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.
High Spirits
High Spirits
I'm probably confessing to a contentious and certainly heuristic view but, early on in my practice of psychotherapy, I adopted what I believed to be a very useful ‘rule of thumb’ based on my experience of several clients. I discovered that when someone presented for therapy with what they called a ‘spiritual’ issue, it would invariably turn out to concern their sex life. Initially, I patiently followed the agenda of the ‘spiritually’ wounded client, sometimes for months, sometimes for years, until the topic of sex arose. Later, perhaps with the confidence of experience, but more likely with an impatient desire to cut to the chase, I would introduce the topic of sex and sexuality quite early on in our work together. Eventually, more convinced of the truth of my discovery, I would blatantly ...
