`[The client material]... stimulated thought and reflection... Clark presented a large number of very tricky case studies and illustrated all manner of different and interesting ways of responding to clients who find it difficult to engage with the process of counselling. Furthermore, this is done in the framework of a model of counselling which integrates humanistic, psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural theories in a most interesting and convincing way. In the end, I learned quite a lot and found myself pondering the case histories days later' - Counselling, The Journal of the British Association for Counselling The understanding of defence mechanisms is vital to counsellors and psychotherapists, particula

Repression

Repression

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

—Christina Rossetti, 1849/1970, p. 42

Personal violations and insults may be barred from consciousness for a period until individuals fortify themselves sufficiently to face painful events. A person's ability to block awareness of distressing experiences may prove to be adaptive, considering the emotional impact of particular circumstances. For example, a psychiatric nurse, when harshly and unfairly criticized by her supervisor in front of a group of colleagues, is able to continue through the day only by putting the ordeal out of her mind. Of an even more consequential nature, a young adult who has endured a series ...

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