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MY MOST RECENT BOOK Mearns, D. & Cooper, M. (2005). Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy. London: SAGE. 183 pages; £17.99
CHAPTER TITLES:
REVIEWS: ‘The importance of the relationship between the client and their counsellor or psychotherapist has long been recognised as constituting the cornerstone of effective therapeutic work. However, in recent years there has been a tendency to take the significance of the therapeutic relationship for granted, and to understand the dynamics of this relationship in terms of an alliance between the practitioner and person seeking help, in which each participant negotiates and agrees how best they can work together. In this book, Dave Mearns and Mick Cooper provide a fresh and challenging new perspective on the therapeutic relationship. By using the concept of relational depth, they are able to move beyond a vision of the relationship as merely a backdrop to therapeutic work, and to begin to explore the moments when the possibility of being able to relate more fully to another person can have a life-enhancing impact. Grounded in a person-centred approach to counselling and psychotherapy, the book articulates the meaning of relational depth by drawing on ideas from psychodynamic, postmodern , existential, cognitive, developmental and social psychological theory and research. The authors powerfully combine vivid case material and careful conceptual analysis to examine different aspects of relational depth and to show how it may be facilitated, and weave in a fascinating discussion of the interaction between therapeutic context and client. This is an important book. It integrates concepts and practices from a range of approaches to therapy, and offers a convincing and original perspective that has the potential to inform practice, training and research for many years to come.’ John McLeod,
Professor of Counselling
‘Timely, informative, challenging and a delight to read…Mearns and Copper have provided a valuable template with which to consider and reconsider the dialogical qualities of the therapeutic encounter.’ Professor
Ernesto Spinelli, Senior Fellow
‘This is one of those rare books which will attract a wide readership because it operates at so many different levels. It is, by turn, scholarly, dramatic, challenging, prophetic, practical, intensely personal and yet with implications which, if taken seriously, could transform the whole field of counselling and psychotherapy. Dave Mearns and Mick Cooper are courageous enough to proclaim boldly that the heart of therapy lies in the real meeting and connection between human beings and then undertake the task of putting into words the nature of encounters which can often feel beyond language. They explore the profound implications of conceptualising human nature as essentially relational and what this means both for the development of the person and for the work of the therapist. They dare to employ such words as intimacy and love and to take us into the moment-to-moment process of therapeutic relationships which demand every last ounce of a therapist’s integrity and commitment. This is a book which has about it an inspirational quality which will leave few readers unmoved. It also raises disturbing questions about many current trends both in society at large and in the profession of counselling and psychotherapy itself. Do not read this book if you want a quiet life and undisturbed sleep.’
Professor Brian Thorne,
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