Windy Dryden

A better title for the book might be 'The Challenges of Counselling in Action', and this is what many of the contributors describe, often with clarity and insight. There is for instance Julia Segal on working with clients with disabilities, and Colin Feltham on counselling in private practice. Feltham is commendably open about the tensions between work and private life. To counsel effectively, therapists need to be relatively free from stress themselves. Stress can emerge in the work that show more counselors do with specific client groups, in the contexts in which counseling takes place, and in the educational process both for counselor educators and for counselors in training. The chapters in this book, all written by practicing therapists and counselors with first-hand experience of dealing with stress, outline the nature of the stress that counselors encounter, detail typical coping responses (both healthy and unhealthy), and suggest methods for improved coping. An opening chapter puts the others into context by reviewing the relevant research that has been carried out on this type of stress. Practical, supportive, and encouraging, the book's most important function is to make practitioners aware that they are not alone in experiencing stress, and to reassure them that successful coping methods are available. The Stresses of Counseling in Action provides an invaluable resource for both trainee counselors and more experienced practitioners of all approaches and disciplines. show less

Dr Dryden walks the reader through different types of beliefs and thought patterns that lead to procrastination. He offers counter thoughts and exercises to retrain yourself. Of course, no one can try all of these options, but it's useful to read each, sit with it, and feel "if the shoe fits" so to speak.

My issue is discomfort. The smallest discomfort prevents me from engaging in unpredictable, professional tasks that are good for me, and that I even enjoy. So, I return to comfortable, easy show more things. My mode of operation is very cognitive and analytical, so books like Dryden's that offer mostly analytical exercises (write down a belief, estimate your percent agreement and then attack and defend it) are enlightening but not as helpful to me. I need more emotional approaches. There were a few of these types of exercises in the book. Specifically, if I feel discomfort, I should try embracing it, or at least tolerating it. So, I will practice feeling discomfort. show less

This book bridges the gap that currently exists between research and practice in counselling and psychotherapy by providing detailed clinical examples of the practical relevance of research. It brings together contributions from leading British and American psychotherapy researchers, who describe their research programmes and spell out the practical applications for therapy of that programme's results. They explore how their findings can substantially inform therapeutic practice, and assess show more their immediate relevance for practitioners. Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy calls for the close integration of research, skills training and supervised clinical practice on training courses. show less

Excellent refresher for cognitive techniques and model.