Essential Counselling and Therapy Skills

`A text which provides trainers and trainees alike with a veritable treasure-house of creative ideas' - Brian Thorne, Emeritus Professor of Counselling, University of East Anglia and Co-Founder, The Norwich Centre

'The book is written in a clear and orderly fashion.... Therapy is a process and learning is a process too, and this textbook will undoubtedly assist trainees to move along their own process of learning and becoming reflective and effective practitioners' - Stefania Gribcic, Counselling Psychology Review

Richard Nelson-Jones was born in London in 1936. Having spent five years in California as a Second World War refugee, he returned in the 1960s to obtain a Masters and Ph.D from Stanford University. In 1970, he was appointed a lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Aston to establish a Diploma in Counselling in Educational Settings, which started enrolling students in 1971. During the 1970s, he was helped by having three Fulbright Professors from the United States, each for a year, who both taught students and improved his skills. During this period he broadened out from a predominantly client-centred orientation to becoming much more cognitive-behavioural. He also wrote numerous articles and the first edition of what is now The Theory and Practice of Counselling and Therapy, which was published in 1982. In addition, he chaired the British Psychological Society's Working Party on Counselling and, in1982, became the first chairperson of the BPS Counselling Psychology Section.

In 1984, he took up a position as a counselling and later counselling psychology trainer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he became an Associate Professor. He continued writing research articles, articles on professional issues and books, which were published in London and Sydney. As when he worked at Aston University, he also counselled clients to keep up his skills. In 1997, he retired from RMIT and moved to Chiang Mai in Thailand. There, as well as doing some counselling and teaching, he has continued as an author of counselling and counselling psychology textbooks. A British and Australian citizen, he now divides his time between Chiang Mai and London and regularly visits Australia.

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION What Are Essential Counselling and Therapy Skills? PART TWO: THE SKILLED CLIENT MODEL The Skilled Client Model The Counselling and Therapy Relationship Assessing Feelings and Physical Reactions Assessing Thinking, Communication and Actions Conducting Initial Sessions Changing Communication and Actions - 1 Changing Communication and Actions - 2 Changing Thinking - 1 Changing Thinking - 2 Changing Feelings and Physical Reactions Conducting Middle Sessions Consolidating Skills and Terminating Counselling and Therapy PART THREE: PRACTICE AND TRAINING ISSUES Diversity Sensitive Counselling and Therapy Ethical Issues in Practice and Training Supervision and Continuing Professional Development