Gail Evans is a Licensed Counsellor with more than 30 years' clinical experience. A former Head of the Counselling Studies Unit at Sheffield Hallam University, Gail now works as Programme Director at The Academy: Sheffield Psychotherapy and Counselling Education (SPACE), a new institute for teaching counselling and related subjects. She is also co-founder of Cornerstone Counselling and Therapy Centre, based in Sheffield.

Introduction 1

Part I: Focusing on Yourself First 7

Chapter 1: Introducing Counselling Skills 9

Chapter 2: Understanding Yourself through Personal Development 17

Chapter 3: Taking Care of Yourself 37

Chapter 4: Maintaining Good Practice 49

Part II: The Listening Helper 61

Chapter 5: Being a Listening Helper 63

Chapter 6: Qualities, Skills, and Knowledge for Listening 81

Chapter 7: Recognising Your Own Barriers to Listening 97

Part III: Structuring a Helping Conversation 111

Chapter 8: Establishing a Helping Relationship 113

Chapter 9: Stage One: Beginning the Discussion 129

Chapter 10: Stage Two: Deepening Understanding 155

Chapter 11: Stage Three: Working with Action and Endings 165

Part IV: Understanding People and Problems 191

Chapter 12: Being Prepared for Common Personal Problems 193

Chapter 13: Understanding People from a Social Perspective 211

Chapter 14: Understanding Individuals from a Psychological Perspective 223

Part V: Handling Challenges 239

Chapter 15: Coping with Different Types of Helping Conversations 241

Chapter 16: Dealing with Difficulties 253

Part VI: The Part of Tens 263

Chapter 17: Ten or So Key Counselling Skills 265

Chapter 18: Ten Resources for Improving Your Counselling Skills 271

Chapter 19: Ten Great Counselling Books 277

Part VII: Appendixes 281

Appendix A: Case Studies and Discussion 283

Appendix B: Becoming a Counsellor 301

Index 315