The Stresses of Counselling in Action

Counsellors frequently work with people who are under stress or who are distressed - but counselling them can itself be a highly stressful activity. This supportive book examines the sources of stress for counsellors and the practical strategies that they can use to overcome it. Stress may emerge in the work that counsellors do with specific client groups, in the contexts in which counselling takes place and in the educational process both for counsellor educators and for counsellors in training. In this book, practising counsellors with first-hand experience of dealing with stress examine the nature of the stresses that counsellors face in these different areas, detail the typical responses (both healthy and unhealthy) that counsellors make and suggest methods for improved coping. An opening chapter sets these personal experiences into context by reviewing the research literature on counsellor stress.