ABSTRACT
Counselling for Eating Disorders in Women: person-centred dialogues has been written with the aim of demonstrating the counsellor’s application of the person-centred approach (PCA) in working with women who are experiencing problems associated with their eating patterns. This theoretical approach to counselling has the power of the relational experience. This relational experience is at the 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 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 PCA, whilst 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 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?
