The be-coming of a therapist: experiential learning, self-education and the personal/professional nexus

Training and education for therapeutic practitionership: “Trans-modern” perspectives

“…In contrast, a trans-modern approach to training and practitioner development (House, 2007) moves beyond the prevailing Zeitgeist, which it is surely humankind's urgent evolutionary imperative to transcend. A cocktail of one-sided materialism and subservience to soulless technology, allied with an associated chronic loss of meaning, arguably lies at the heart of our emotional, spiritual and ecological malaise.…”

“…Thus, with the uncritical rise of the ''therapeutic technology'' of cognitive behavioural therapy in the NHS (House & Loewenthal, 2008), the NHS's ironically named ''NICE'' Guidelines and the spuriously ''scientific'', so-called ''empirically validated treatments'' which they champion, and the threat of a therapy-regulatory regime founded in the medical-model Health Professions Council (House, 2005a) and the technocratic specification and measurement of practitioner ''competencies'' (House, 2007), we can see all too disturbingly how the ideology of modernity is threatening to do a fundamental ''soul violence'' to the very essence of what is most subtle, artistic and effective in therapeutic help.…”

Nick Totton and the UK Independent Practitioners' Network

“…Nick's 1994 letter, therefore, coincided with a number of other like‐minded initiatives – such as the Norwich Group Process Group led initially by Robin Shohet, and the pioneering Cambridge “dynamics of accreditation” conferences (see, for example, Cannon & Hatfield, ; House, ) – and, in the event, around 60 practitioners from across Britain, Nick and myself included, attended the resultant ITN's inaugural conference, held at London's Open Centre on 19 November 1994.…”

Locating the researcher in the research: personal narrative and reflective practice

“…The psychological counselling and therapy literature contains numerous exemplars of autobiographical narrative, illustrating a prime motivation to fulfill a need for meaning (Baumeister & Newman, 1994;Etherington, 2001;House, 2007;Kirkman, 1999). Of particular relevance to this paper are accounts by researchers of their involvement in the research endeavour.…”