How therapists diagnose
If you or someone you love has ever seen a psychiatrist, psychologist, clinical social worker, or any other therapist, or if you have experienced difficulties trying to collect insurance money for this type of treatment, "How Therapists Diagnose" is your essential guide to the confusing and sometimes frustrating process of psychotherapy. In "How Therapists Diagnose," Dr. Bruce Hamstra breaks new ground as he discloses the inside tricks of his trade and explains how the. official diagnosis that you receive from your therapist can affect you in ways far beyond your treatment or your prescribed medication. Dr. Hamstra explains the procedures used by mental health professionals to evaluate and categorize people who seek therapy or counseling. He shows how this evaluation may have a very direct effect not only on the person's diagnosis, but on his or her job, pocketbook, and future treatment. Whenever you see a therapist, you will be given. one or more psychiatric diagnoses from an official medical book called the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)." Each diagnosis is represented by a special code number that is sent to your insurance or managed-care company and becomes a permanent part of your medical record. This information may follow you forever, particularly if it ends up in the vast computer files of a medical information bureau. What your therapist may not tell you is that the. diagnostic process is sometimes quite arbitrary and inaccurate. Even worse, your therapist may be forced to alter your diagnosis to increase the number of treatment sessions allowed by your insurance company. Dr. Hamstra, who has spent years diagnosing and treating patients at clinics in New England, believes that consumers have a right to know how diagnoses are actually determined. Besides demystifying the DSM and revealing closely guarded secrets of the mental health. establishment, Dr. Hamstra empowers his readers by arming them with tactics to hold therapists accountable; he outlines ten essential questions that every patient should ask his or her therapist and tells how to avoid misdiagnosis and how to double-check the accuracy of information sent to insurance companies. And to make things totally clear, Dr. Hamstra provides examples from dozens of cases that demonstrate why a therapist would choose to diagnose a patient in a. particular way and what steps that patient should take toward getting better treatment. "How Therapists Diagnose" is sure to spark controversy in the mental health world and may force professionals to reevaluate the shroud of secrecy that so often surrounds diagnosis and treatment. An indispensable resource, "How Therapists Diagnose" is the practical handbook that mental health consumers and their families have been waiting for.