As I look back on over fifty years as a counsellor and psychotherapist, I reflect on three aspects of that time. The first is of course my practice as a therapist and as a supervisor. It is the development of good practice, particularly a psychodynamic understanding of the relationship between counsellor and client that has been most important; and which has led to the second area of my work: that is the inception of training courses and the writing of books and articles that have sought to explain in readily understandable terms, the basic tenets of practice and the complex theoretical ideas that underpin psychodynamic counselling. I have to date written or edited over 60 books, quite a few of which are still in print; and of which at least a quarter of a million copies have been sold. My ‘best-sellers’ are undoubtedly Psychodynamic Counselling in Action, now in its sixth edition; and The Presenting Past, now in its fifth edition. They are not my personal favourites, since there is greater originality in my book Illusion; and I am rather fond of my latest book Reflecting on Therapy.
But if I have to single out the one achievement in my career that has given me the greatest sense of pride, it is a third strand: it is the Leicester Counselling Centre. Of course, I was only one person among others who set it up back in 1981, although I was the one who took the initiative to invite colleagues to meet to discuss the idea; and with them supported its early development. it several others working in the city and county to form the first working party which led to the Centre. And it has certainly not been me who did all the hard work in the first instance of finding premises and raising funding, enabling the Centre to start in one converted bathroom as a consulting room, with one part time administrator and six counsellors. And I take great pride in associating myself with the development of the Centre, as it outgrew that one room, and moved to premises with three counselling rooms and a group room and office; and then as the work really took off, to the wonderful premises in Victoria Park, in the historic Lutyens lodge, with around 100 counsellors, supervisors and receptionists around the time I left Leicester in 2000. It has been hard work for many; it has been the training ground for even more; it has been of immeasurable benefit to thousands of people in the city and country who have benefitted from low-cost counselling offered by counsellors who are giving their time and commitment freely, and others have used their considerable talents to administer and fund this vital work. It was one simple letter from myself that kicked the whole thing off – but my, how many others have made it work. I myself saw clients regularly at the Centre, and supervised counsellors in an innovative supervision group. I learned much from that.
The tradition back in those days (yes, we had been established long enough to develop a tradition) was that any therapist moving into the area, or training elsewhere was expected to give at least an hour a week pro bono to the Centre: often as a supervisor of those training on courses in Leicester. That reflected the fine spirit which the Centre generated in practitioners. It had always seemed to me, working as I was at the University with students, that such therapy should also be available (at low cost admittedly, not free as for students) to the wider population. If I have any regret about the development of counselling over the fifty or more years in which I have been involved with it, it is that it has become so professionalised, rather exclusive, and that it has lost that pioneering spirit which I and my colleagues had back in the 1970s and early 1980s. My hope is that that spirit of generosity, openness and freedom will continue to be as much part of the Centre as I remember it in the past. It has been, and I am sure still is, a wonderful place to learn and to practice. It is a superb place to receive counselling and therapeutic help.