The Heart of Therapy

This thoughtful and heartfelt book develops two main themes: the healing power of a compassionate understanding towards ourselves and others, and the ways boundaries are set within and around various areas of our lives.
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It examines how we live these boundaries, how they impact us, and what it takes to live these with deeper satisfaction. This book also addresses: shame and rage; the impact of trauma; the power of parental messages, spoken and unspoken; and transgenerational burdens. A theoretical chapter summarizes the author's integrative, phenomenological approach: it brings the insights of a body-focused trauma therapy and a systemic lens to an overarching Existential perspective. Numerous vignettes, case studies and client-therapist dialogues illustrate reflections on life, philosophy, therapeutic modalities and practice.
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This book will be a thought-provoking read for trainee and practising counsellors and psychotherapists, or anyone looking for self-reflection on their own practices, life, and ultimately, what it means to be human.

Laura Barnett is an existential psychotherapist, with a strong interest in trauma, including transgenerational trauma. For 20 years she worked as a psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer in the NHS. Since retiring from the NHS, she has been working from home in Lewes.

1. Spatial Boundaries 2. Finding My Place: Spatial Boundaries 3. Time: Understanding, Compassion and Boundaries 4. My Place in Time 5. What Gets in the Way of Compassion, Understanding and Boundaries 6. Shame 7. Mothers: Challenges of Motherhood and Mothering 8. Mothers: Some Mother-child Stories of Narcissism, Absence and Trauma 9. Mothers: Some Mother-child Stories: Broken Bonds 10. Mothers: Maternal Feelings in the Therapeutic Relationship; Conclusion 11. Fathers 12. The Family Holy Book 13. Understanding 14. Heart