Book

This edited volume brings together chapters from leading psychotherapy researchers and scholars elaborating on the importance of working actively with clients’ difficult emotions.

Written to instruct working clinicians in how to increase their therapeutic effectiveness, the book describes focused approaches that allow clients to productively experience and express their emotions in ways that go beyond mere catharsis and contribute to lasting change. Grounded in the latest clinical science, coverage includes mindfulness- and acceptance-based strategies, compassion-focused techniques, new variations on exposure-based interventions, the use of imagery to rework underlying schemas, and methods for addressing emotional aspects of the therapeutic relationship.

Notable contributors include Arnoud Arntz, PhD, Leslie Greenberg, PhD, Steven Hayes, PhD, Robert Leahy, PhD, Jeremy Safran, PhD, and Bruce Wampold, PhD, among many others.

Called “outstanding” by Michelle Craske, PhD, Past President of the Association for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and “important” by Jacques Barber, PhD, Past President of the Society for Psychotherapy Research.

The book can be purchased from Amazon or directly from Guilford Press. It has been translated into Korean, Persian (Farsi), Portuguese, and Turkish.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Iwakabe, S., Nakamura, K., & Thoma, N. C. (2023). Enhancing emotion regulation. Psychotherapy Research, 33(7), 918–945.

Iwakabe, S., Nakamura, K., & Thoma, N. C. (2023). Enhancing emotion regulation: Review and meta-analysis. In C. E. Hill & J. C. Norcross (Eds.) Psychotherapy skills and methods that work. New York: Oxford University Press.

DiCorcia, M., Iwakabe, S., Thoma, N. C., Yamazaki, W. (2023). Transformational Process Scale: An initial validation and application to the first psychotherapy session. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 33(3), 248-264.

Haruka, N., Iwakabe, S., & Thoma, N. C., (2022). Enhancing working alliance through positive emotional experience: A cross-lag analysis. Psychotherapy Research, 33(3), 328-341.

Thoma, N. C., & Abbass, A. (2022). Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) offers unique procedures for acceptance of emotion and may contribute to the process-based therapy movement. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Psychology 25, 106-114.

Thoma, N. C. (2022). A novel perspective on persistent self-criticism: Exposure to emotion can help patients relinquish the learned habit of self-blame. Advances in Cognitive Therapy, summer, 4-5.

Iwakabe, S., Edlin, J., Fosha, D., Thoma, N. C., Gretton, H., Joseph, A. J., & Nakamura, K. (2022). The long-term outcome of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy: 6- and 12-month follow-up results. Psychotherapy. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pst0000441

Iwakabe, S., Edlin, J., & Thoma, N. (2021). A phenomenological case study of accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy: The experience of change in the initial session from a client perspective. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. Advance online publication.

Iwakabe, S., Edlin, J., Fosha, D., Gretton, H., Joseph, A. J., Nunnink, S., Nakamura, K., & Thoma, N. C. (2020). The effectiveness of accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP) in private practice settings: A transdiagnostic study conducted within the context of a practice-research network. Psychotherapy, 57(4), 548–561.

Fosha, D., & Thoma, N. C. (2020). Metatherapeutic processing supports the emergence of flourishing in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 57(3), 323–339.

Fosha, D., Thoma, N. C., & Yeung, D. (2019). Transforming emotional suffering into flourishing: Metatherapeutic processing of positive affect as a trans-theoretical vehicle for change. Counseling Psychology Quarterly, 32, 563-593.

Thoma, N. C., & Iwakabe, S. (2018). Manual for the transformational process scale: A coding system for minute-by-minute classification of affective states in psychotherapy. (Unpublished manuscript).

Thoma, N. C. (2017). Piecing together what works: My attempts at psychotherapy integration. The Integrative Therapist, 1(3), 7-9.

Rafaeli, E., Maurer, O., Lazarus, G., & Thoma, N. C. (2016). The self in schema therapy. In M. Kyrios, S. Bhar, G. Doron, M. Mikulincer, R. Moulding, & M. Nedeljkovic (Eds) The self in understanding and treating psychological disorders. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

Thoma, N. C., Pilecki, B., & McKay, D. (2015). Contemporary cognitive behavioral therapy: Theory, history, and evidence. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 43(3), 423–462.

Pilecki, B., Thoma, N. C., & McKay, D. (2015). Cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic therapies: Points of intersection and divergence. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 43(3), 463-490.

Thoma, N. C., McKay, D. (Eds.). (2014). Working with emotion in CBT: Techniques for clinical practice. Guilford: New York.

Thoma, N. C. & Greenberg, L. S. (2014). Integrating emotion-focused therapy into cognitive behavioral therapy.In N. C. Thoma & D.M. McKay (Eds) Engaging emotion in cognitive behavioral therapy: Experiential techniques to promote lasting change. Guilford: New York.

Rafaeli, E., Maurer, O., & Thoma, N. C. (2014). Working with schema modes. In N. C. Thoma & D.M. McKay (Eds) Engaging emotion in cognitive behavioral therapy: Experiential techniques to promote lasting change. Guilford: New York.

Busch, F. N., Milrod, B. M., Thoma, N. C. (2013). Teaching clinical research on psychodynamic psychotherapy to psychiatric residents. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 41, 141-162.

Thoma, N. C., McKay, D., Gerber, A. J., Milrod, B. M., Edwards, A. R., & Kocsis, J. H. (2012). A quality-based review of randomized controlled trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression: An assessment and meta-regression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 169, 22-30.

Johnson, D. Cabral, A., Mueller, B., Trub, L., Kruk, J, Upshur, E., Diaz, L., Marrero, L., auf der Heyde, T., Thoma, N., Rodriguez, E., Cione, G., & Fraenkel, P. (2010). Training in instersectionality sensitivity: A community-based, collaborative approach.  American Family Therapy Academy Monograph Series, Winter 2010.

Thoma, N. C., & Cecero, J. J. (2009). Is integrative use of techniques in psychotherapy the exception or the rule? Results of a national survey of doctoral-level practitioners. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 64, 405-417.                             

McKay, D., Thoma, N. C., & Pilecki, B. (2009). Information processing and neuroscience features of anxiety: Refining the bases for diagnosis. In D. McKay, J. Abramowitz, S. Taylor & G. Asmundson (Eds.) Current perspectives on the anxiety disorders: Implications for DSM-V and beyond. New York: Springer.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

Thoma, N. C. (2023, Nov.) From CBTs to psychodynamics: Novel methods of exposure to emotion can reduce symptoms and increase psychological health with Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). Psychology Grand Rounds presentation, Payne Whitney Clinic, Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY.

Thoma, N. C. (2014, Sept). Evidence for working with emotion in psychotherapy. Invited presentation at the Austrian American Institute, Salzburg, Austria.

Thoma, N. C. (2014, Sept). Introduction to emotion-focused therapy. Invited presentation at the Austrian American Institute, Salzburg, Austria.

Thoma, N. C. (2014, Sept). Introduction to schema therapy. Invited presentation at the Austrian American Institute, Salzburg, Austria.

Thoma, N. C. (2014, Sept). Applying experiential techniques in clinical practice. Invited didactic training at the Austrian American Institute, Salzburg, Austria.

Thoma, N. C. (2012, May). Proposed mechanisms of change in schema therapy for chronic depression. Presentation at the biennial meeting of the International Society for Schema Therapy, New York, NY.

Thoma, N. C. (2011, June). A study of the quality of randomized controlled trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression. Grand Rounds presentation, Payne Whitney Clinic, Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY.

Levy, R., Meehan, K., Thoma, N., & Wolf, A.  (2011, May). Clinicians as researchers. Panel discussion at the annual meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Integration, Washington, DC.

Thoma, N.C., & Gerber, A. J. (2011, May). Neuroscience and mechanisms of action in psychotherapy. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Integration, Washington, DC.

Gerber, A. J., & Thoma, N. C. (2009, October).Empirical research on psychodynamic psychotherapy: Can we count what counts? Presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Research Forum, Honolulu, HI.

Thoma, N. C. (2009, May). The use of meta-analytic software in meta-regression: Currentmethodological issues. Poster session presented at the annual Fordham Communitas conference, Bronx, NY.

Garcia, F., Thoma, N. C., & Gerber, A. J. (2009, January). Measuring the feeling of knowing: Predictions for an fMRI study of transference. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, New York, NY.

Lee, J., Gerber, A. J., Thoma, N. C., & Pelgrift, R. (2009, January). Effect of morphed face imagesin triggering transference. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, New York, NY.

Thoma, N. C., & Cecero, J. J. (2008, September). Is psychotherapy integration the exception or the rule? Results of a national survey of doctoral-level practitioners. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the North American Society for Psychotherapy Research, New Haven, CT.

Thoma, N. C., & Gerber A. J. (2008, April). Disentangling motivation and automaticity in psychoanalysis and cognitive neuroscience. Poster session presented at the APA Division 39 Annual Meeting, New York, NY.

Fraenkel, P., Kruk, J., Oakes, M., Sulle-Bowen, M., Thoma, N. C., & Upshur-David, E. (2005, June). Challenges and coping of homeless families with teenagers. Poster session presented at the International Family Therapy Academy Conference, Washington, DC.

AD HOC PEER REVIEWER

American Journal of Psychiatry

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

European Psychiatry

American Psychologist

Psychotherapy Research

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training

Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy

Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

Journal of Affective Disorders

Counseling Psychology Quarterly

Psychodynamic Psychiatry