BOOK REVIEWS

In the next five sections, Dr. Clabby reviews the major challenges
and concerns that our patients bring to their medical appointments
including weight, sleep, smoking, drinking, stress, anxiety, and
depression among others. He also includes issues that many
providers are not commonly prepared to address but that can
contribute to significant distress and precipitate or perpetuate
medical problems: troubled marriages, child behavioral problems,
violence, and work stress. Dr. Clabby anchors these strategies
with evidence. His review of the literature provides a bibliography
for those wanting further study as well as bibliotherapy resources
for patients. Throughout the book, he shares mnemonic acronyms
that help keep strategies and skills easily in mind during time
pressured appointments.

in fields such as medical humanities and genetics. Likewise,

essays from it can be well suited to discuss in reading groups for
clinicians.
In The Story Within, skillful writers recount and reflect on their
personal encounters with genetic medical conditions. The resulting
book can enlighten those caring for and about those affected by
such conditions directly or as family members. In addition,
themes common to literature and genetics converge to help make
the book powerful and engaging reading. Special thanks to the
editor and authors for bringing out the stories within.

Reviewer:
Barbara Gastel, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Humanities in Medicine
Texas A&M University Health Science Center College of
Medicine
Bryan, Texas 77807
Email: gastel@medicine.tamhsc.edu

During their medical education, students are required to achieve

competence in many procedures that require significant time to
learn and significant time during clinical appointments to
employ. Behavioral science clinical interventions are essential if
our patients are to achieve their highest level of well-being.
Psychological and behavioral health skills need to be considered
routine procedures. Dr. Clabbys book can serve as an introductory
textbook that can help students become comfortable and
competent with two-minute procedures to improve
psychological and behavioral health within the time constraints
of clinical medicine.

Two Minute Talks to Improve Psychological and

Behavioral Health
Reviewer:
William J. McCann, M.A., Psy.D.
Associate Professor and Director of Behavioral Science
Education
Department of Family & Community Medicine
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Winston Salem, NC 27157
Email: wmccann@wakehealth.edu

John F. Clabby
London-New York: Radcliffe Publishing; 2011
172 pp, paperback, US $37.95

A lack of training and a lack of time are routinely cited as the

two major impediments to the effective integration of the
behavioral sciences into routine medical care. Though the critical
role of the behavioral sciences is recognized in preventive
medicine, comprehensive care, coping, adherence, and resilience,
medical providers have continued to struggle with clinical time
constraints. Dr. John F. Clabbys book Two Minute Talks to
Improve Psychological and Behavioral Health makes a major
contribution to facilitating this essential integration.

Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy (4th ed)

J. William Worden
New York: Springer Publishing Company, LLC;2009
261 pp, hardback, US $44.78

Dr. Clabby begins by emphasizing the value of brief advice.

Equating counseling and psychotherapy with the 50-minute hour
ignores the full range of interpersonal engagement that can
contribute to insight, motivation, and behavior change. He
emphasizes that short, evidenced-based conversations can have
a long-term impact. Section 1, entitled, Practical strategies from
powerful psychotherapies, provides a concise yet clear,
comprehensive, and research-based review of effective brief
counseling techniques including motivational interviewing and
cognitive therapy. By practicing these communication strategies,
every health care provider can learn to tailor advice so that it fits
this person and helps develop therapeutic relationships and
nurture therapeutic processes during medical appointments.

Patients dont recover from loss, they adapt. Grief Counseling and
Grief Therapy explores how people achieve this goal, what
impedes achieving it, and how to intervene when impediments
occur. Being a 4th edition is itself a testament to the books value
to the health care provider. Worden provides a thoroughly
researched, clearly written, and well-organized book about how
people mourn loss arising from a death. An alternative title for
this book could be: Everything You Always Wanted to Know
about Grief and Its Treatment. Given its encyclopedic scope, this
is not a book you necessarily read in one sitting. Still, I
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BOOK REVIEWS
recommend that the reader take the time to peruse the book to
become familiar with many important distinctions that are
relevant to effectively evaluating and addressing a patients grief.
These include: how to distinguish grief from depression; how to
identify the normal mourning process and recognize when it goes
astray (Worden explores the myriad ways this can happen); and
how to become sensitized to the ways grief can shape symptoms
even when loss is not the presenting problem.
This is a scholarly book written by a master clinician. Brief
examples that aptly reflect Wordens astute clinical acumen are
distributed throughout the book. More concentrated examples
appear in overview chapters 4 and 6 on Grief Counseling and
Grief Therapy. For the 5th edition, I recommend Worden provide
several lengthy case studies that illustrate his nuanced
understanding of grief and skillful use of techniques drawn from
a variety of theoretical orientations.
In sum, this book is an invaluable resource for physicians and
mental health practitioners who will, of necessity, deal with
patients grief.

Reviewer:
Marilyn Freimuth, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychology Program Director
Fielding Graduate University
2020 De la Vina Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Email: mfreimuth@fielding.edu

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