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Class has more or less vanished from the counselling lexicon, argues Clare Slaney in this powerful collection of essays and interviews with experienced practitioners from myriad counselling and psychotherapy schools, educations and trainings. But you cannot take politics out of counselling. To be truly therapeutic, counselling relies on depth of relationship, non-judgemental attitude and an acute awareness that we are all fundamentally shaped and changed by our environments, past and present. The class we are born into powerfully influences who we are, our expectations and opportunities and our ability to (in Rogerian terms) self-actualise. If counselling is to be truly in service to its clients, the profession has to welcome practitioners who do not conform to the stereotype - White, middle-class, degree-educated, comfortably affluent and female. But the drive towards professionalisation, led by market forces and operationalised in the form of increasingly rigid hierarchical standards and manualised practices, has made counselling all-but out of reach to working class folk and those without a reliable income, both as a profession and a therapy. Its training has become unaffordable and its culture increasingly hostile to anyone other than those who conform to the stereotype. Thought-provoking, challenging, confrontational and angry, this collection fills a gaping void in the professional literature and makes essential reading for every counsellor and psychotherapist, supervisor, tutor and academic researcher.
It begins here (Introduction)
1. Class, culture, power, Pierre Bourdieu and me - Pete Sanders
2. Crossing the class line: From shitwork to status - S
3. Power and professional silences: How class shapes therapeutic culture - Maria Albertsen
4. How can we not weaponise our privilege? The complex intersection of class, race and caste - Rhea Gandhi
5. Keeping up appearances: Authentic empathy and its shadow - Gillian Proctor
6. A choice is only a choice if you know you've got one - Richard Church
7. Between nations, between meanings: Ancestral legacies, migrant status and the spaces where we miss each other - Lucia Sarmiento Verano
8. No one likes a tourist: Belonging, identity and the mirking class - Katy Alexander
9. Beyond the White mask: From submission to active citizenship - Rotimi Akinsete
10. When the only tool you have is therapy: Class, naivety and harm - John Radoux
11. Unseen labour, unspoken costs: Covering up the classism in the therapy profession - Roxy Birdsall and Kirandeep Kaur
12. You can't keep politics out of the counselling room - Clare Slaney
13. The violence of certainty: Holding a space of safety in an unsafe place - M
14. Too many therapists sitting on their hands: Social justice in counselling - Callum Jones and Craig Johnson
'This book makes a timely and necessary contribution to a topic the counselling and psychotherapy profession has too often skirted around. By turning our attention to class, it offers a mirror that many of us in the counselling professions may not always feel comfortable looking into but desperately need. Its strength lies not only in its rigorous theoretical grounding but also in the personal reflections that bring the material to life, inviting the reader into an honest and often challenging conversation. The book provides a thoughtful, nuanced exploration of how class shapes practice, identity and the very fabric of our professional landscape. This is a book that opens up dialogue rather than closes it down, encouraging us to reconsider assumptions we may take for granted. Thought-provoking and engaging throughout, it deserves to be widely read across the field.'
Terry Hanley, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Manchester
'This timely book courageously and powerfully addresses the often-overlooked influence of social class on professional practice, offering a rich collection of essays, interviews and reflections that challenge practitioners to think critically about power, privilege and classed identity and experience. It invites readers to engage in authentic reflexivity – both personally and professionally – while highlighting the need for governance and regulatory frameworks to embrace perspectives from a classed lens. Its exploration of themes such as divided identities, rootlessness and the weaponisation of resilience is both insightful and provocative. Each chapter reveals new, connected avenues for dialogue and understanding, making this work an invaluable resource for practitioners, educators and students committed to creating a more inclusive and a class-conscious profession.'
Bridgette Rickett, Visiting Professor, Sheffield Hallam University
'This is not a training manual or a how-to guide for therapists; there are no checklists or metrics or top tips for success. Rather, it is an exquisite conversation about class in the consulting room and a call to reflect on the power dynamics within the profession that distort and shame. Clare Slaney lays out the class context of contemporary practice and pays attention to the important and hidden stories of class and the practitioners who have led the debate that nobody wanted to have. This book has sharp edges, but it is also a deeply human story about the therapy business, its regulation and co-option into austerity, and so its return to the hard politics of class. With surprising tenderness, it invites you to re-imagine freedom in the current therapy context by sharing our complex histories of breaching the class ceiling.'
Dr Elizabeth Cotton, Associate Professor for Responsible Business, University of Leicester, and Founder of Surviving Work
'This book is a compelling and thought-provoking exploration of the intersection between social class, identity and the therapeutic profession. Edited by Clare Slaney, it challenges the status quo of counselling and psychotherapy, shedding light on systemic inequalities, cultural assumptions and power dynamics that shape access to talking therapies and the profession itself. Through deeply personal narratives, essays and interviews from diverse voices, it highlights the emotional toll of class-based exclusion and the profound impact of class on identity, access and practice. The contributors offer raw, honest reflections and a call to action for therapists to confront biases, genuinely embrace diversity and advocate for equity and social justice within and beyond the therapy room. It is a must-read for anyone committed to fostering meaningful change in the field of counselling and psychotherapy.'
Karen Minikin, counselling, teaching and supervising transactional analyst; Head of Psychotherapy and HE, Iron Mill College, Exeter
'This timely collection addresses the often-neglected complexities and dimensions of class, and its intersectionalities, within psychotherapeutic culture, training and practice. Through insightful interviews and papers, its contributors offer valuable insights into code-switching, experiences of rootlessness, familial guilt and class-based power dynamics that lead to oppression, overwork and exhaustion. Together, they deliver a compelling call to action to address class-based marginalisation, exploitation and devaluation, increase inclusivity within the profession, and challenge the middle-class sensibilities, assumptions, prejudices and biases underpinning our theories and practices. This book necessarily demonstrates the need to contextualise people’s suffering within the broader societal, structural and systemic circumstances of their lives. It will be a valuable resource and spur to reflection for students, trainers, practitioners and supervisors alike.'
Dr Marc Boaz, Visiting Professor of Mental Health and Psychotherapy, University of Nottingham; Visiting Senior Research Fellow, University of Sussex
Clare Slaney is an established counsellor, groupworker and supervisor based in Central London. She qualified as a psychotherapist in 2007 and completed the MA in 2009. Her practice is rooted in the person-centred and existential traditions and grounded in authenticity, paradox and the continual negotiation between self and society. Alongside her clinical practice, she speaks and writes on the structural challenges facing the counselling profession, particularly the exploitation of unpaid labour and the impact of poverty on both clients and therapists. In exploring the themes of marginalisation, power and ethics in the counselling professions, she advocates for more honest and equitable practice. She is an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
