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.
The Relational-Cultural approach makes a robust challenge to the assumptions of much therapeutic, psychological and philosophical theory, by understanding human growth not as a process of separation and individualisation but as a process of making connections.
This book achieves what it sets out to do: “to introduce readers to the rich tapestry of existential therapeutic approaches”. I found it concise and easy to read, despite the fact that it deals with some fairly complex ideas. I found much in Mick Cooper’s book of interest and have found myself using some of the therapeutic interventions he describes, with my own clients.
This is an impressive and very wide ranging introduction to the Person Centred Approach. It not only introduces the approach but adds new dimensions to the theory and new extensions of it into practice, reaching well beyond the counselling room walls.
While suffering somewhat from a lack of focus on the book’s intended themes, the individual contributions in this edited collection of 16 chapters nonetheless make worthwhile reading in and of themselves. (Review originally published in 2003.)
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