This article was downloaded by: [University of Auckland Library]On: 04 December 2014, At: 23:42Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Person-Centered & ExperientialPsychotherapiesPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpcp20

Practicing Client-Centered Therapy:Selected Writings of Barbara TemanerBrodleyBrian E. Levitt aa Clinical and rehabilitation psychologist , Ontario , CanadaPublished online: 14 Aug 2012.

To cite this article: Brian E. Levitt (2012) Practicing Client-Centered Therapy: Selected Writingsof Barbara Temaner Brodley, Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 11:3, 255-257, DOI:10.1080/14779757.2012.709793

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2012.709793

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BOOK REVIEW

Practicing Client-Centered Therapy: Selected Writings of Barbara Temaner Brodley,Kathryn A. Moon, Marjorie Witty, Barry Grant, and Bert Rice (Eds.), Ross-on-Wye, UK, PCCS Books, 2011, 444 pp., £22.00 (paperback) ISBN 978-1906254-26-1

While reading this book of Barbara’s selected writings, I looked up and told myhusband, with no small sense of wonder, ‘‘I feel like she’s still teaching and inspiringme.’’ His simple and accurate response was, ‘‘She is. She’s in it.’’ A book holds thatpotential, keeping a person’s voice and ideas alive long after death. I’ve had thatexperience reading Carl Rogers, feeling as if I am actually listening to him explainthings to me from his perspective. However, in this case I am fortunate enough tohave known Barbara well: she was my mentor, colleague and friend. So, when Ibegan reading her in this lovingly constructed book, I also had the benefit of hearingher warm, beautiful voice along with the words that sit in print on the page. Forthose who never experienced Barbara personally, her voice comes alive here, clearand inspirational, with the potential to teach and mentor future generations ofpsychotherapists and to challenge even the most seasoned among us.

It is easy to overlook the effort and care that goes into the organization, flow andpresentation, as well as the attention to tiny details, that come together to enrich thereading experience in subtle ways. Kathy, Marge, Barry and Bert have managedsomething very special here. Beginning with the front cover and its simplephotograph capturing Barbara’s presence, the editors have found a way to bringall of the elements together so that Barbara emerges from these pages as I knew herand her thinking with respect to client-centered therapy. For anyone who wants tounderstand the heart of client-centered therapy, you will find it here.

The title is deceptively ordinary, but even here, I believe, the editors took care.This is a book that is fundamentally about practicing client-centered therapy. Thesubtitle lets us know that practicing client-centered therapy is what Barbara’swritings are all about. This was her passion and life’s work. Barbara understood thatthe nondirective attitude is essential to practicing client-centered therapy; it is ‘‘in thebones,’’ and that this understanding is worth preserving and protecting. She wasunwavering in her efforts to practice and teach this unique form of psychotherapy –one that is based on embodied values (a way of being), rather than a set oftechniques. The subtitle also tells us the writings are selected, not collected. This isanother important distinction – and the editors succeeded in combing through amassive collection of Barbara’s writings (published and unpublished papers, bookchapters, lectures and presentations, emails, letters, and demonstration sessiontranscripts) that span 50 years, carefully selecting and organizing them in a way thatmakes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Barbara’s writings begin with a 1962 letter written to John Shlien, ‘‘Why do Iwant to be a therapist?’’ It is an essential beginning, because it allows the reader to

Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies

Vol. 11, No. 3, September 2012, 255–257

ISSN 1477-9757 print/ISSN 1752-9182 online

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2012.709793

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encounter Barbara as a human being with questions, passions and concerns early inher path as a client-centered therapist. An unfinished essay follows immediately,written the year before her death. This late paper is written with great maturity andclarity, even in its unfinished state. It shows Barbara to be committed as ever tobeing scientifically rigorous and self-reflective in her approach to understandingclient-centered therapy. This is followed in turn by a reproduction from a roundtablediscussion on why there are so few client-centered therapists, capturing Barbara’stireless efforts to make understood that client-centered therapy is ‘‘a way of workingwith clients that is distinguished by the therapist’s striving consistently to live out theRogerian values of respect for and trust in persons and the therapeutic attitudes.’’This trilogy of papers forms a powerful introduction by briefly conveying importantaspects of Barbara’s thinking about client-centered therapy in a way that helps thereader to get to know her before following her into deeper discussions of ethics,theory, implementing attitudes in therapy, and distinguishing client-centeredtherapy.

It is not accidental that the editors offer writings addressing the ethicalfoundation of client-centered therapy as the first major division of writings in theseselected works. Barbara understood the importance of being clear about therapist-held values in relation to psychotherapy. The importance of the nondirective attitudein client-centered theory and therapy, and therapy as an ethical activity, are themesthat run through all of Barbara’s work.

Barbara also was known for the clarity of her thinking and writing. This isespecially true with respect to the theoretical underpinnings of client-centeredtherapy. The editors have selected papers that cover essential elements of client-centered theory: congruence, empathic understanding, unconditional positiveregard, and the actualizing tendency. The selected writings get at the richness ofthe attitudes, presenting the complexity of client-centered theory in a compelling,clear and very human way. Barbara’s paper on the actualizing tendency concept isperhaps the clearest paper I have come across by any thinker on the importance ofthis concept as a guiding heuristic in client-centered therapy. Her clarity in allof these works helps to dispel misconceptions that may be held about the basic tenetsof client-centered theory.

The next major division of writings, and perhaps the core of the book, focuseson the central role of values and attitudes in client-centered therapy. It isrelatively easy to teach and learn basic techniques of any psychotherapeuticapproach. Teaching and developing the embodiment of attitudes and values is afar greater challenge. The thrust of these papers is true to the book’s title andcentral to the practice of client-centered therapy in Barbara’s career. Reading thissection of writings reminded me of just how complex a seemingly simple theoryand approach to therapy actually is. Ultimately, these chapters should bemeaningful and useful at any level of experience, from novices to seasonedtherapists who may be searching for a way to re-explore and improve self-awareness in relation to the therapy work they do. The two page unpublishedpaper, ‘‘Considerations when responding to questions and requests in client-centered therapy,’’ is profound. It is a useful exercise to continually return to andreflect upon the questions it raises. The section closes with an email that Barbarawrote on brief therapy. Email was one of my favourite ways of experiencingBarbara – here, as always, she comes across as very immediate, clear, andrefreshingly unapologetic in expressing her own views.

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The last major section of writings is titled ‘‘Distinguishing Client-CenteredTherapy.’’ The section heading expresses one of Barbara’s central achievements: aclear expression of client-centered therapy as a nondirective and values-basedapproach that is distinct from other humanistic approaches that were presented asalso being client-centered despite their directive nature. Barbara often enduredattacks, sometimes on her personal character, for being somehow fundamentalist orclosed-minded. For anyone who knew her and understood her actual views andvalues, these attacks were not only stupid, but also ironic. The first paper in thissection is ‘‘Client-centered and experiential: Two different therapies.’’ The title of thepaper says it. The rest is commentary, and well worth reading.

Barbara, like Carl Rogers, not only wrote about client-centered theory andtherapy, but also actively demonstrated it. When I saw that the next section wasdevoted to session transcripts, I must admit to some uneasiness. My experience oftranscripts is that they often have a certain wooden quality that can be misconstruedeasily as an example of techniques to follow, sometimes conveying that client-centered therapy is shallow and passive. However, I soon understood why the editorsincluded these three transcripts from demonstration interviews with Alejandra. Evenin print, this is such an alive and real interaction, challenging the stereotypes ofclient-centered therapy as a simple parroting of the client or a mechanical andshallow technique. Barbara’s responses here clearly flow from deeply heldnondirective values. They are obvious by-products of Barbara’s sincere attemptsto understand Alejandra from Alejandra’s perspective. When asked questions,Barbara answers Alejandra honestly, free of role and power issues, as one humanbeing honouring another human being’s search and direction. In many ways, theentire book is encapsulated in this set of transcripts.

The last writing is a 1989 paper, ‘‘Garden of women,’’ in which Barbara, afterover 30 years of experience as a therapist, looks back on her interactions with a clientin a state mental hospital in 1956. It is a compact and exquisite reflection on theimpact of the nondirective attitude with a person so dissimilar from Barbara in manyways, and a person who was seen as generally incomprehensible. Barbara’scontinued attempts to understand without imposing direction or her own frame ofreference, and her lack of certainty that she ever did understand, stand in starkcontrast to the examples of interactions with clients that can be found in the textdescribing the now famous Wisconsin Project that gave rise to directive forms ofhumanistic psychotherapy, such as the experiential approaches. This last selection isthe perfect companion piece to Barbara’s 1962 letter to John Shlien that begins thebook, providing a unique frame that magnifies the impact of all that is found inbetween.

A final section offers an historical bibliography of Barbara’s works. Compilingsuch a list already is a massive undertaking in itself. Seeing this bibliography, it ishumbling to realize what the editors have done in selecting and organizing thewritings found between the covers of this book. They not only have created ameaningful and essential text on practicing client-centered therapy for therapists atall levels of experience, but also have found a way to bring scattered pieces into anorganic whole that continues to resonate and inspire long after the last page.

Reviewed by Brian E. LevittClinical and rehabilitation psychologist, Ontario, Canada

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