Working at Relational Depth in Counseling and Psychotherapy is a groundbreaking text which goes to the very heart of the therapeutic meeting between therapist and client. Focusing on the concept of ′relational depth,′ authors Dave Mearns and Mick Cooper describe a form of encounter in which therapist and client experience profound feelings of contact and engagement with each other and in which the client has an opportunity to explore whatever is experienced as most fundamental to her or his existence.
Drawing from their own practice, interviews with therapists and a diverse range of theoretical and empirical sources, the authors address the key question of how therapists can meet their clients at a level of relational depth. They show how different aspects of the therapist combine to facilitate a relationally-deep encounter, highlight the various personal `blocks′ which may be encountered along the way, and introduce new therapeutic concepts – such as ′holistic listening′ – which can help therapists to meet their clients at this level.
Two powerful case studies – a client with a drink problem and a traumatized client – have been selected to illustrate key aspects of working at relational depth. Like many of the ideas discussed in this book, the case studies represent a challenge to conventional thinking about the therapist-client relationship and the nature of the therapeutic process.
Eagerly awaited by many counselors and psychotherapists, Working at Relational Depth in Counseling and Psychotherapy is a source of fresh thinking and stimulating ideas about the therapeutic encounter which are relevant to trainees and practitioners of all orientations.
Dave Mearns is formerly Director of the Counselling Unit and Professor of Counselling at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Dave is author or co-author of four other counselling books published by SAGE:
Person-Centred Counselling in Action, Second Edition, Experiences of Counselling in Action, Person-Centred Counselling Training and Person-Centred Therapy Today: New Frontiers in Theory and Practice.
Mick Cooper is Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton, where he is Director of the Centre for Research in Social and Psychological Transformation (CREST). Mick is a chartered psychologist, a UKCP registered psychotherapist, and a Fellow of the BACP. Mick is author and editor of a range of texts on person-centred, existential and relational approaches to therapy; including Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2005, SAGE, with Dave Mearns), Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy (2011, SAGE, with John McLeod) and Existential Therapies (2nd edn, 2017, SAGE). Mick has led a series of research studies exploring the processes and outcomes of humanistic counselling with young people. Mick is the father of four children and lives in Brighton on the south coast of England.
