How to Choose a Psychotherapist

Joan Symington is a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. She was consultant Child Psychiatrist at the Royal Free Hospital, London, for ten years. Having trained at the British Psycho-Analytic Association, she now works in Sydney and is a training analyst of the Australian Psychoanalytical Society. She has published articles on infant observation and psychoanalysis and she is the co-author with her husband Neville of the book 'The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion'. Neville Symington is a member of the British and Australian Psychoanalytical Societies. His books include 'Narcissism: A New Theory', 'The Making of a Psychotherapist', 'A Pattern of Madness' and 'Becoming a Person Through Psychoanalysis' (all published by Karnac Books); 'The Analytic Experience', and 'The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion' (written with Joan Symington). He has a private psychoanalytic practice in New South Wales, Australia

• Introduction: the psychotherapy explosion -- The purpose of psychotherapy -- How does therapy work? -- Therapeutic tasks -- Why therapy fails -- The inadequate therapist -- Defining the good therapis