The Dynamics of Power in Counselling and Psychotherapy (second Edition)

Politically incisive and iconoclastic, Gillian Proctor's updated second edition of The Dynamics of Power in Counselling and Psychotherapy draws on her extensive research and personal experience as practitioner and client to scrutinise the balance of power in the therapy relationship. Drawing on sources from Hobbes and Machiavelli to Foucault, Ferenczi, Masson and Arendt, Proctor seeks answers to some fundamental questions: are not counselling and psychotherapy, in their very essence, potentially abusive? Is there always an unequal dynamic of power in the relationship between the professional and the client in need of their expertise? Accessible, political and critical of her own profession, Proctor's book alerts the student, practitioner and researcher to be ever-mindful of the values and ethics of social justice and accountability.