Reimagining Therapy through Social Contextual Analyses: Finding New Ways to Support People in Distress

This book challenges the current complacency around therapy and mental health behaviors by proposing that changes to our social, discursive, and societal environments, rather than changes to an individual's 'mind, will reduce suffering. It offers an alternative approach grounded in real social worlds and provides practical guidelines for building reimagined therapies into clinics and institutions.

Format: Hardback
Length: 198 pages
Publication date: 29 July 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book aims to challenge the prevailing complacency surrounding therapy and mental health behaviors by placing them within the broader context of social contextual analysis. It demonstrates how changes to our social, discursive, and societal environments, rather than solely focusing on individual mental states, can alleviate suffering associated with these behaviors.

Guerin critically examines many assumptions about both current therapy and psychology, offering alternative approaches synthesized from various fields such as sociology, social anthropology, sociolinguistics, and more. The book provides a comprehensive framework for addressing mental health behaviors, encompassing actions, talking, thinking, and emotions, by considering the external life situations of individuals rather than relying on an imagined internal source.

Guerin explores the broad contexts for current Western therapies, encompassing social, discursive, cultural, societal, and economic factors. He advocates for a shift in research focus, away from treating therapies as standalone units, towards studying their components and understanding their interrelationships. By reframing different types of therapy in terms of their real-world applications, the book offers an alternative approach grounded in our social realities, aligning with emerging thinking that challenges traditional therapeutic methods. It also provides a valuable framework for rethinking psychology itself.

The book's central message is that mental health behaviors should be viewed as arising from social issues, including the modern contexts of extreme capitalism, excessive bureaucracy, weakened discursive communities, and evolving forms of social relationships. Practical guidelines are provided for integrating the reimagined therapies into clinics and institutions, where the need for labeling and pathologizing mental health behaviors will be eliminated.

By placing mental health behaviors within the broader social context, this book offers a transformative perspective that empowers individuals and communities to address these issues more effectively. It encourages a shift towards a more holistic and compassionate approach to mental well-being, recognizing the interconnectedness of our social, psychological, and environmental aspects.

Weight: 550g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032292434