Publisher's description: This unique book identifies the core competencies shared by expert therapists and helps clinicians--specifically those providing brief dynamic/interpersonal therapy--to develop and apply these competencies in their own work. Neither an abstract theoretical guide nor a cookbook of particular techniques, the book illuminates the ways one learns to engage in effective therapeutic inquiry, intervene flexibly and creatively, and improvise--on a basis of sound theoretical and clinical knowledge--to facilitate progress toward therapeutic goals. Important psychotherapy research findings are interwoven with rich descriptions of the skilled therapist's mental processes and moment-to-moment experiences. The volume's highly accessible style, wealth of illustrative examples, and fresh insights on how learning can be enhanced for both therapist and client make it an ideal professional resource and text.