The Heart of Counseling: A Guide to Developing Therapeutic Relationships
I really like this book. I am particularly impressed with the amount of self-reflection encouraged in the text. It's critical that beginning counselors learn to look inward and see how their own experiences and perceptions influence how they relate to clients. The book, better than any other I have seen, encourages that type of deep self-reflection and provides concrete exercises to help guide and structure these inner explorations. This book is an excellent introduction to the most important elements of building a therapeutic relationship. In much detail, it guides students through the major skills and ideas needed to connect with clients in a person-centered way. Additionally, it has strong emphasis on counselor personal awareness and growth, providing many exercises and guidelines to help students become more aware of how their own experiences and perspectives may impact a growing therapeutic relationship."This is an excellent text to use in teaching and supervising counseling students. It is engaging, thorough, and practical. I would welcome the opportunity to use this text because I believe it is unique in its ability to make clear, not just its theoretical perspective, but the practical application of abstract, intangible and absolutely essential counseling skills...I would appreciate having a text like this one to show students that the relationship is key."Vivid, warm and keenly insightful dialogue on the core foundations of therapeutic connection and healing…A humanistic, person-centered journey.