The Heart of Therapy Developing Compassion, Understanding and Boundaries

This thoughtful and heartfelt book develops two main themes: the healing power of a compassionate understanding towards ourselves and others, and the ways boundaries are set within and around various areas of our lives. It examines how we live these boundaries, how they impact us, and what it takes to live these with deeper satisfaction. This book also addresses: shame and rage; the impact of trauma; the power of parental messages, spoken and unspoken; and transgenerational burdens. A theoretical chapter summarizes the author’s integrative, phenomenological approach: it brings the insights of a body-focused trauma therapy and a systemic lens to an overarching Existential perspective. Numerous vignettes, case studies and client-therapist dialogues illustrate reflections on life, philosophy, therapeutic modalities and practice. This book will be a thought-provoking read for trainee and practising counsellors and psychotherapists, or anyone looking for self-reflection on their own practices, life, and ultimately, what it means to be human.

1. Spatial Boundaries2. Finding My Place: Spatial Boundaries3. Time: Understanding, Compassion and Boundaries4. My Place in Time5. What Gets in the Way of Compassion, Understanding and Boundaries6. Shame7. Mothers: Challenges of Motherhood and Mothering8. Mothers: Some Mother-child Stories of Narcissism, Absence and Trauma9. Mothers: Some Mother-child Stories: Broken Bonds10. Mothers: Maternal Feelings in the Therapeutic Relationship; Conclusion11. Fathers12. The Family Holy Book13. Understanding14. Heart

Laura Barnett is an existential psychotherapist, with a strong interest in trauma, including transgenerational trauma. For 20 years she worked as a psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer in the NHS. Since retiring from the NHS, she has been working from home in Lewes.