Sarah Luczaj’s Reviews of Counselling & Psychotherapy Books, Page 2

Written by four luminaries of the mindfulness movement in psychotherapy and counselling, The Mindful Way through Depression is a self-help book in the best sense of the term, and you don’t need to suffer from depression to find it useful.

Comprehensive, clear and well referenced, this guide to the theory and practice of dealing with ambiguous loss — loss without closure — provides a realistic hope, not that we will “get over it”, but that it is possible to live with the uncertainty and the unknown.

If you’re not familiar with — or even wary of — brief or time-limited approaches to counselling, this book provides a comprehensive introduction that could challenge your way of thinking. The whole theory behind brief therapy is in fact an incentive to be present, to check everything out with the client, not to let things slide, hoping that they will come up later. The time is now!

Aimed at therapists and those in “helping professions” looking at making the crossover to work in life coaching, this book puts across the essence of this relatively new profession very effectively. For those who have made the decision to move to life coaching, it will be a support and inspiration. But does life coaching really offer anything different from core counselling principles like empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard?

Clearly written, down to Earth and at times humorous, this book is a practical guide to working with teens and adolescents. It is bursting with real life examples of characters who howl, swear, make up fantastic stories and fall asleep throughout their sessions — but whom Bromfield portrays with respect and usually with affection.