Understanding Person-Centred Counselling

Christine has been a person-centred practitioner for 20 years; she works privately as a counsellor/psychotherapist and supervisor and as a trainer at LC&CTA. LC&CTA, a private counsellor training organisation, was co-founded by Christine and Juanita Harriot in 2007 with the support of Dame Ruth Silver when the Counsellor Training department at Lewisham College was disbanded. Over the years Christine has trained and supervised over 300 practitioners, and has worked with a diversity of clients from all walks of life. Christine and Juanita have encouraged their students to participate in research and LC&CTA students have been successfully selected to present Research Posters at the BACP National Research Conference for seven consecutive years; winning two Conference Research Awards. Her own research work has focused on 'The Other Characteristic'/'Relational Depth' and she has presented four research papers at national level. Christine has a chequered history, much of which she shares in this book to experientially example person-centred theory. She lived in Germany for six years and in her late twenties she back-packed across three continents, settling in Nepal for a year; her encounters with human difference has greatly increased her love of diversity and varied cultures in all their manifestations. With Juanita and their team of associates, Christine is dedicated to providing access to quality practitioner training to students from all backgrounds. She profoundly believes that a counsellor's practical ability to process and be an effective practitioner are of far greater importance than his or her ability to academically demonstrate an understanding of theory; however, she does not underestimate the importance of the latter, especially in relation to clinical practice.

PART I The Evolution of Rogers' Philosophy The Evolution of Rogers' Philosophy: Rogers Life and the development of his attitudes and ideas PART II Person-Centred Theory Rogers' Original Theory of Personality and Behaviour: The Nineteen Propositions The Actualising Tendency Organismic Experience and the impact of The Conditions of Worth On Being Fully Functioning and 'Becoming a Person' Incongruence and When Personality Becomes Dysfunctional PART III Person-Centred Clinical Practice The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Psychological Change and The Importance of the Unified Extension of the Core Conditions Another Characteristic and Relational Depth Significant Odd Psychotherapeutic Occurrences and Mistakes and their relevance to The Other Characteristic and Relational Depth Diversity and Oppression: The Other Characteristic and Relational Depth Person-Centred Psychotherapeutic Creativity and Adaptation PART IV Then, Now and to Come? Criticisms and Controversies and An Interconnected World Epilogue: The Author's Life and Practice; Then, Here and Now at the End of This Book

This is a book that truly reflects the core conditions of Person- Centred Counselling. Christine presents the theory , practice and underlying philosophy with clarity, wisdom and incisive honest observations based on her own experiences as well as the experiences of other practitioner's and students. -- Wendy Wood Providing a personal and at times intimate exploration of the the person centred approach, Chris invites the reader into a deep engagement with both theory and practice. This is a thought provoking chance to connect with both classical theory and more contemporary ideas in the the person centred community. -- Lisa Anthony The ease with which Brown describes and contextualises person-centred theory points to her long experience as a trainer and her parallel ability to communicate her world without pretence or complication. As many students of the person-centred approach will testify, getting your head around the 19 propositions is no easy jaunt, so I recommend this text, if you read it only for that reason. -- Mike Gallant, Senior Teaching Fellow Counselling & Psychotherapy, University of Warwick