Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy (Published in association with The Open University)

Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy focuses on common problems such as anxiety and depression, exploring how different therapeutic approaches understand and work with them. Counselling and psychotherapy are considered within the wider context of their history and the mental health systems in which they are often located. In addition to this, the book introduces key aspects of the theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapy, and the increasing relevance of research in this area.

• Section 1 introduces counselling and psychotherapy and the history of these professions, considering how current understandings of ′mental health problems′ have been influenced by psychiatric diagnosis, biomedical approaches and psychoanalysis.

• Section 2 covers four key therapeutic approaches – humanistic, existential, cognitive–behavioural and mindfulness – exploring how they work with problems relating to fear and sadness.

• Section 3 focuses on therapeutic perspectives that specifically address problems in a wider context, such as relationships, families, cultural groups and society.

• Section 4 considers practice and research issues in counselling and psychotherapy, including the different contexts and settings in which these take place, the therapeutic relationship, and outcome and process research.

This accessible and stimulating text uses innovative activities and case illustrations to demonstrate how people experience common problems, and how counsellors and psychotherapists work with these.

Meg-John Barker is the author of a number of popular books on sex, gender, and relationships, including Queer: A Graphic History, Gender: A Graphic Guide, How To Understand Your Gender, Life Isn’t Binary, Enjoy Sex (How, When, and IF You Want To), Rewriting the Rules, The Psychology of Sex, and The Secrets of Enduring Love. They have also written a number of books for scholars and counsellors on these topics, drawing on their own research and therapeutic practice. Websites: rewriting-the-rules.com, megjohnandjustin.com. Twitter: @megjohnbarker, Instagram: @meg_john_barker.

Andreas Vossler is Director of the Foundation Degree in Counselling and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Open University. He is also a systemic trained couple and family psychotherapist. His current research activities focus on therapeutic work with couples and families, infidelity, Internet infidelity, and counselling and psychotherapy. Andreas is co-editor of the Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Handbook (2014) and Understanding Counselling and Psychotherapy (2010; both Sage). He has authored three textbooks and published 17 book chapters and 19 articles in peer-reviewed papers on topics related to counselling and psychotherapy (family therapy, infidelity, online counselling, health psychology, psychiatry) and research methods. Andreas is on the editorial board of Counselling Psychology Quarterly and Forum Community-Psychology.

Darren Langdridge is Professor of Psychology at the Open University (UK), and a UKCP accredited existential psychotherapist and logotherapist working in private practice. He was intrigued by existentialism as a child but became truly fascinated with phenomenology many years ago when introduced to the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty by a dear colleague and friend, Dr Trevor Butt, who is sadly no longer with us. This led to a lifelong love of phenomenology, existentialism and hermeneutics. For many years, Darren has researched and written on sexualities, critical theory, psychotherapy, and health, publishing numerous books, papers and book chapters. Never one to accept unnecessary boundaries, Darren continues to work across disciplines, notably psychology, health, sociology, and politics. His most recent book is Sexual Citizenship and Social Change: A Dialectical Approach to Narratives of Tradition and Critique, published by Oxford University Press.