ABSTRACT
The rationale for an educational approach to therapy comes from the fact that learning has always taken a central role in the behavioural and cognitive approaches in both general psychology and psychotherapy. Cognitive therapists often use the term `psycho-education' (Hawton et al., 1989) to describe this aspect of their practice. This term seems to be used in two slightly different ways. In the ®rst use of the term, the therapist seeks to help the client to `learn to learn' (Beck, 1976, p. 229): that is, to learn how to open one's thinking and behaviour to other possibilities. This is important in therapeutic work because clients may be stuck in the so-called neurotic paradox: they may fail to learn from negative experiences and keep repeating the same mistakes.
