Experiential Learning for Professional Helpers

This book describes in considerable depth and detail a series of workshops in therapeutic counselling in the early 1960s, for people working in social or mental health care who wished to expand their skillset and capabilities. The book is unique in its comprehensive retrospective viewpoint of the effect of these workshops: rather than merely adopting an objective stance by describing the processes, structures and impacts of intensive group work, the book invites us into the initial conversations in the room, and then follows the group members back into their lives, allowing us to see the longer term impact of participation some ten years later. Finally, Barrett-Lennard reflects on the group, and on the history of the profession more generally, and makes a compelling argument that the foundations of the group and the participants' motivation for fully participating in such an intensive process are as powerful today as they were in the 1960s. The blend of qualitative and long-term data is genuinely unique, and the work provides a valuable insight into the history of therapeutic counselling and training. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of psychology and psychotherapy, as well as practising therapists and trainees who want to do meaningful work with their client groups.