COUNSELLING FOR DEATH AND DYING

person-centred dialogues

Richard Bryant-Jefferies

ISBN 1 84619 079 7

Facing death and the process of dying is one that is common to us all. In this title, the last in the Living Therapy series, addresses this issue. In the first part, a family man faces up to the effect his father’s death has had on him and, through his behaviour, on his family. In part two a woman, already in counseling, is diagnosed with terminal cancer and must come to terms with her impending death and the impact this will have on her family. In particular, she must come to terms with the likely effect on her two sons, one of whom has a drug problem, the other an alcohol problem.

‘In the dialogues the inner life of the clients, Billy and Barbara, become real as they struggle to express their feelings of loss – Billy in the loss of his father and the meanings it held for him and Barbara in facing a diagnosis of cancer and impending death.  Both of them explore their issues of loss including the impact of their situations with family members. For the therapists (and readers) the dialogues create rumblings in our own feelings of what it is like to lose loved ones, of what it might be like to face ones’ own death.  These stirred emotions are the focus for the supervision explorations presented.  What is most striking about the dialogues is the realness of the feelings present in this all too human experience as lived by the clients.  What is most beautiful is the relationship of acceptance shared in being in this most intimate place together as client and therapist. The healing that occurs is understandable in the strength of their connectedness.’

Grace Chickadonz, in her Foreword

'Richard has produced a book that, to my mind, captures the pain, the joy, the challenge of being with someone bereaved  and someone facing death. It also captures the pain and hutrrtt and confusion of being that person who is bereaved or facing death. The dialogues in this book ... capture what it is to be a person-centred  counsellor/therapist and how we might fully enter the world of another person who is in pain. That he has managed to capture all these aspects is a testament to his writing talent, his commitmnent to the person-centred approach, and his deep dedication to the person-hood of those people we call clients.'

Shelia Haugh, in her Foreword.

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