Book Review - Person Centred Counselling in Action - Third Edition

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ASSIGNMENT: BOOK REVIEW January 2013 Book reviewed: Person-Centred Counselling in Action (Third Edition) Dave Mearns and Brian Thorne the authors of this book had written edition one and two previously. This one being an updated version of the two previous books offers the reader a more up to date reference book on Person-Centred Counselling for trainees of counselling and psychotherapy. The book gives examples of the two authors experiences in person centred counselling and others who have written about the same subject before. The authors are British which makes it easier to understand. Counselling originated from the United States and came to the rest of Europe in later years. The theme of this book is informative making it easy for me and any other trainees to understand the basic theory and core concepts of counselling. The discussions on how to show empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard is second to none. Mearns and Thorne write in a formal style that is easy to understand. They don’t use complicated terminology in discussing issues which come up in counselling rooms. Take for example right at the beginning of the book, describing ‘the self concept on page11 Box 1.1…”The evolution of the Poor Self-Concept” The example given of client remembering his parents never ever praising him for anything he did well and their criticism of him were the seeds to his poor self-concept. The counsellor’s reflecting back what he had said, is what we practice in our class role plays and brings real meaning to learning. This knowledge will finally be brought into practice with clients when I qualify as a counsellor. Person Centred Counselling Third Edition is an improvement on the first two books in that it gives more insight into person centred counselling. It is an easy and gentle book to read and brought me into contact in understanding my own growth

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