Onlinevents CPD Library

We interviewed Mick Cooper and Sue Wilders in the same week about their thoughts and experiences of "relational depth" as theoreticians and practitioners.

Sue Wilders has strongly critiqued the propositions set out in the book Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy written by Dave Mearns and Mick Cooper, a text that was met with wide acclaim in the field of counselling and psychotherapy, engaging with an experience recognised by many practitioners as both transformative for the client and deeply meaningful for the therapist.

Sue concluded an article in the PERSON-CENTRED QUARTERLY entitled "Relational Depth and the Person-Centred Approach" with these words, "In conclusion, I would say that the aim of offering relational depth is in such conflict with the fundamental propositions of the PCA, and with the aim of offering the core conditions in their totality that, in my understanding of this, it is outside of the PCA and is a move away from, rather than a development of, the radical client-led therapy of the person-centred approach."

John Wilson interviewed Sue Wilders about her critique of the "aim of offering relational depth" as a way of further opening up debate and discussion and hoping this fueled our own exploration of what we offer as listeners and therapists.