Psychotherapy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

The rise of psychotherapy has been one of the defining features of the 20th century. In this Very Short Introduction, Tom Burns and Eva Burns-Lundgren trace the development of psychotherapy and counselling, from its origins in Freud's psychoanalysis to the variety of different approaches on offer today.

Tom Burns trained in medicine in Cambridge and London and in psychiatry in Scotland and London, including a training as a Group Analyst. After three years in Sweden he worked for ten years as an NHS consultant psychiatrist in St. George's Hospital, south London. He took up the Chair of Social Psychiatry at Oxford University in 2003. His main research interests are in the optimal care of psychosis patients in the community and more recently on coercion (both formal and informal) and its impact on the therapeutic relationship. He was awarded a CBE for his services to mental health in 2006.

Eva Burns-Lundgren trained as a social worker in Sweden in the 1970s, and went on to practice as a generic and mental health social worker in the UK, before retraining as a psychotherapist in the 1990s. She is accredited as a psychotherapist in the UK with the UKCP and ACAT, and also with the European Association for Psychotherapy. She has practiced within university and national health service settings and for 10 years ran the university accredited Cognitive Analytic Therapy course in Oxford. She is now retired from the NHS but continues to practice privately and in a trainer and examiner capacity.