ABSTRACT
Counselling for Eating Disorders in Men: person-centred dialogues aims to demon strate the counsellor’s application of the person-centred approach (PCA) in work ing with men who are experiencing problems associated with their eating pattern. This theoretical approach to counselling has at its heart the power of the relational experience. It is this that I believe to be at the very heart of effective therapy, contributing to the possibility of releasing the client to realise greater potential for authentic living. The approach is widely used by counsellors work ing in the UK today. In a membership survey in 2001 by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), 35.6 per cent of those responding claimed to work to the person-centred approach, whilst 25.4 per cent identified themselves as psychodynamic practitioners. However, whatever the approach, it seems to me that the relationship is the key factor in contributing to a successful outcome - though this must remain a very subjective concept for who, other than the client, can really define what experience is to be taken as a measure of a successful outcome? What is so powerful about the person-centred approach is that it defines the nature of the counsellor-client relationship that can facilitate ‘constructive personality change’.
