ABSTRACT

This book offers reflections on how liberation might be experienced by clients as a result of the therapeutic relationship. It explores how power and resistance might be most effectively and ethically understood and utilised in clinical practice with survivors of trauma.

Power, Resistance and Liberation in Therapy with Survivors of Trauma draws together narrative therapy, Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) and liberation psychology approaches. It critically reviews each approach and demonstrates what each contributes to the other as well as how to draw them together in a coherent way. The book presents:

  • an original take on CMM through the lenses of power and resistance
  • a new way of thinking about resistance in life and therapy, using the metaphor of creativity
  • numerous case examples to support strong theory-practice links.

Through the exploration of power, resistance and liberation in therapy, this book presents innovative ways of conceptualising these issues. As such it will be of interest to anyone in the mental health fields of therapy, counselling, social work or critical psychology, regardless of their preferred model. It will also appeal to those interested in a socio-political contextual analysis of complex human experience.

chapter |13 pages

Introduction

part I|38 pages

Therapy, power, resistance and trauma

chapter Chapter 1|4 pages

Therapy and social context

chapter Chapter 2|13 pages

Power

chapter Chapter 3|6 pages

Resistance

part II|52 pages

Liberation and therapy: Theory

chapter Chapter 5|11 pages

Liberation psychology: An overview

chapter Chapter 7|7 pages

Narrative approaches to liberation

chapter Chapter 9|11 pages

Drawing the theory together

part III|86 pages

Liberation and therapy: Practice

chapter Chapter 11|14 pages

The recovery of historical memory

chapter Chapter 12|22 pages

De-ideologising everyday experience

chapter Chapter 13|19 pages

Utilising the people's virtues

chapter Chapter 14|7 pages

Drawing the practices together

part IV|12 pages

Final reflections on theory and practice

chapter Chapter 15|7 pages

Resistance as creativity

chapter Chapter 16|3 pages

Therapy that breaks the heart