Hope of Therapy

Paul Gordon has been working as a psychotherapist in different settings for 25 years. He works in private practice and as a therapist to one of the Philadelphia Association community households. He lives in London with his wife and two children. As well as his two PCCS titles, he is also the author of Face to Face: Therapy as ethics (1999), co-editor of Between Psychotherapy and Philosphy: Essays from the Philadelphia Association (2004). His most recent book is Vagabond Witness: Victor Serge and the politics of hope (2013).

To heal somebody you need first to be an expert in recognising the wounds. paul Gordon knows about the 100 despairs hidden behind the term flexibility, the emotional mutilations inflicted by the present global economy. In this green oasis of a book there's a well of compassion. It will help you to help - John Berger, novelist, critic and essayist. This is a small book with a powerful message. The author's thesis is that therapy is not a scientific or technical process but 'rather an art of craft requiring a particular sensiblilty or dispostition' which he sees as an ethical endeavour. He presents his well-reasoned rationale thoughtfully, humanely and with passion - his desire is to eradicate smugness and quick cures, and to make inflexible frameworks more flexible. Jenny Bloomer, Counsellor/Psychotherapist, Therapy Today July 2009

• Contents 1. The ethical space of therapy 2. The limitless conversation 3. The space of therapy 4. An aesthetics for therapy 5. The poetics of therapy 6. The hope of therapy