An Introduction to Counselling

Rating:
Summary: This book is an intelligent and impressive achievement.
Review: Two sins of "Introductions to" books.

1. They treat readers as if they are incapable of understanding more than the absolute basics. References to further readings in such texts reflect a similar attitude

or

2. They fail to set the topic within a context. Rather, they plunge headlong into the topic via dollops of technical language and the citing of highly esoteric references.

McLeod's Introduction to Counselling commits neither of these sins. It is a highly intelligent book which treats the reader as an intelligent inquirer. I have recommended the book to other professionals, such as lawyers, who deal with counsellors and counselling. I have put it on my reading lists in the post-graduate counselling degrees conducted at my University. At the same time, I have recommended it colleagues who boast years of experience.

McLeod covers mainstream approaches to counselling such as psychodynamic, person-centered, CBT, systemic, feminist and narrative. He recognises that conselling approches do not come from nowhere, but reflect specific socio-cultural context. His engaging accounts of these contexts and of the individuals who articulated approaches which grew from them, provide a solid base from which to consider each theoretical development. At the same time, McLeod is interested in what elements tie counselling together. What are the root metaphors used by most counsellors most of the time?

McLeod is also deeply interested in counselling as an ethical pursuit. He is concerned with the nature of social and interpersonal power and with the moral principles which should guide theory and practice. He covers research, supervision, training and skills acquisition, the politics of counselling and the nature of counselling organizations. He even ventures into predictive statments for the next fifty years.

This book is an impressive achievement. The amount of information and the breadth and depth of ideas is deceptive because each chapter reads so well.

I have been in the business for twenty five years. I couldn't put it down!