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This is the third edition of the very popular Next Steps in Counselling Practice, revised, updated and expanded to accompany today's counselling students on their journey towards qualification.
Next Steps in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice is aimed at the more advanced trainee and continues from where the PCCS Books classic First Steps in Counselling leaves off. Like First Steps in Counselling, it is intended as a companion guide, addressed directly to the student counsellor. It is not a theory textbook - there are plenty of those already on the market. Rather, it seeks to answer the many questions that may come up for the individual student counsellor while in training, drawing on the authors' accumulated experience as trainers and practitioners, and as one-time trainees themselves.
This book is designed to be of use to and facilitate the learning of all counselling and psychotherapy students, irrespective of the theories that underpin their training programmes and their own approaches to practice. It is not about one model of therapy but about what informs best practice across all therapies.
The first part of the book sets the scene, exploring 'human helping' in situations of distress and difficulty, and the place of counselling within that. The second part looks at the nature of the therapeutic relationship and human problems. Next comes the heart of the book - the section on the relationship in action, covering contracting, assessment, diagnosis and case formulation, counselling in difficult situations and the process of referring on. The fourth section looks more broadly at counselling in different contexts and settings and is written by contributors with specific expertise in these areas. These contributions cover anti-racist practice, using counselling skills in other professional contexts, working creatively, working online, and trauma-informed practice. The final, fifth section addresses continuing professional development as the student moves into practice, and deals with the issues of ethics, support and supervision, personal and professional development and reflection, reflexivity and research.
In addition to acquiring particular knowledge and skills, becoming an effective therapist requires developing aspects of the self. This book will enable the student counsellor to learn about themself as well as discover new ideas and understand more deeply the skills required to be an effective practitioner.
Introduction
Part 1: Getting your bearings
1. Thinking about human helping
2. Thinking about human distress and problems
Part 2: The therapeutic relationship
1. Psychological contact
2. What brings the client to therapy
3. The therapist prepares to help
4. Acceptance
5. Empathy
6. Presence: the inter-relating conditions
7. The client is aware of the conditions
Part 3: The relationship in action
1. Setting up and getting started: structuring and contracting
2. Co-creating a shared theory of therapy
3. Listening, exploring, and action
4. Power, questions and challenge
5. Counselling in difficult situations
6. Onward referral and signposting
Part 4: Contexts and settings
1. Anti-racist therapy practice - Patmarie Coleman
2. Embedded counselling as a complementary skill - Julia McLeod
3. Counselling remotely - Hamilton Sargent
4. An introduction to working creatively in therapy - Leigh Gardner
5. Trauma-informed therapy - Lilith Gough
Part 5: Continuing professional and personal development
1. Ethics, safety and accountability
2. Support and Supervision
3. Personal development
4. Reflection, reflexivity, and research
The latest edition of Next Steps offers a veritable counselling cornucopia. A richly nuanced and informative narrative in the early sections of the book conveys the complexity, diversity and multidimensional nature of counselling and psychotherapy. Part one orients readers to contemporary understandings of therapy as a form of helping that is fit for complex human contexts, concepts and relationships. Parts two and three navigate the reader through the depths and details of working and framing counselling and psychotherapy practice, using case examples and reflexive activities to support learning and knowledge building. Part four offers valuable insights and resources on working within a range of key contexts. Part five completes this encyclopaedic edition, with pragmatic resources and rich, tacit knowledge and understanding of the intricacies and ethical challenges of being a counsellor or psychotherapist. The value and impact of compassionate, collaborative and co-created helping relationships is compellingly conveyed. This welcome, updated edition provides accessible content that will meet a range of learning and pedagogical styles, making it a valuable resource for practitioner trainees and trainers. Now in its third edition, Next Steps remains a wonderful tour de force!
Lynne Gabriel OBE, Professor of Counselling and Mental Health, York St John University; President, British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
This third edition of Next Steps remains a classic and contemporary resource that needs to be on every student’s bookshelf. The book offers a rich, in-depth exploration of key topics for students seeking to deepen and enhance their knowledge, clinical skills and confidence in the practicalities of delivering ethical therapy. Notably, this new edition brings into the foreground recent developments in awareness of systemic inequality, anti-oppressive practice, culturally diverse approaches and working co-creatively in therapeutic practice within a greater. This edition remains highly comprehensive and accessible, making complex ideas easy to understand and apply in practice. A much-needed guide, it supports students at all stages throughout their training journey, offering valuable insights that foster clinical, personal and professional development. Whether you’re just starting out in your therapy training journey or nearing qualification, this book will be an invaluable companion in your ongoing growth and practice.
Myira Khan, counsellor, coach, founder of the Muslim Counsellor and Psychotherapist Network and author of Working Within Diversity: A reflective guide to anti-oppressive practice (2023)
I read the previous of this text when I first started out as a practitioner, and remember just how much it helped me in my early career. I am therefore extremely pleased to see this updated edition in print. Reading this excellent third edition, I spent a bit of time wondering just why it works so well. Part of the reason is the quality of the writing and the careful way it lays out and explores what it is to be a counsellor and psychotherapist. This new edition builds on much that worked so well in the previous editions, while integrating more contemporary ideas and including anti-oppressive theories into the person-centred mixture. This is a patient book – one that allows the reader to engage with the text at their own pace, with constant invitations to pause and reflect, while, wrapped in well-written prose, they are carried on a journey through their own process.
Dwight Turner, Course Leader, Humanistic Counselling and Psychotherapy, University of Brighton, and author of Decolonising Counselling and Psychotherapy: Depoliticised pathways towards intersectional practice (2025)
The best just got better. Nicola Blunden, one of the leading lights in the contemporary counselling field, has put her own personal stamp on this acclaimed companion guide for every trainee therapist. Informed, engaging and comprehensive, this fully updated edition of Next Steps will support trainees experientially – as well as intellectually – to develop as skilled, ethical and effective practitioners. The book builds on the wisdom of much-loved authors Pete Sanders, Paul Wilkins and Alan Frankland to take counselling to the very cutting edge of practice, embedding issues of diversity and decolonialisation throughout the text, and addressing such contemporary themes as trauma-informed practice and the remote delivery of therapy. A fantastic resource that should be on every counselling course’s reading list.
Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton, and author of Psychology at the Heart of Social Change: Developing a progressive vision for society (2023)
How do you take a classic text that has accompanied many thousands of students on their training journey over many years and make it contemporary, cutting-edge and insightful, while ensuring it remains beautifully written? Put it in the hands of Nicola Blunden. In short, Blunden has crafted a masterpiece that offers students and qualified practitioners alike a complete account of and critical engagement with all the key milestones of the therapeutic process. With additional contributions from some of the most exciting writers in the field, this tour de force of a text promises much and offers more. I cannot recommend this book highly enough; its continued place as one of the most respected texts in counselling and psychotherapy literature is safely assured for many years to come. Buy it, read it, digest it and enjoy.
Andrew Reeves, Professor in Counselling Professions and Mental Health, University of Chester, and author of An Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy: From theory to practice (2022)
Nicola Blunden is a therapist, trainer, and writer with special interests in creative methods, plural identity, and collaborative ethics. She was previously Director of Studies for the person-centred pluralistic training at Metanoia Institute, London, and later led the counselling and psychotherapy master's programme at UWE Bristol. She is now the Deputy Head of Professional Standards at BACP. Nicola believes therapy should be a force for emancipation - and not just for individuals, but for society as a whole. Her research challenges the idea that colonial theories of therapy can ever be neutral or universally relevant.
Pete Sanders worked as a volunteer at ‘Off The Record’, Newcastle-upon Tyne, in 1972 before completing a degree in psychology at the university there, and then the postgraduate diploma in counselling at Aston University. He practised as a counsellor, educator and clinical supervisor for more than 30 years, and published widely on many aspects of counselling, psychotherapy and mental health, as well as co-founding PCCS Books in 1993. After practising and teaching counselling, he continued to have an active interest in developing person-centred theory, the politics of counselling and psychotherapy, and the demedicalisation of distress. He died in February 2022.
Paul Wilkins was a person-centred academic, practitioner and supervisor. He published several books on counselling and psychotherapy and was a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology and Social Change at Manchester Metropolitan University. He died just as he was embarking on the third edition of Next Steps in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice, in August 2022.
