ABSTRACT
Counselling Young Binge-Drinkers: person-centred dialogues has been written with the aim of demonstrating the counsellor’s application of the person-centred approach (PCA) in working with this client group which is becoming an increas ing feature of our society. This theoretical approach to counselling has, at its heart, the power of the relational experience. It is this experience that I believe to be at the very heart of effective therapy, contributing to the possibility of releas ing the client to realise greater potential for authentic living. The approach is widely used by counsellors working in the UK today: in a membership survey in 2001 by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 35.6% of those responding claimed to work to the person-centred approach, while 25.4% 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 rem ain a very subjective concept, for who, other than the client, can really define w hat experience is to be taken as a measure of a successful outcome?
