Most professional counselling and psychotherapy organizations consider the personal and professional development of therapists to be essential to continued good practice. This book explores just what is meant by 'personal and professional development' and why it is so important for therapists to continually assess and fulfil their own needs, both for their own well-being and in order to provide a better service for their clients.
Describing how therapists can identify and address gaps in their training, Paul Wilkins assesses the range, value and availability of short and advanced training courses, and encourages therapists to expand their skills into areas they might not previously have considered. He demonstrates how therapists can best prepare for the accreditation process, and stresses the importance of keeping up-to-date with major issues such as ethics and law, as well as addressing their own attitudes to race, culture, gender and age.
Further chapters consider the value and effectiveness of personal therapy, and highlight other ways in which therapists can look after, refresh and resource themselves and continue to be in 'a state fit to practise'. The author also emphasizes the importance of supervision and considers how therapists can contribute to the advancement of understanding counselling theory and practice.
Eminently practical and highly readable,
Personal and Professional Development for Counsellors
will be an invaluable resource for newly qualifying and practising therapists seeking a pathway through the maze of continuing professional development and wishing to establish, monitor and evaluate a programme for their own self-development.