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Psychodynamic Counselling in Action
This substantially revised fifth edition of a classic text includes an updated preface, new content on the therapeutic relationship, substantially revised chapters on the middle phase of counselling and reflections on the influence of other modalities and shared aspects of practice across approaches. Each chapter now includes an annotated Further Reading section to help deepen knowledge and reinforce learning of key aspects of the counselling process.
166 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 10, 2022
Phenomenal.
If you’re looking for a good introduction to the psychodynamic approach, this is as good as any.
The psychoanalytic traditions are so rich, that you could spend a lifetime studying them, let alone integrating the constructs and techniques into your therapeutic work.
Personally: it has taken me quite a while to warm up to the psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, relational and insight oriented paradigms.
My early work as a therpaist was nearly exclusively in milieu driven, residential treatment for substance use disorders.
Adopting the seemingly overly cautious, low self-disclosure, less direct, longer term, insight oriented approach with clients who were always on the verge of relapsing and dying just never felt appropriate, let alone practicable.
Although I did work with many fine clinicians who adapted psychodynamic work to that world quite effectively. For me, the third wave CBT models e.g. ACT and DBT were home base.
Over time, with exposure, and via side door experiences training in and delivering EMDR, I started to see the real value of exploring psychological content (as opposed to strictly focusing on context, behavior and skills) and early life presidents for cognitive and emotional schemata.
Also: many of the psychodynamic constructs began to spring to life for me after reading source and foundational texts.
And now, as I am focusing more on 1:1 therapy, in a private practice context, I can see that the insight and relationally oriented, psychodynamic world is supremely useful, as it was developed in this exact context, e.g. long term work with higher functioning, less acute, lass at risk clientele.
At this point, I’m really hungering for training and supervision in psychodynamic psychotherapy, and I would like to steer my practice in that direction.
I guess an old dog can learn new tricks.
Great book!
I’m hooked!
5/5 ⭐️s
If you’re looking for a good introduction to the psychodynamic approach, this is as good as any.
The psychoanalytic traditions are so rich, that you could spend a lifetime studying them, let alone integrating the constructs and techniques into your therapeutic work.
Personally: it has taken me quite a while to warm up to the psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, relational and insight oriented paradigms.
My early work as a therpaist was nearly exclusively in milieu driven, residential treatment for substance use disorders.
Adopting the seemingly overly cautious, low self-disclosure, less direct, longer term, insight oriented approach with clients who were always on the verge of relapsing and dying just never felt appropriate, let alone practicable.
Although I did work with many fine clinicians who adapted psychodynamic work to that world quite effectively. For me, the third wave CBT models e.g. ACT and DBT were home base.
Over time, with exposure, and via side door experiences training in and delivering EMDR, I started to see the real value of exploring psychological content (as opposed to strictly focusing on context, behavior and skills) and early life presidents for cognitive and emotional schemata.
Also: many of the psychodynamic constructs began to spring to life for me after reading source and foundational texts.
And now, as I am focusing more on 1:1 therapy, in a private practice context, I can see that the insight and relationally oriented, psychodynamic world is supremely useful, as it was developed in this exact context, e.g. long term work with higher functioning, less acute, lass at risk clientele.
At this point, I’m really hungering for training and supervision in psychodynamic psychotherapy, and I would like to steer my practice in that direction.
I guess an old dog can learn new tricks.
Great book!
I’m hooked!
5/5 ⭐️s
April 7, 2024
A really excellent book in the series. Really informative. The narrator was excellent too.
March 2, 2024
The author doesn’t really outline what he is setting out to achieve and the preface outlines the two characters he chooses for counselling, Hannah and Karl, which prove to be fictional characters taken from a Charles Dicken’s novel. This highlights that anyone with a background in reading Dickens may discover some esoteric insight into the world of psychodynamic counselling. After reading the book I’m inclined to read dickens at some point out of a curiosity to explore this further one day. Michael Jacobs dives straight into the topic of his book beginning with an overcomplicated description of the meaning of psychodynamic counselling which almost discouraged me from reading any further. I persisted out of a determination to push through as I had to write a book review to pass a course in counselling and this was a prescribed text. I reluctantly turned the pages: one after another. To my great surprise, I’m really glad I did!
The first chapter outlines a short history of psychoanalysis and lists some of the analytical writers who remained within the mainstream Freudian understanding of psychodynamic theory. It also gives a term of psychodynamic which understands the psyche to not just incorporate the mind but also the person’s emotions and feelings which are seen as active thus changing all the time. He then goes on to explain the understanding of unconscious and how the client’s relationship with the therapist can sometimes be met with transference. He unpacks the interrelationship of external and internal worlds, touches upon regression under stress. The unconscious subconscious, the ways in which the past effects the client (and ourselves), the importance of understanding and working with resistance and the rules of abstinence and dwelves somewhat into when and why it may be appropriate to bend the rules! If there is anything I’ve learned in life is that the mavericks and geniuses amongst us who push the boundaries are more often the ones worth studying the most. I was encouraged to reada quote by Michael Jacobs (page 16) who says that “nothing is cast-iron and immutable”.
The second chapter unpacked situations surrounding the first session. These included reading the room, the importance of an appropriate setting and the ways in which listening involves not just paying attention to what the client says but noticing, body language, facial expressions and tones of expression. He touches upon reflecting responses, information seeking responses, and exploratory responses and unpacks where these responses might be useful. He discourages the use of touch which I expected as it blurs the area around boundaries and crossing an ethical code.
Chapter 3 unpacks the use of recording the session and note taking. Jacobs discusses the pros and cons of recording including whether or not this may inhibit or expand the conversation/session and the use of remembering for sessions in the future. I particularly liked the general note taking which summarised Hannah’s first session in Figure 3:2. Other topics including assessment of the client’s needs, when the client may be unsuitable and the ethics surrounding when and why it is important to sometimes refer a client to somebody else and finally the use and need of supervision.
Chapter 4 reenforced my understanding of the importance of time and boundaries. I was surprised to read about open ending sessions believing wrongly that there would always be a time limit. Obviously, the need for open ending sessions is an exception to the rule and may only be utilised if a client has issues regarding anxiety of time constraints. Again, though, Jacobs is demonstrating that a good counsellor is flexible in how they go about thing. It is obvious to me that Jacobs writes the book having had a wealth of experience and chooses to be lineal when the need arises. There is also an emphasis on the importance of reliability of the counsellor, the need for time keeping and the variety of reasons for poor time keeping amongst the client. This demonstrated a remarkable level of understanding and patience of the author which was very inspiring.
Chapters five and six offered reflections on the middle phases of counselling which included meeting resistance through denial and repression of understanding how these impact sessions. Defence mechanisms are also unpacked and the need to confront these sensitively is emphasised and the methodology behind challenging these defences sensitively is described. Transference is unpacked in some depth and Jacobs notes the importance of the counsellor having received counselling themselves in order to understand both situs.
The final chapter appropriately ends with the subject of breaks and endings of the counselling session concluding with the ending pf Hannah’s sessions. The counsellor is flawed and doesn’t always say or do the most appropriate things which came as somewhat of a surprise. This was encouraging because it accepts that we are human and that counselling is in no way robotic but is a human encounter and a relationship. I t also touches on the emotions a client and counsellor may feel when they and the client go their separate ways and the incomplete answers that both parties may encounter. The chapter reminded me a little of the ending of the movie “Good Will Hunting”.
There were m any insights and findings I will take into my role as a counsellor and as a mental health chaplain within psychiatry. I have learned lots reading the book and have also been reenforced in some of the things I am doing right. I was encouraged to read around the abstinence role and that although it has its uses which are many, there are times when Michael Jacobs deems it to be appropriate to share from our own experiences. As a new counsellor, there may be a temptation to follow the letter of the law of the abstinence rule in order to not make a mistake but the reality is that sometimes it is appropriate to do so if it comes from a place of authenticity and is helpful for the client. However, there are risks involved in doing so and if anything, Jacobs possibly doesn’t emphasise these enough. It confirmed my understanding that breaking the rule of abstinence may be appropriate but not encouraged too often. I know from experience of twenty plus years in pastoral ministry that knowing when it may be deemed appropriate to breaking a rule comes from experience reading the room, the body language, the situation and circumstances is not always easily identifiable. Jacobs also echoes a similar understanding of when to give advice: very rarely but occasionally appropriate.
I found his descriptions in the earlier stages of the book were sometimes complex and he has a tendency to overcomplicate descriptions sometimes but perhaps aiming his readership at the academic as opposed to the average psychotherapist. However, after chapter one, he appeared to soften his approach perhaps thus demonstrating to the academic elites that he can roll with them whilst also rolling with the trainees who judging from his back cover are his main target readership. Some more examples where it was complex would be helpful in simplifying my understanding. Having said that, he does try to summarise at the end of each sub-section and he strives to do so really clearly.
One thing that stood out for me was the need to deal with any transference from the outset thus enabling the sessions to progress naturally. This was useful to know when, in the past, I have experienced transference, certainly in my earlier years as a chaplain, I became stuck in how to progress. Now I understand why this was so and am more confident in terms of how I may handle this in the future. It was scarce on counselling techniques sbut I think this showed the organic nature of the psychodynamic approach, so whilst, I have learned what psychodynamic counselling is and have tried to understand the terms for describing it, I don’t really feel much wiser in terms of my development of any new particular techniques are useful.
However, I found the unpacking of the story of the therapist ‘s interaction with Hannah and Karl to be genius. It read like a novel and thus each chapter led to you wanting to know how the story unfolded. This was useful in turning what deemed to be a rather dull uninspiring beginning to a book into one that I was reluctant to put down! As I followed the sessions, I encountered a vineyard of experience and scenarios which allowed an organic natural flow of a session to ferment through my insights and reflections.
In conclusion, the book has reignited an excitement to be on this journey of growth but I’m also apprehensive about the pruning of myself which I’m sure will happen as the course unfolds With this in mind, I’ve spent some time reflecting on the words of Michael Jacobs who writes (page 21) which was for me, both daunting yet inspiring and encouraging: “Psychodynamic counselling involves much more than talking about our difficulties: it may also mean facing them.” The concept of this both challenges me and inspires me to also ask the question: “What does it all mean?”
The first chapter outlines a short history of psychoanalysis and lists some of the analytical writers who remained within the mainstream Freudian understanding of psychodynamic theory. It also gives a term of psychodynamic which understands the psyche to not just incorporate the mind but also the person’s emotions and feelings which are seen as active thus changing all the time. He then goes on to explain the understanding of unconscious and how the client’s relationship with the therapist can sometimes be met with transference. He unpacks the interrelationship of external and internal worlds, touches upon regression under stress. The unconscious subconscious, the ways in which the past effects the client (and ourselves), the importance of understanding and working with resistance and the rules of abstinence and dwelves somewhat into when and why it may be appropriate to bend the rules! If there is anything I’ve learned in life is that the mavericks and geniuses amongst us who push the boundaries are more often the ones worth studying the most. I was encouraged to reada quote by Michael Jacobs (page 16) who says that “nothing is cast-iron and immutable”.
The second chapter unpacked situations surrounding the first session. These included reading the room, the importance of an appropriate setting and the ways in which listening involves not just paying attention to what the client says but noticing, body language, facial expressions and tones of expression. He touches upon reflecting responses, information seeking responses, and exploratory responses and unpacks where these responses might be useful. He discourages the use of touch which I expected as it blurs the area around boundaries and crossing an ethical code.
Chapter 3 unpacks the use of recording the session and note taking. Jacobs discusses the pros and cons of recording including whether or not this may inhibit or expand the conversation/session and the use of remembering for sessions in the future. I particularly liked the general note taking which summarised Hannah’s first session in Figure 3:2. Other topics including assessment of the client’s needs, when the client may be unsuitable and the ethics surrounding when and why it is important to sometimes refer a client to somebody else and finally the use and need of supervision.
Chapter 4 reenforced my understanding of the importance of time and boundaries. I was surprised to read about open ending sessions believing wrongly that there would always be a time limit. Obviously, the need for open ending sessions is an exception to the rule and may only be utilised if a client has issues regarding anxiety of time constraints. Again, though, Jacobs is demonstrating that a good counsellor is flexible in how they go about thing. It is obvious to me that Jacobs writes the book having had a wealth of experience and chooses to be lineal when the need arises. There is also an emphasis on the importance of reliability of the counsellor, the need for time keeping and the variety of reasons for poor time keeping amongst the client. This demonstrated a remarkable level of understanding and patience of the author which was very inspiring.
Chapters five and six offered reflections on the middle phases of counselling which included meeting resistance through denial and repression of understanding how these impact sessions. Defence mechanisms are also unpacked and the need to confront these sensitively is emphasised and the methodology behind challenging these defences sensitively is described. Transference is unpacked in some depth and Jacobs notes the importance of the counsellor having received counselling themselves in order to understand both situs.
The final chapter appropriately ends with the subject of breaks and endings of the counselling session concluding with the ending pf Hannah’s sessions. The counsellor is flawed and doesn’t always say or do the most appropriate things which came as somewhat of a surprise. This was encouraging because it accepts that we are human and that counselling is in no way robotic but is a human encounter and a relationship. I t also touches on the emotions a client and counsellor may feel when they and the client go their separate ways and the incomplete answers that both parties may encounter. The chapter reminded me a little of the ending of the movie “Good Will Hunting”.
There were m any insights and findings I will take into my role as a counsellor and as a mental health chaplain within psychiatry. I have learned lots reading the book and have also been reenforced in some of the things I am doing right. I was encouraged to read around the abstinence role and that although it has its uses which are many, there are times when Michael Jacobs deems it to be appropriate to share from our own experiences. As a new counsellor, there may be a temptation to follow the letter of the law of the abstinence rule in order to not make a mistake but the reality is that sometimes it is appropriate to do so if it comes from a place of authenticity and is helpful for the client. However, there are risks involved in doing so and if anything, Jacobs possibly doesn’t emphasise these enough. It confirmed my understanding that breaking the rule of abstinence may be appropriate but not encouraged too often. I know from experience of twenty plus years in pastoral ministry that knowing when it may be deemed appropriate to breaking a rule comes from experience reading the room, the body language, the situation and circumstances is not always easily identifiable. Jacobs also echoes a similar understanding of when to give advice: very rarely but occasionally appropriate.
I found his descriptions in the earlier stages of the book were sometimes complex and he has a tendency to overcomplicate descriptions sometimes but perhaps aiming his readership at the academic as opposed to the average psychotherapist. However, after chapter one, he appeared to soften his approach perhaps thus demonstrating to the academic elites that he can roll with them whilst also rolling with the trainees who judging from his back cover are his main target readership. Some more examples where it was complex would be helpful in simplifying my understanding. Having said that, he does try to summarise at the end of each sub-section and he strives to do so really clearly.
One thing that stood out for me was the need to deal with any transference from the outset thus enabling the sessions to progress naturally. This was useful to know when, in the past, I have experienced transference, certainly in my earlier years as a chaplain, I became stuck in how to progress. Now I understand why this was so and am more confident in terms of how I may handle this in the future. It was scarce on counselling techniques sbut I think this showed the organic nature of the psychodynamic approach, so whilst, I have learned what psychodynamic counselling is and have tried to understand the terms for describing it, I don’t really feel much wiser in terms of my development of any new particular techniques are useful.
However, I found the unpacking of the story of the therapist ‘s interaction with Hannah and Karl to be genius. It read like a novel and thus each chapter led to you wanting to know how the story unfolded. This was useful in turning what deemed to be a rather dull uninspiring beginning to a book into one that I was reluctant to put down! As I followed the sessions, I encountered a vineyard of experience and scenarios which allowed an organic natural flow of a session to ferment through my insights and reflections.
In conclusion, the book has reignited an excitement to be on this journey of growth but I’m also apprehensive about the pruning of myself which I’m sure will happen as the course unfolds With this in mind, I’ve spent some time reflecting on the words of Michael Jacobs who writes (page 21) which was for me, both daunting yet inspiring and encouraging: “Psychodynamic counselling involves much more than talking about our difficulties: it may also mean facing them.” The concept of this both challenges me and inspires me to also ask the question: “What does it all mean?”
August 12, 2020
There's surprisingly 'thin' writings on the actual counselling techniques, compared to peripheral issues such as client suitability assessment, handling of referrals, breaks, and endings, etc. Though I understand the latter to be important, it made one feel 'cheated' a bit. Where's the 'meat' of my meal? The psychoanalytical work on defence mechanisms is fascinating. That was the best part for me, though Jocobs didn't cover it in depth.
June 22, 2025
Although I am being trained in the person-centred approach and was reading this mostly to attain a better understanding of other modalities, I actually took a surprising amount of stuff from it which was directly relevant to my own studies.
In particular, the sections on transference/counter-transference and the bit on endings in the therapeutic relationship were incredibly enlightening to me. The former I had a loose understanding of before which has been greatly expanded, and the latter section was very useful as the ending of client-therapist relationships was an area I had a certain amount of anxiety about.
Overall a very good book. It also dispelled a few misconceptions I had about the psychodynamic/psychoanalytic approach. Although admittedly it also confirmed a bunch of my views on it as well. I don't think I will be rushing to incorporate this modality into my future practice, but I do at least have a much more balanced view of it now.
In particular, the sections on transference/counter-transference and the bit on endings in the therapeutic relationship were incredibly enlightening to me. The former I had a loose understanding of before which has been greatly expanded, and the latter section was very useful as the ending of client-therapist relationships was an area I had a certain amount of anxiety about.
Overall a very good book. It also dispelled a few misconceptions I had about the psychodynamic/psychoanalytic approach. Although admittedly it also confirmed a bunch of my views on it as well. I don't think I will be rushing to incorporate this modality into my future practice, but I do at least have a much more balanced view of it now.
June 6, 2024
I am currently a Level 3 conservation student. Initially, I thought the reading would be difficult, but it was very comprehensive. The case studies were very enlightening, especially in the way they were presented. The interpretations and the method of conducting possible questions and analysing potential answers were particularly insightful.
August 5, 2024
A rather concise, well-written guide to using psychodynamic counselling in action. I would definitely recommend for aspiring/training psychotherapists or integrative counsellors, but may be interesting to others as well. I listened to the audiobook version, and over several car trips over the last year I have finally finished it. It has definitely helped my practice.
October 23, 2019
A comprehensive and easy to follow explanation of what sets the psychodynamic approach apart from other theoretical standpoints.
September 19, 2022
‘Tis a good one. And it’s not CBT 😂🤪
July 13, 2023
It's a good book describing one clinicians approach to psychodynamic counseling. Interesting and wonderful read overall, and a helpful reminder to meet the client where they're at.
February 22, 2024
Superb series, one of the best I've read.
June 14, 2024
Clear and brings concepts together very simply
February 1, 2025
Blend of technical ideas, backed up by observations and assessment by the author and blended with illustration and examples drawn from two case studies.
August 4, 2025
The first chapter was heavily loaded with theory which made me want to stop , however, picked it back up after a few months and actually really found it useful.
January 6, 2016
Read as part of my training, all these in action books are great. clear information, easily read.
September 30, 2018
Great read, I hope to use some of the skills I have read about through the volunteering I do!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews