This text offers an extensive array of theories, including all the mainstream approaches as well as contemporary ones such as narrative, feminist, and post-modern. The author provides an integrative framework that allows students to assess the various theories with respect to possible clinical application. By comparing and contrasting the theories, as well as analyzing strengths and weaknesses of each, students will learn to apply them more flexibly in practice.

The book is divided into four major theoretical forces in psychotherapy and introductory sections are provided to help students place a particular theory within a major theoretical period. The four theoretical forces discussed are: (1) psychoanalytical and psychodynamic; (2) behavioral and cognitive school(s); (3) existentialism and humanism; and (4) social constructivism school of psychotherapy. The author discusses social constructivism and then describes at least five theoretical approaches within this theoretical force--solution-focused therapy, narrative therapy, strengths-based therapy, and so on.