ABSTRACT
The contributors to this book come from varied and diverse backgrounds, both in terms of their experiences of working in community and voluntary counselling services and in relation to the clinical theories that they draw upon, although they all share a belief in the importance of non-statutory, community-based counselling service provision. It is hoped that this belief will have helped to enliven the issues and questions that the different authors discuss and that their diversity reflects something of the wide range of community and voluntary counselling services that operate in contemporary Britain. No attempt has been made to reconcile the differing viewpoints presented; rather the tensions between different perspectives are allowed to speak for themselves with the aim of encouraging, and stimulating further thought and debate in those who read the text.
