ABSTRACT

All respondents were trained to at least diploma level and the descriptions they gave of their approaches to the work included person-centred, integrative, existential, humanistic and psychodynamic methods. A striking similarity among them was the comment that their counselling training had not included much-or, in some cases, any-explicit content concerning the theory or practice of making notes in response to client sessions. (The exception was a colleague trained as a psychodynamic psychotherapist.)

A review of the growing body of literature on counselling in the UK also yielded little on this topic-although recent concerns about legal and ethical issues have resulted in the production of some helpful material by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) (BACP 2002; Coldridge 2003). At the time of writing, however, I found little other than an article on creative uses of notes (Smith 2001), and a short section in a book about starting a counselling practice (McMahon 1994). Like Smith, I found that the major text books designed for trainee or novice counsellors contained scant advice about writing or using session notesoften relating only to first session history-taking. For example: ‘So long as it neither becomes too intrusive nor has a negative impact on the client, note taking may be helpful for remembering details of the client’. (Nelson-Jones 1982:284).