Summary
Contents
In Tales from the Therapy Room, the author provides ten fictional short stories that give students of counseling and psychotherapy a unique insight into what actually goes on in therapy. Exploring aspects of the client-therapist relationship, the reader is given a fly-on-the-wall view of the therapeutic process. Rather than suggesting a ‘correct’ approach, they explore possibilities and provide entertaining, vivid and thought-provoking descriptions of the therapeutic journey. Issues explored include
contracting; boundaries and confrontation; self-disclosure on the part of the therapist; dream interpretation; the influence of the consulting room environment; conflicting belief systems.
These are much more than just engaging stories — Phil Lapworth draws on over 25 years of clinical experience to show how the student can integrate theory into real practice with real clients. The final chapter explicitly highlights the specific theories, models and issues that are illustrated throughout and provides questions, learning objectives, exercises and Further Reading to encourage critical thinking.
A door into the often-hidden perspective of what a therapist might think and feel within the therapy session, this ‘shrink-wrapped’ resource will be treasured by counseling and psychotherapy trainees and practitioners for years to come.
Not Playing it by the Book
Not Playing it by the Book
I think it's true to say that out of all the clients I have worked with, those in training as psychotherapists have initially proved the most trying. Not all of them. There have been notable exceptions where the trainee's excited absorption in the theory and practice of psychotherapy has been duly matched by devotion to an intrepid exploration of themselves from the start. One might expect that this would always be the case, but others have arrived reluctantly, even resentfully, seeing their attendance merely as a course requirement rather than an opportunity for self-discovery and transformation. They see little, if anything, in need of discovering or transforming. This in itself is, of course, a self-delusional problem much in need of discovery and transformation. While ...
