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In his latest book, Jon Allen synthesizes many disciplines—psychiatry, clinical psychology, psychotherapy, developmental psychology, psychopathology, nosology, neuroscience, and spirituality—into a broadly defined prescription for conducting psychotherapy that he calls “plain old therapy.” Recognizing that psychotherapy is an amalgamation of both science and art, Allen deftly presents the latest empirical findings from the psychotherapy process and outcome literature and molds them into a coherent model flexible enough to allow the therapist's creativity to serve as a vehicle for change in implementing his or her craft. Allen argues that all therapists—even those implementing manualized treatments—need to know how and when to implement the empirically based procedures learned in graduate school to achieve the maximum benefit. And as part of this development of one's craft, a therapist must first become skilled at conducting plain old therapy. In his words, “specialized techniques must be superimposed on plain old therapy—ordinary therapeutic conversation” (p. 213; italics in original). According to Allen, the therapeutic relationship is the fulcrum of change.
Although Allen's project of defining a flexible, evolving, integrative blueprint for conducting psychotherapy has universal implications, he contextualizes his work within his particular area of expertise: trauma. According to Allen, many, if not most, individuals who suffer from trauma had experienced an insecure attachment relationship to a primary caregiver during childhood. He cites the attachment literature to suggest further that of the four attachment categories identified in infants and young children, disorganized attachment is most clearly implicated in the development of later trauma. The links between disorganized attachment and trauma have been known to attachment researchers since the 1990s (Liotti, 1999; Main & Hesse, 1990). In developing the theoretical framework for plain old therapy, Allen take