Humanistic Psychotherapies: Handbook of Research and Practice offers readers an outstanding compendium of the latest research and practice techniques in this important field. In addition to the editors' comprehensive overview of the history, defining characteristics, and evolution of humanistic psychotherapies, leading experts illustrate significant research results in the last decades and document the effectiveness of major humanistic therapeutic approaches, including client-centered, Gestalt, existential, and experiential.

The research presented shows these approaches to be equivalent and, in many cases, superior to others in treating a wide range of psychopathology. Contributors also offer guidelines for practice and introduce innovative and sophisticated methods for working with an increasingly difficult, diverse, and complex range of individuals, couples, families, and groups.

Of particular interest are chapters focusing on empirical evidence from humanistic psychotherapeutic practice that demonstrate the importance of the psychotherapeutic relationship and therapist empathy in effecting successful client outcome. The book also stresses the effectiveness of humanistic psychotherapies in establishing methods for working with client emotion and enabling patients with severe disabilities such as schizophrenia to progress in their development and functioning.

This handbook will be an invaluable resource for not only teachers and students but also practitioners and researchers.

David J. Cain, PhD, ABPP, received his doctorate in clinical and community psychology from the University of Wyoming. He is director of the Counseling Center at United States International University and adjunct faculty in the Department of Psychology at Chapman University. He is the founder of the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach and was the founder and editor of the Person-Centered Review. He is a fellow in clinical psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology, is a member of the National Register of Certified Group Therapists, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and the Humanistic Psychologist.

Julius Seeman, PhD, received his degree in counseling in 1948 from the University of Minnesota. His first position was at the University of Chicago Counseling Center, where Carl Rogers was director. He was coordinator of research during the center's first funded study of psychotherapy outcomes. The challenge of deriving theory-based empirical outcome criteria so fascinated him that he devoted most of his subsequent research career at Peabody College to this task. A significant part of his research has focused on developing empirical definitions of the "fully functioning person." Presently he is professor emeritus at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He is currently doing consultation and psychotherapy. He is the author of Personality Integration.