Complementary Medicine: The Patient-Practitioner Relationship in Acupuncture by Leon Hammer Paperback

This book is fantastic. If you don't understand why a former psychotherapist's perspective on the patient-practitioner relationship would be helpful to an acupuncturist, then I am not sure what field you think you are in. Hammer addresses many difficult and important questions, in a heart-felt and wise way that I deeply appreciated as a student. I highly reccommend this book, not only for acupuncturists, but for any healer who wants to be more self-aware in their work with patients.

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Great information but not made relevant enough, July 22, 2011
By Vanessa

What you need to know is that Leon Hammer started his career as a psychiatrist. He is an incredible practitioner and his acupuncture practice is deeply informed by his psychotherapy skills. However, this book is more about the skills required for a therapist. I am an acupuncturist in training to become a therapist myself, so I enjoyed this book, but I didn't find it helpful for my acupuncture practice. It is quite technical as the first reviewer pointed out, and it assumes that you have the skills you need to communicate on a psychotherapy level, discussing your relationship with the patient and so on. As much as I love Leon Hammer's work and as much as I want to do psychotherapeutic work later on, this particular book is NOT helpful for acupuncturists in any PRACTICAL sense. It's good to know these concepts for anyone in the healing profession, but the book itself is just not connected enough to the acupuncturist's practice.

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Terrible...., October 31, 2010
By K. Sowinski

Horrible book! Not written for non-psych trained practitioners. WAY technical and unable to apply anything from the book into my practice. I sold it not long after getting it. Don't waste your money or time.

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