Training the Counsellor: An Integrative Model

Counsellor training is coming of age and there is now a need for an examination and clarification of the training issues surrounding counselling. Drawing on many years of practical knowledge, Mary Connor offers down-to-earth guidance and up-to-date information on key issues in counsellor training, examining and consultancy, with plenty of examples of live issues from both trainer and trainee perspectives. The book begins with a personal perspective on counsellor training in Britain over the last thirty years and this leads in to a consideration of the transitions which counsellors make when they become trainers. The focal point of the book is a model for training competent and reflective counsellors, based on the York experience, which uses Egan’s model of the skilled helper as its core. This is developed from a theoretical stance and then illustrated with a course example. Other issues of training explored are course design, dealing with difficult situations in the trainer/trainee relationship, ethical issues, assessment and research findings. Training the Counsellor, together with its companion volume Supervising the Counsellor, provides a valuable resource for counsellor trainers working in many different contexts and will also be of considerable interest to trainees themselves. Mary Connor is Director of the Counselling and Consultancy Unit, University College of Ripon and York, St. John.