Main description:

First published in 2005 as Person-Centred Psychopathology, and now extensively updated and with a new title, The Handbook of Person-Centred Therapy and Mental Health challenges the use of psychiatric diagnoses and makes a powerful case for the effectiveness of person-centred approaches as the alternative way to work with people who would otherwise be diagnosed with severe mental illnesses, such as psychosis, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This updated second edition captures the significant changes in recent years in how mental health and ill health is conceptualised and understood, and in how mental health care is delivered. It demonstrates how the person-centred approach can help occupy the space that is opening up as mental health professionals look for alternatives to the medical model. And, while acknowledging the chasm that separates person-centred practice from the mainstream medical model, it argues for collaborative working with these fellow mental health professionals.
Contributors from across the fields of research, policy-making and practice explore aspects of theory, professionalism, the role of culture, and the politics of the person-centred approach in relation to mental health.They demonstrate how Rogers' theories of personality and the actualising process are able to provide a model of human functioning that is relevant not just to counselling but to all mental health professions, and beyond, to the social sciences. They give examples of how the person-centred approach is being applied successfully in practice (and successfully evaluated). They offer personal testament to the challenges and creative dynamics of working in a person-centred way within mainstream contexts, and they review the vibrant political and professional divisions and arguments that continue to inform thinking and practice today. New chapters examine the influence of the national Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme in England, and how researchers are successfully overcoming the challenge of evaluating the effectiveness of person-centred approaches to severe mental distress.

Contents:

PrefaceSection I: IntroductionsChapter 1. Mental health and the person-centred approach - Stephen JosephChapter 2. Principled and strategic opposition to the medicalisation of distress and all its apparatus - Pete SandersSection II: TheoryChapter 3. Person-centred theory and 'mental illness' - Paul WilkinsChapter 4. From self-objectification to self-affirmation: the 'I-Me' and 'I-Self' relation stances - Mick CooperChapter 5. Authenticity and alienation: towards an understanding of the person beyond the categories of order and disorder - Peter F SchmidChapter 6. A person-centred view of human nature, wellness and psychopathology - Margaret S WarnerChapter 7. The complementarity between client-centred therapy and psychiatry: the theory and the practice - Lisbeth SommerbeckChapter 8. Assessment and 'diagnosis' in person-centred therapy - Paul WilkinsChapter 9. The concept of evil as a key to the therapist's use of the self - Richard WorsleyChapter 10. A person-centred perspective on diagnosis and psychopathology in relation to minority identity, culture and ethnicity - Colin LagoChapter 11. Using attachment theory in person-centred therapy - Emma Tickle and Stephen JosephSection III ContextsChapter 12. Facing psychotic functioning: person-centred contact work in residential psychiatric care - Dion van WerdeChapter 13. From patient to person: how person-centred theory values and understands unusual experiences - Kirshen RundleChapter 14. Understanding post-traumatic stress from the person-centred perspective - Stephen JosephChapter 15. Working with maternal depression: client-centred therapy as part of a multidisciplinary approach - Elaine CatterallChapter 16. Living with pain: mental health and the legacy of childhood abuse - Jan HawkinsChapter 17. Nine considerations concerning psychotherapy and the care for people 'with special needs' - Marlis PortnerChapter 18. Children and the autism spectrum: person-centred approaches - Jacky Knibbs and Anja RuttenChapter 19. Clinical psychology and the person-centred approach: an uncomfortable fit? - Gillian ProctorChapter 20. Towards a person-centred psychiatry - Rachel FreethChapter 21. Person-centred therapy and the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK - Andy Rogers and David MurphySection IV: ResearchChapter 22. Searching for the core: the interface of client-centered principles with other therapies - Jerold D Bozarth and Noriko MotomasaChapter 23. Client-centered values limit the application of research findings: an issue for discussion - Barbara T BrodleyChapter 24. An evaluation of research, concepts and experiences pertaining to the universality of client-centred therapy and its application in psychiatric settings - Lisbeth SommerbeckChapter 25. Small-scale research as personal development for mental health professionals - Richard WorsleyChapter 26. Assessing efficacy and effectiveness in person-centred therapy: challenges and opportunities - Tom G PattersonSection V: ConclusionChapter 27. Taking stock of the person-centred approach and moving forward - Stephen Joseph