As do most practitioners, I like to keep up with the newest information in topics within the world of counselling and psychotherapy. This week, I have finished my latest read which was a great book by Mark Widdowson, on the topic of Depression. I didn’t really know what I was in for when I began the book. Depression is a topic that we all learn about when we are studying, and I think I was hoping for a pathway, a guide to a better way of being with a client who shows signs of depression or for someone who has been diagnosed as suffering from depression. I want to be effective with clients. I want to be helpful and useful, not just making my way around the subject getting to know the client as we do and using our usual skills. Those skills are good, no doubt, but I wanted to read something that is actually useful as well as expanding my knowledge on the subject. To be up to date, to be innovative and to be clear and concise.  It delivered……..

As therapists, when a client sits in front of us, it’s always good to think, ‘what am I missing’ as we are never just sitting listening, never just passive waiting for information. We are listening in between the lines, under the sentence over the meaning and right the way through to the part that the client feels important to them. We don’t judge or make that happen but we are ready when it does. Information helps that process, knowledge of the subject is useful but even better vast knowledge of the subject can be game changing. Thats why therapists are always reading, attending classes, and attending conferences and seminars, to gain extra knowledge about as many subjects as they can, because people with many subjects walk through the therapist door.

To read a book that is helpful, up to date, deep in its knowledge that takes the reader far past the usual learning but keeps the material uncomplicated so that the reader can keep up, is settling and calming, rather than frustrating and hopeless. Some books are so difficult to read that they become ‘work’ instead of ‘pleasure’ to read. Not so for this book. I found it pleasing, satisfying and a book that should be kept for reference on many things such as medication, key therapeutic processes and neuroscience of depression. I feel as if I have truly learned something new and the information I learned is right up to date. I feel informed more in the therapy room and sit with the feeling that I have knowledge of the subject matter far more than basic and together with the individual tailoring of the therapy for each client, the huge subject matter of depression is processing in my head and ready for use as a new skill set for my practice.

Some of the topics were so interesting:

How different a treatment plan looks now that I have this information

Considering the biological side to depression and using it in the therapy room

Medication knowledge and the considerations they require.

Transactional Analysis for Depression: A step by step Treatment Manual by Mark Widdowson

Things I already knew, but now in much greater depth.

Does what it says on the tin…