Palgrave Texts in Counselling and Psychotherapy – serie

This open access book sets out the stress-system model for functional somatic symptoms in children and adolescents. The book begins by exploring the initial encounter between the paediatrician, child, and family, moves through the assessment process, including the formulation and the treatment contract, and then describes the various forms of treatment that are designed to settle the child’s dysregulated stress system. This approach both provides a new understanding of how such symptoms emerge – typically, through a history of recurrent or chronic stress, either physical or psychological – and points the way to effective assessment, management, and treatment that put the child (and family) back on the road to health and well-being.

Systemic psychotherapy has long been conceptualised and practiced as brief psychotherapy, in both the public sector and in independent practice, but it is now increasingly becoming a longer term practice. This ground-breaking book examines the ways in which systemic theory can accommodate and formulate long term practice, and locates the boundaries of the systemic theories that both help to explain and give direction to such work. In doing so, it asks important questions such as: at what point might a practitioner need to incorporate and integrate other explanatory models into their systemic thinking? What does this mean for systemic practice? How does the relative longevity of the work impact the way practitioners build and maintain therapeutic relationships with the relational systems they assist? And what implications does such longevity have on, and for, the supervisory needs of systemic psychotherapists at the heart of the work? Given the absence of a rigorous evidence base for long term systemic therapy and practice, this book explores how practitioners can hold themselves ethically accountable for what they do and think.Written by some of the leading names in systemic thinking, this book provides an important new resource for both students and experienced professionals in family therapy seeking to enhance their practice and research.

This book provides an evidence-based guide to working with visible difference in therapeutic practice. It explores how appearance problems intersect with other concerns causing mental health issues and provides clear guidance on treatment plans and related topics. Visible difference is a bigger cause of mental distress than is often realised. One in five people have an appearance that is considered ‘different’ to the normal population. The category of ‘visible difference’, previously described as ‘disfigurement’ or simply ‘disability’ captures a range of conditions with varying aetiology, severity, and extent. Differences in appearance can be the result of a birth anomaly, or be caused later in life through illness, physical trauma, or behaviour. Whatever the cause, visible difference can have a negative effect on how individuals are perceived and view themselves. This timely work arrives at a moment of rising professional interest, due to the growth of social media use and the focus this puts on appearance (“the amplification of appearance bias”), and also influenced by the implications new research. The author draws on these findings together with her own research and practice to examine best practice and key issues in addressing visible difference. Particular consideration is given to establishing a good working therapeutic relationship. Whether a trainee, a recently qualified therapist, or an experienced professional wanting to broaden their understanding, this is the ideal text for anyone wanting to better understand this growing area of therapeutic practice.

This book introduces Personal and Relational Construct Psychotherapy, a development by the authors of an approach to psychotherapy originated in the 1950’s by George A. Kelly. Drawing on a lifetime of experience in working with people in mental health settings, Procter and Winter focus on the crucial relationships that form the context of human struggles, and how these can be a fertile resource in problem-resolution. The book provides step-by-step descriptions of assessment and therapeutic methods for working with individuals, families, and groups, as well as exploring the philosophical background of the approach, its application to formulation, supervision, and reflective practice, its relationships to other models of psychotherapy, and its evidence base. The book will be invaluable for psychotherapists, counsellors, and psychologists of all levels and traditions, and useful for students and trainees in health, education, social work, and any field involving helping people with thedifficulties of everyday life.

This book is focused on relational processes in supervision for counselling and psychotherapy.  The aim is first to introduce a relational theoretical stance, then to apply that stance to the process of supervision, and finally to offer practitioners immediately accessible resources for relational supervision. Within a relational perspective, supervisor and supervisees are viewed as partners who co-construct the supervisory process. Unlike other approaches to supervision where the emphasis is on specific techniques and strategies for supervision, the relational orientation of this book invites supervisor and supervisee into different understandings of the supervisory interaction. This orientation directs our attention to the importance of co-creating the therapeutic relation/alliance with special attention to the wellbeing of the the supervisee and the supervisor. Supervision, from this perspective, is focused on what participants are making together rather than onthe individual abilities, strengths, and weaknesses of either the supervisor or the supervisee.

This book is an accessible guide for understanding and treating psychological trauma. Drawing on Dr. Woodcock’s extensive experience and the latest research, it offers an approach that integrates systemic therapy and psychoanalytic perspectives through the lens of attachment theory. The book’s chapters cover topics such as trauma and pain; traumatic death; how to respond when disaster strikes; social systems that promote attachment versus systems that create trauma; and how to look after ourselves as therapists, family, and friends of trauma survivors. Because no single therapeutic paradigm is sufficient to capture the complexity of trauma, the book brings together a wide set of therapeutic traditions and shows in detail how to apply a variety of treatment approaches, gathered from psychoanalytic, cognitive behavioral, intersubjective, mindfulness, and body psychotherapy traditions, including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).The book’s vignettes and casestudies provide clear illustrations of the theory outlined and demonstrate the use of interventions in a range of settings. It will appeal to qualified and training practitioners in the clinical and care professions and researchers from across the psychological sciences with an interest in trauma, as well as to a more general readership affected by issues relating to trauma.

This textbook provides an up-to-date guide to the application of Attachment Narrative Therapy (ANT), a model that combines concepts and techniques from systemic family therapy, narrative therapy and theory and attachment theory. Edited and with contributions from leading practitioners  of ANT, this book brings together illustrations of its   applications in a variety of clinical settings. It offers practical  guidance and the latest research from clinicians who are now advancing its application. Another  important feature is illustration of how practitioners  have developed ANT to  incorporate the latest ideas and methods from  trauma theory and  neuro-biology. It will provide a valuable new resource for practitioners, teachers and students of systemic practice, family therapy, clinical psychology, counselling and psychotherapy.

This textbook uniquely highlights the particular complexities of working systemically with couples and families with children. It is designed to be student and practitioner oriented by drawing on real world examples of therapeutic encounters in mental health settings to illustrate how theory can inform practice. Good communication is the cornerstone of good clinical practice and is foundational for building therapeutic alliance. Although therapists and counsellors are often highly skilled in their therapeutic modalities, this book offers additional practical suggestions about how families engage in social actions and positioning themselves and others in their talk.  The book also takes wider micro and macro ecological systems within which systemic psychotherapists and counsellors work into account and consider the ways that these larger social influences are experienced within institutional discourses. The book will be a valuable resource across a broad spectrum of professions and researchers, including counsellors, psychotherapists, family therapists, psychiatrists, nurses, play therapists, speech and language therapists, and mental health social workers.

This book explores the various applications of systemic understanding in practice. Each chapter covers diverse working contexts and existential life dilemmas, tackling subjects such as: systemic work with individuals, single session family therapy, experiences of adult longing, the therapeutic relationship as a form of love, working systemically with experiences of marginalisation, cultural difference and diversity, the integration of recent neuroscience developments with systemic therapy with couples, the role of forgiveness and the spiritual dimension in therapy. Throughout, this book promotes hope by presenting new horizons and providing room for reflection on uncertainty, change, opportunities, inter-connections and differences. Theoretical expansion of these existential issues lies both at the heart of systemic work and on the leading edge of research and theory-practice linking, showing how the integration of research with new developments across the broader fieldsof psychotherapy and counselling can be held within a systemic relational umbrella.

This open access book illustrates how systemic theory, as both a meta-theory and a relational organic theory, can be a suitable framework for understanding and appreciating the new horizons of systemic practice with children and families in their various contexts. The different chapters shed light on how systemic perspectives, as they are presented in their varying contexts, promote hope by giving room for reflections on uncertainty, change, opportunities, interconnections, and differences. The authors describe and reflect on how systemic approaches can be useful for practitioners and make space for a multiplicity of different perspectives that address the needs of children and those assisting them in their various settings, where children grow and develop in the context of their unique needs and challenges. It covers safeguarding children’s rights through parental separation and divorce; families experiencing anticipatory grief; parents struggling with substanceuse problems; gender incongruence; eating disorders; systemic perspectives on psychiatric diagnosis; children with disabilities; and systemic practice in school. The book will be a source of inspiration, as the purpose is to illustrate the systemic field in constant motion, which encourages, maybe even requires a plurality of theories, perspectives and approaches. But, most importantly,  it demonstrates how working with children and families is a privilege.

This textbook provides a detail guide to the use of Attachment Centred-Therapy (ACT), a model designed over the course of three decades which enables future and present therapists to co-construct a more coherent narrative of a person’s life, an essential indicator of one’s emotional and mental health. This book provides students and practitioners undergoing professional development with a detailed and applicable guide to using the model, written by the man who designed and developed the therapy. As such, this book is based on real world experience of the implementation of therapy, considering theory and research, and demonstrates how ACT can be used in applications across a wide range of clinical contexts.The purpose of ACT is to help those undergoing therapy equip themselves with new resources which can assist in dealing with their predominate issues by changing how they process information about the past in the present, to achieve a better outcome in the future. ACT is a growth-oriented psychotherapy, designed using Maslow’s Modified Hierarchy of Needs as a guide, and is distinctive because it utilizes the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) as both an assessment instrument and as a vehicle for therapeutic intervention. Another of its benefits is that it’s a collaborative treatment, with the therapist forming a team with the therapy’s recipient, and then engaging together in a joint effort to create a more coherent narrative of the past, and to correct errors in information processing.This textbook is made up of practical guidance on the application of ACT, with each concept brought to life with case-study examples, complete with sections of dialogue from sessions annotated to illustrate the methods. It will provide a valuable new teaching tool for teachers and students of systemic practice, family therapy, clinical psychology, counselling, and psychotherapy, alongside qualified practitioners, and practitioners in training.

This book helps us to understand the therapeutic processes involved in the multifamily group and gives us tools for effective management, making it an indispensable guide for professionals in all areas of human care who are interested in including multifamily therapy in their institutions. In recent years we have witnessed the emergence of forms of social and health care that incorporate the voices of the people who suffer and those of their family and social environment as a therapeutic resource. These include Multifamily Therapies, therapeutic interventions carried out through groups made up of several families (multifamily groups) in which the mechanisms of family therapy and group therapy mutually enhance each other.Among the various models of multifamily therapy, Interfamily Therapy has become the most widespread. It is an integrative and eclectic model inspired by attachment theory and dialogical practices and represents a new way of approaching human problems through sharing and learning together with others. The simplicity of its theoretical statements and methodology facilitates its application in any social, educational and health context by professionals from different backgrounds.

This textbook presents an innovative educational and training protocol for treating mental health patients in primary care: the Multimodal Brief Systemic Training (MBSTP). Blending theory with practice, this manual offers a rigorous, versatile, and integrative approach, grounded in research, that can be easily adopted by primary care professionals—including general practitioners, nurses, social workers, and psychologists. It is not only invaluable for psychotherapy students but also serves as a vital resource for physicians and other non-mental health professionals seeking to support individuals facing cancer, chronic pain, palliative care, and other conditions that intertwine emotional, mental, and behavioural challenges within their close relational systems.The MBSTP is a compelling alternative to existing evidence-based training programs, which often centre on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Designed as a continuing education course led by a team of mental health specialists, this training provides a structured pathway for professional development. This book will help to reignite practitioners' interest in systemic thinking, encouraging them to revisit its significance in their work, or, for those new to the concept, to embrace it as a crucial aspect of their professional growth and contribute meaningfully to their evolution in the field.

This book invites individual therapists to think systemically (including issues of social justice) and family therapists to explore a deeper understanding of the individual in contexts, including the domain of the unconscious. Using a critical realist framework, it promotes multiple perspectives—often novel combinations from dissimilar psychotherapy traditions—to expand holistic understanding and provide a richer variety of resources to bring to co-constructed therapeutic encounters. It uses a critical examination of the often-unspoken philosophical underpinnings of psychotherapy practices to re-vision a range of theory and practice considerations—theory choice, the role of science, knowing and not-knowing, emotion in the system, power and autonomy, collaboration and change, and sameness and otherness. All the preceding elements of the book are then brought together in the clinical topics of triangulation, aggressive out-of-control behaviour, and self-harm. Numerous brief case vignettes and longer case examples ensure that theory is always grounded in practice.

Spirituality has offered people across cultures and continents a source of comfort and meaning for millennia and is closely connected to the human body through our emotions, our behaviour and our relationships. The concept today is considered broader than religion and can encompass our innate need for love, hope, values and direction in life. While spiritual belief can foster recovery and resilience in times of crisis, spiritual distress can also contribute to physical, emotional and relational problems. Despite its relevance, most family therapists are not trained to incorporate spiritual and religions issues in therapy. Based on the author’s extensive research on this topic, this book offers an overview of current theory as well as practical elements designed to help practitioners develop their spiritual literacy in their work with clients.

This textbook brings together experienced educators, researchers, counsellors, and psychotherapists who offer insights on how to practice, teach, research, and supervise within a framework of social justice and cultural responsiveness. Readers are encouraged to reflect on their own role in making counselling and psychotherapy more accessible, especially for marginalised communities. The book challenges the language that often stems from a colonial mindset, focusing instead on the counsellor’s critical reflection and the ability to approach issues of equity, justice, and inclusion thoughtfully as core to the work.It explores Eurocentric ideas about colonisation, binary thinking, and "othering" through the diverse perspectives of each chapter's authors. Each chapter tackles an aspect of counselling practice that will be reframed offering a more inclusive and culturally responsive approach. These practices will draw on six core principles: 1) decolonising education in counselling and psychology, 2) intersectionality, 3) cultural humility, 4) self-awareness and critical reflection for therapists, 5) engagement and connection, and 6) activism.This textbook serves as a valuable resource for teachers, students, and practitioners of systemic practice, family therapy, clinical psychology, counselling, and psychotherapy, as well as for professionals in training.

This textbook elucidates core systemic ideas, methods and skills which are useful and effective in building creative therapeutic relationships with children and young people in family/systemic therapy and practice. The aim of the book is to invite practitioners and therapists working with this client population to extend their “repertoire” of skills and ideas towards better therapeutic outcomes. This book outlines key elements to help practitioners find useful, effective means to meet, engage and help children and their families, alongside illustrating a range of skills through vignettes and in-depth case studies to highlight creative possibilities underpinned by a clear conceptual framework. It also offers a condensed and accessible insight into what contributes to creative practice in meeting children and young people. This approach allows a degree of spontaneity in practice, centering therapy as a process of humanisation. The book also provides a detailed exploration of the practitioner’s style of work, ethics and an examination of the social, organisational and political aspects of the contexts of practice

This book explores Open-Ended Supportive Therapy, a psychoanalytically informed approach designed to offer a compassionate and flexible alternative to more rigid therapeutic methods. Supportive therapy is particularly valuable for individuals who find traditional therapeutic models either too directive or insufficiently supportive, as it prioritizes the therapeutic relationship over specific goal-oriented techniques. The book presents consistent research indicating that early termination of treatment, when patients abruptly leave the therapeutic process, is often linked to therapists offering interventions that patients are not ready for. Supportive Therapy assigns a specific role to the therapist in the use of transference, leveraging this understanding to create a supportive environment through a strong therapeutic alliance. This framework guides the therapist in navigating the complexities of providing support without colluding with the patient’s pathology.

This book introduces a new relationship-oriented approach to child therapy grounded in the idea that positive relationships are essential for children’s mental health and wellbeing. The author emphasises the importance of cultivating the child-therapist bond and working closely with families and teachers to nurture the wellbeing of children. By establishing and maintaining strong connections with children, and by actively including families and teachers in the therapeutic process, child therapists can truly support children to heal and grow.Presented as a series of fifty suggestions for child therapists, this book is written in a straightforward, direct style and includes real case studies and practical examples that demonstrate how to listen well to children and deepen the therapeutic connection. It also highlights the many benefits of a relationship-oriented approach, including helping children to open up and share their stories, and enabling greater collaboration among therapists, families, and teachers.

This handbook provides an accessible and thought-provoking guide to the Meaning of the Child Interview (MotC), a tool for understanding family relationships. It is edited and written by the MotC’s developer, with contributions from leading researchers and practitioners using the MotC in innovative contexts to support families. The MotC uses a semi-structured interview in which parents talk about their child, their relationship with their child, and their parenting. A process of analysis is outlined, including using the method to plan intervention, guide practice, and conduct research. This book offers a practical guide to applying attachment and caregiving research for child welfare and mental health professionals. Prior knowledge is not assumed, and many examples and summaries are used to assist the reader. By focussing upon how parents story their experience, and their child’s, in the context of ongoing challenges, this book facilitates practice based on understanding struggling parenting as a relationship situated in adversity, rather than an individual failing, worthy of blame.

This textbook provides a range of creative interventions underpinned by the pluralistic approach, addressing the gap in published texts on working creatively by adopting this approach in therapy. The pluralistic approach, established by Cooper and McLeod (2007, 2011), is grounded in humanistic principles, emphasises collaboration between the therapist and client and offers unique features built into the approach such as dialogical communication. The aim is to provide theoretical, pragmatic and practical guidance to therapists, trainers, supervisors, and students who wish to deliver the creative interventions provided in the text.The case studies included in the text focus on a range of client issues by using various creative interventions, indicating how each can positively change the client's world. Such changes range from step-by-step practical changes to a more fundamental phenomenological shift, reducing the client's emotional and psychological distress.Furthermore, this book differs from existing texts by providing guidance on using a range of creative interventions in online and face-to-face therapy and in clinical supervision, and by exploring group work, including therapeutic teaching contexts.Other unique features include structured and unstructured interventions linked to a collaborative way of working with clients (a central tenet of the pluralistic approach), which help increase self-esteem, develop personal autonomy, and decrease distress.

This book looks at therapeutic work with children and young people in ways which are distinct from pervasive mainstream conversations. Instead of being an intervention manual, this book focusses on the thought processes which practitioners in education and care settings undertake using vignettes and case studies. The book examines practice-related dilemmas as frequently from the perspective of the practitioner as the child, young person or their family. As such, it reflects the way in which the Mulberry Bush - an award-winning 75-year-old leading charity – functions, by outlining its psychodynamic, reflective and collaborative approach. Often the voice of practitioners (residential care staff, teachers and teaching assistants) is absent from books like this, despite being the individuals working directly with the children and families and whose experience are at the core, and so this title offers an innovative corrective.

This book brings together a team of experienced practitioners to explore the impact and outcomes of delivering systemic therapy based interventions to people with chronic and life limiting health conditions. It showcases how practitioners have effectively used theory and evidence to develop systemic practices with people across the lifespan. In line with contemporary systemic theory and practice, the book will draw heavily from the attachment and narrative theory and the affective turn, so the collection of chapters provides a showing as well as a telling of the work. Drawing on stories woven from practice within research, the book addresses the psychosocial needs of those who are ill, as well as the healthcare professionals entrusted with their care. The book will cover the range of activities that practitioners do, from direct work with patients, to work with teams, supervision, research and service development.