Böcker av Campbell Purton

This revised and extended second edition offers a comprehensive description of the history, theory and practice of focusing-oriented counselling - how and why it 'works', the debates around it, what it brings to the counsellor's primary mode of practice, and the evidence to support it.

Current therapeutic practice is grounded in traditional theories of psychotherapy, such as the theories that underlie cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic and person-centred practice. But none of these approaches has been proven to be more effective than any other, leaving the therapist with an ethical and professional dilemma: how do you advocate and practise one theory with your clients, when a completely different theoretical approach is being successfully practised down the road? In this book Campbell Purton argues that psychotherapy and counselling theories fail to provide adequate justification for their practice. Part 1 highlights the weaknesses and dangers that underlie traditional counselling theories and their derivatives, including psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural, existential and neuroscience approaches. Having unpicked these theories, Part 2 goes on to develop an exciting new way of thinking about therapy that does not rely on theory - one that can be likened to a 'common sense' approach to therapeutic practice. This book poses important questions and offers unique insight for anyone studying or practising in the field of counselling and psychotherapy.

Since its beginnings in the 1950s, the person-centred approach to therapy has developed in many ways. It throws light on the relationship between the various schools of therapy, and on the relationship between therapy and such areas as ethics and spirituality.