Counselling for Psychosomatic Problems

A practical guide to counselling clients who present with physical symptoms, but where psychological issues or problems are causing or maintaining those symptoms. The author examines the terminology and the definitions of physical or psychological illness, with examples. She describes a cognitive model, illustrated with common somatic problems, such as atypical chest pain, covering the factors which maintain the problems - as well as the client’s schema, beliefs and assumptions which may underlie them - and takes the reader through the different stages of the counselling process. She then explains the psychological categories and terminology used to describe the client group, and addresses key counselling issues in working with them, including advice on how to engage the client in counselling, how to formulate and conceptualize the client’s problems, and develop counselling goals with the client to help the client work towards these goals. Significant advances have been made in this field, and this practical text makes available new approaches to helping clients with psychosomatic problems, whom traditional medical practitioners have found difficult to help.