In stark contrast to the stereotypical Western therapist forever distracting the client from their stories about the world in order to ask "but how do you feel?", the Other Centred therapist listens carefully to the stories themselves. Indeed, this book presents examples of client work in which the therapist asks the opposite question about a partner whose behaviour the client is complaining about: "but what was that like for him?".

Tags: listening, mindfulness, Person-Centred, therapy

Brazier reminds us that counselling often goes beyond offering a non-judgemental space in which the client can listen to and experience themselves, to actively encourage a kind of self-preoccupation which can actually make one more isolated and miserable.

Tags: Development & Supervision, listening, mindfulness, Person-Centred, therapy, Training, Development & Supervision

This book seems to contain all of human life, from the scientific details through the full range of emotions, including the extremes of love and hate. And it emanates a sense that although we all get shaken sometimes, and life is dangerous, every feeling is expressible and every situation is workable.

Tags: eating disorder, therapy

This book is important reading, as it competently deals with the treatment of a major health issue which is both prevalent and chronic, with strong co-morbidity. While the tone didn't particularly engage me, I did finish the book with some insights and solid understanding.

Tags: cbt, PTSD, trauma

The basic conceptualisation of human experience offered by this book is that distress arises from our relationship with our own internal experience. The remedy goes beyond (and could be seen as contrary to) the traditional cognitive therapy approach of disentangling the client from the thoughts, questioning them and replacing them with more realistic and helpful ones.

Tags: acceptance, cbt, mindfulness, Research

This is a rigorous scholarly text dedicated to a very real social problem, and it does try to identify successful and unsuccessful community and state-wide attempts to prevent or reduce youth problems. It doesn't pretend to be a self-help book or parenting manual, or indeed a profound philosophical or political analysis.

Tags: adolescents, children, parents, Research

This book is a good ready-to-go manual for the new or busy coach looking for new ideas or reinforcement of practice enthusiasm. Whether it lives up to its promise of providing lasting solutions is something that only time and longitudinal research studies can tell.

Tags: Coaching, therapy

At a time when Complementary and Alternative Therapies have (again) been under fire from some university scientists for falsely claiming scientific status, and in an era of evidence-based psychotherapy, this book is a key text. It should have a place on all postgraduate counselling and psychotherapy courses, but I suspect it will not be so readily accommodated.

Tags: effectiveness, Psychology, Research, therapy

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.

Tags: bereavement, therapy, trauma

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!

Tags: therapy