Counselling for Toads: A Psychological Adventure

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Best-selling author, Robert de Board says: 'Toad's experiences are based on my own experiences of counselling people over a period of twenty years. Counselling for Toads is really an amalgamation of the many counselling sessions I have held and contains a distillation of the truths I have learnt from practice.' Based on the characters and setting of Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” we find Toad has fallen into a deep depression. We then follow Toad on his journey through counselling with Heron as his Counsellor. Appropriate for anyone approaching counselling for the first time, whether as a student or as a client, or for the professional counsellor looking for something to recommend to the hesitant, Counselling for Toads will appeal to both children and adults of all ages. This is a fantastic book. Well written and easy to understand and follow. The counselling process is very eloquently explained from beginning to end and as Toad learns to understand himself and the world around him I could feel his progress and felt genuine empathy with him when the work got hard. First they nursed him. Then they encouraged him. Then they told him to pull himself together... Finally, Badger could stand it no longer. That admirable animal, though long on exhortation, was short on patience.

This is an ideal book for those thinking about trying counselling as it will give you some idea of what to expect and what it might be like for you. I can not recommend it enough, thoroughly informative and engaging. For anyone wishing to know something about transactional analysis this is a clear and very readable introduction." - The Friend Heron explains counselling beautifully and we accompany Toad as he explores his difficult childhood and how that is influencing him in the present, how he has trouble expressing his anger and the guilt that he feels and how he relates to his friends Rat, Mole and Badger. Over the course of ten sessions, which correspond to chapters of the book, a very depressed Toad learns how to analyse his own feelings and develop his emotional intelligence using the language and ideas of transactional analysis. He meets his 'rebellious child' and his 'adult' along the way and by the end of the book, Toad is setting out on a completely new adventure – as debonair as he ever was.A clever intertwining of the tale of Toad and the intricate thought processes behind the science of counselling... a classic journey of discovery, triumph and pain." - Book of the Day, Glasgow Herald A delightful book which... offers a gentle introduction to transactional analysis and much more." - Relate News Toad', the famous character in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows is in a very depressed state and his good friends Rat, Mole and Badger, are 'worried that he might do something silly'... Robert de Board's engaging account of Toad's experience of counselling will capture the imagination of the growing readership of people who are interested in counselling and the counselling process. Written as a real continuation of life on the River Bank, Toad and his friends come to life all over again.

Brilliantly uses one of the world's favourite stories for all ages to engagingly and revealingly take us through the psychotherapeutic process and transactional analysis. Am I a better Toad for reading it? Of course I am!!!" - William Horwood, English novelist, author of the Wind in the Willows sequel series, Tales of the WillowsverifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Through this anthropomorphic parable, de Board takes readers into a realistic, humorous, and humane account of being in psychotherapy. I suspect that Toad would find great pleasure to know that this story of his life, struggles, and recovering is still being read 25 years since its original publication. Counselling for Toads offers an overview of the basics of transactional analysis in practice. In the 25 years since the book was written, transactional analysis has continued to evolve and is now a model of human relations work applied in psychotherapy, counselling, education, and organizational development." - William F. Cornell, MA, TSTA, editor of the Routledge book series, Innovations in Transactional Analysis , and editor of Into TA: A Comprehensive Textbook on Transactional Analysis. Book Genre: China, Counselling, Mental Health, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Psychology, Self Help Heron uses a variety of therapy models, such as Person Centred, Psychodynamic and Existential, to help Toad explore his childhood, his relationships and his way of being. Heron also makes great use of the Transactional Analysis’ ego states of Child, Parent and Adult to help Toad understand why he and others behave in the ways that they do. Providing Toad with some Psychoeducation, as he learns to analyse his own feelings and develop his emotional intelligence.

This engaging pastiche of Kenneth Grahame's riverbank classic... manages to be not only instructive and, at times, extremely amusing, but also to remain remarkably faithful to the cheery, bucolic spirit of the original... extremely enjoyable." - Paul Sussman, in the Independent on Sunday PDF / EPUB File Name: Counselling_for_Toads_-_Robert_de_Board.pdf, Counselling_for_Toads_-_Robert_de_Board.epub Not only an instructive handbook for those in any way contemplating counselling... it is warmly funny and respectful of the spirit of Grahame's novel. If he had written his own sequel he might have ended it like this one." - Jan Mark,Times Educational SupplementFor over 25 years Counselling for Toads has provided readers with a warm and engaging introduction to counselling, brought to life by Toad and his friends from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.

An imaginative attempt to explain the counselling process... the idea of counselling is all around, but this demystified it wittily." - Openmind Drawing on the figure of Toad, who is a rather pompous yet affectionate character who has fallen into depression, de Board takes us on a journey through the theory of Eric Berne’s classical transactional analysis. Toad goes to see Heron, the local counsellor, who is a gentle, kind, thoughtful, serious yet confrontational person, the type of person one would hope to meet in a counsellor. The theory is described clearly yet convincingly through the client/counsellor relationship with plentiful uses of metaphor, good humour, and irony that make us smile indulgently, not only at Toad but also at ourselves at times as we recognise some of our own frailties." - Helena Hargaden, psychotherapist, counsellor, and transactional analyst, author of Transactional Analysis: A Relational Perspective

Wellness

Now look here Toad, this can go on no longer', he said sternly. 'There is only one thing left. You must have counselling!'