Richard Nelson-Jones

Lifeskills counselling, otherwise known as lifeskills therapy or lifeskills helping, is an educational approach that has as its starting point the problems of living of ordinary people rather than those who have been seriously emotionally deprived or possess a psychiatric disorder.  To live effectively and affirm their existences all people require lifeskills.

Lifeskills counselling's philosophical basis is humanistic-existential - humanistic in terms of the value placed on the individual, in a sense a leap of faith about the improvability of humans; existential in terms of its emphasis on choice and on creating one's existence within the challenges presented by death, suffering, change, meaning, isolation and freedom.  On top of this lifeskills counselling uses insights from 'cognitive-behavioural' approaches to counselling, those focusing on altering thoughts and actions, to sharpen the humanistic-existential message and provide clients with the skills they require to be more effective both now and in the future.

Further information about this therapeutic approach written by the authors, can be found in "Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy: The Essential Guide", edited by Professor Stephen Palmer and published by Sage, London.  Price £18.99.

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