Existential Therapies,Used

One can only applaud the bravery of an author who gently send up Kierkegaard's wilful obscurantism and cleans out the acrid smoke of Gauloises from the room. With welcome clarity and sanity, Mick Cooper efficiently lays out the concepts, techniques and directions adopted by several key figures in the broad field of existentially informed psychotherapy. In an excellent first chapter, Mick Cooper pointed out my ontic' from my ontological'; and I could see, behind the longwordswithdashes, the true resonance of these ideas with real human and therapeutic issues, dilemmas and goals' Clinical PsychologyThis book proves to be a real treasure chest: what you always wanted to know about existential psychotherapy but failed to find anywhere else in such a comprehensive, clear and concise manner. In that sense, this publication provides a missing link. One merit of the book is its systematic structure. As extensive, and in part as heterogeneous as existential philosophy and therapy also maybe, Mick Cooper had nevertheless been able to build convincing clusters with, on the one hand, an enormous understanding of details and, on the other, a farsightedness that, like a map, provides orientation in the diversity of existential therapy. I really appreciate this publication and can recommend it very strongly' PersonCentred and Experiential PsychotherapiesExistential Therapies will I suspect, suddenly make 'existentialism' come alive. The author, Mick Cooper loves his subject, it fascinates and enthrals him, and we get to experience some of that, even though the book is 'academic'. The connections and overlaps with personcentred psychology are there for us to be, but so are the differences' PersonCentred PracticeAs an overview of a number of different existential therapies the book is extremely welcome and manages in a relatively short space to cover a wide arena. Overall I rate the book highly. To pull together a large and somewhat disparate literature, then make sense of it and finally retains the reader's interest, is difficult' Existential AnalysisMick Cooper has done an impressive job in writing a much needed, current and user friendly survey of the field of existential therapies. If I were to teach this course, I would use this book. I applaud Mick Cooper for having admirably achieved the aim he set out to achieve. All this makes Mick Cooper's book a mustread for anyone wishing to explore the topic of existential therapy' Society for Laingian Studies WebsiteWhat makes this book unique is that all the different strands of Existential philosophy are always clearly linked to practice' Counselling and Psychotherapy JournalThis is a very fresh book, not treading wellworn paths and genuinely informing us about a small but important field. This is really an indispensable book for anyone who wants to understand existentialist approaches to therapy' Self and SocietyThis publication marks a milestone providing an excellent, clear and critical overview of the contrasting forms of the approach as it is currently practised' Emmy van Deurzen, New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, Schiller University, LondonThis is a book of superb thoroughness and scholarship an unprecedented guide to existential therapy's chief positions and controversies' Kirk J Schneider, President of the ExistentialHumanistic Institute, USACombines scholarship with a writing style that makes difficult concepts accessible. This book should be required reading on any course where the existential tradition plays a part, and that includes personcentred courses and all sympathetic to the idea that psychotherapy is, in essence, a human encounter where warmth, understanding and a deep respect for the individual are key values' Tony Merry, University of East LondonWhat does it mean to practice in an existential way? What are the different existential approaches? What are their strengths and limitations? Existential Th