A Safe Place is an unforgettable sense of a professional healer who is so empathetic that one can almost see his mind reach out to embrace another.”―Richard Flaste, New York Times Book Review

“Capacious intelligence, generous spirit, and quirky grace characterize this collection of essays… Havens introduces a powerful humanity to the case study, using his experiences of [patients] to illustrate what seemed to work, what mistakes were made, and what conclusions might cautiously be drawn.”―Publishers Weekly

From the Back Cover

In a world that seems increasingly complex, even hostile, many of us yearn for a place where we can be totally accepted, where grievances great and small can be aired, old hurts and secret foibles disclosed to another trusting human being. To find such a place, and such a person, could give us the safety and freedom we need to be who we really are.

In this beautifully written, meticulously thoughtful book, psychiatrist Leston Havens declares that a safe place does exist--indeed must exist--in the therapist's office as the process of healing takes place. With great empathy for his patients, Dr. Havens takes readers into the mind of the therapist as he does his careful work: the kind of thinking he must do during sessions, how he must sometimes hold back for the patient's good, deal with his own feelings appropriately, or provoke in order to enlighten.

As he narrates his experience with a variety of patients--a highly emotional college student, a physician preoccupied by death, a schizophrenic seminary student, and others--Dr. Havens describes the challenge of creating a safe place for people who are wary, forlorn, and sick at heart. And in his capable hands, the idea of a safe place is explored in ways that can be translated to life outside the treatment session. In doing so, he teaches all of us the quality of mind required to establish a safe place for ourselves, and for others.

About the Author

Leston L. Havens, M.D. was Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Hospital.