Basic Personal Counselling is an easy to read introduction to counselling that reflects current best practice. It teaches core interviewing skills and provides a framework of practical examples and training group exercises to enable students to progressively build a skill repertoire. The book is designed to prepare students for field placement and therefore has a strong vocational focus.
• Introduces counselling skills in a logical sequence and provides practical examples of the skills in action
• Discusses the process of change involved in counselling
• Provides approaches for counselling people with specific problems such as anger, depression, grief, suicidal ideation
• Discusses professional issues including: confidentiality, ethics, record keeping

Part 1. The nature and purpose of counselling
1. What is counselling
2. The counselling relationship
3. Influence of the counsellor’s values

Part 2. Foundation skills
4. Learning foundation skills
5. Joining and listening
6. Reflection of content (paraphrasing)
7. Reflection of feelings
8. Reflection of content and feelings
9. Use and abuse of questions
10. Summarising
11. Matching language and metaphor
12. Creating comfortable closure

Part 3. Promoting change
13. Various approaches to counselling
14. Working collaboratively
15. An integrative approach to helping a person to change
16. Combining skills to facilitate the change process

Part 4. Additional skills for promoting change
17. Normalising
18. Using the ‘here and now’ experience
19. Confrontation
20. Challenging self-destructive beliefs
21. Externalising
22. Solution-focused counselling skills
23. Exploring polarities
24. Reframing
25. Making decisions
26. Facilitating action
27. Experiential counselling skills
28. Facilitating relaxation

Part 5. Dealing with particular problems
29. Counselling those troubled by addiction
30. Counselling those troubled by anger
31. Counselling those troubled by depression
32. Counselling those troubled by grief and loss
33. Crisis intervention
34. Responding to suicidal intentions

Part 6. Technology and counselling
35. Telephone counselling
36. Internet counselling

Part 7. Professional issues
37. The counselling environment
38. Keeping records of counselling sessions
39. Cultural issues
40. Confidentiality and other ethical issues
41. Counsellor training and the need for supervision
42. Looking after yourself

Basic Personal Counselling is an easy to read introduction to counselling that reflects current best practice. It teaches core interviewing skills and provides a framework of practical examples and training group exercises to enable students to progressively build a skill repertoire. The book is designed to prepare students for field placement and therefore has a strong vocational focus. • Introduces counselling skills in a logical sequence and provides practical examples of the skills in action • Discusses the process of change involved in counselling • Provides approaches for counselling people with specific problems such as anger, depression, grief, suicidal ideation • Discusses professional issues including: confidentiality, ethics, record keeping Additional content addressing internet counselling Rewrite and expansion of the self-care chapter New ancillary teacher and support material, including PowerPoints and a mapping grid Update and reposition of group training exercises