Principles of Counseling and Psychotherapy: Learning the Essential Domains and Nonlinear Thinking of Master Practitioners

While the past two decades have seen considerable research on the processes and efficacy of psychotherapy and counseling, the preparation of new therapists (students) has lagged far behind the advances in understanding what actually works and why. Practitioners-in-training continue to be shown what to do and are educated in a way that asks them to mimic what they read and see - to act like the master therapists and experienced practitioners they see, rather than how to think like a master therapist. This text presents a novel approach to teaching and learning the fundamental skills and techniques of counseling and psychotherapy, based on a non-linear process of thinking that more accurately reflects the reality of mental health practice. At the core of this text lies the idea that to best prepare students for practice with real clients, they have to learn how to think in a new way, the way that research has shown the most effective practitioners think.