The Reality Game: A Guide to Humanistic Counselling and Therapy by John Rowan - Jun 1998

Routledge, Jun 1998. 2. Paperback. This is a handbook for people who are, or who want to be, counsellors or psychotherapists. It covers both theory and practice. Since the first edition every chapter has been thoroughly revised, and there is one new chapter, on ethics. It takes a humanistic stance. There are few books for the general humanistic practitioner, working on a one-to-one basis. In writing this book I have been very conscious of the needs of students, and the kinds of questions which they raise. In this I have been helped considerably by the students in my supervision groups at the Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies, at the Serpent Institute and at the Minster Centre, who have raised all the awkward issues and tricky problems which I have tried to tackle here. Some people misunderstand the word 'humanistic' by thinking it means that we are soft and mushy and want to spread peace and love all the time; but we are not in the peace and love business, we are in the reality business. Or better still, since there is always some element of play in good therapy, the reality game.