Hard-Earned Lessons from Counselling in Action

`This is a very honest book and should be essential reading for anyone beginning training as a counsellor. It will also be useful for experienced therapists to stimulate reflections on their own practice... to examine their work and to learn from errors. It is refreshing to witness the honesty and openness of the writers - especially so in the present culture, where many therapists set themselves up as flawless experts... I would recommend this book... it provides an informed and open discussion on the problems encountered by therapists' - Clinical Psychology Forum

Counsellors often struggle in their work with clients, convinced that their more experienced colleagues have not encountered similar problems and worries. In this volume, some of Britain's leading counsellors give the lie to this myth. Writing openly and frankly, they share the painful lessons they have learned over the course of their careers as practitioners.

The contributors' combined experience proves that all counsellors, no matter how expert or well-known, have made mistakes, or faced challenges, and from them have had to learn aspects about the process of counselling - the hard way. The five `lessons' from each contributor are placed in the context of the counsellor's own particular circumstances, and a concluding section in each chapter links the connecting themes that emerged throughout their learning process.