Counselling, Psychotherapy and the Law (Professional Skills for Counsellors Series) - Softcover

Jenkins, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803979878 ISBN 13: 9780803979871

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1997

Synopsis

Peter Jenkins is to be congratulated on this clear, concise, comprehensive guide. It's a mine of information - a most useful reference tool.... It's all there... clear explanations of the legal processes and the court system, historical background, case-law and examples, rationale and balanced criticism, and it's right up-to-date, with indications of future developments in the law.... I anticipate that this important, authoritative book will become required reading for advanced counselling students and an indispensable resource manual for therapists, supervisors, service-providers and lawyers specializing in the relevant fields' - Counselling News

Full of practical information and professional guidelines, this book is the first comprehensive introduction to the law in relation to counselling and psychotherapy in England and Wales.

Peter Jenkins examines such crucial issues as: data protection law; insurance; informed consent; the potential for law suits and complaints; counselling children and young people; confidentiality and record-keeping; and problems relating to child abuse, suicide and third parties. Legal issues are illustrated by examples and the reference material provided includes a glossary of legal terms and lists of relevant cases and statutes. The book concludes by looking at likely future trends, and considers the possible effects of European law on counselling and psychotherapy.

About this title

Review:

'Changes in the law would make this the sort of book which will need revising regularly - but it has much information vital to all counsellors' - Accord

`[An] excellent... and timely book.... I strongly recommend this book to every psychotherapist' - Group Analysis

`Superb. It should be read by every counsellor in training. If it is, numerous law cases will be avoided. Even if they come to court, the counsellor will be as well prepared for that often bruising experience as it is possible to be... it permits the reader to enter the mindset of the lawyer, making the philosophy and rules as explicit as possible... [in this] high quality work... the suggested counsellor responses to meet the expected hostile lawyer techniques are by themselves well worth the cover price of the book. The rest is a bonus... if any reader is going to buy just one book, it should be Jenkins's' - British Journal of Guidance and Counselling

`This book is a most useful contribution. Counsellors in training will be exposed to ethics and law as all professionals expect to be nowadays. They must be made to read this book' - New Law Journal

`This is a valuable handbook... It sets out to challenge the threat of "legislation of therapy"... with an alternative approach that an understanding of the law, and a closer relationship with it, represents something of an opportunity for therapists to further development by entering the debate... It manages to set out very clearly the different areas under consideration.... This is a book by an academic legal expert which serves as a useful handbook for information. It stems from a counselling perspective [but] is well informed about the current status of psychotherapy in this country, and much of what is said from a legal angle applies to both counselling and psychotherapy' - Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

`This is a timely, comprehensive and up-to-date book which, if widely read, should do much to challenge the counselling professions' regrettable reluctance to engage with the law.... The case material used is lively and.. is drawn from reported legal cases such as those of Beverley Allitt and Diane Blood as well as the author's own research interviews and composite case studies. This gives the book a topical and immediate feel, and, for once, boxed material summarizing the text and questions for the reader to consider at the end of each chapter are incorporated in a natural and accessible way... This is a well-written, clear and readable introduction to an important area of law and professional practice, and practitioners will do well to get hold of a copy and give some thought to the issues it raises. If it makes counsellors and psychotherapists aware of the need to get to grips with legal questions arising from their practice, it will have done the counselling profession an important service' - Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

`Peter Jenkins is to be congratulated on this clear, concise, comprehensive guide. It's a mine of information - a most useful reference tool... It's all there... clear explanations of the legal processes and the court system, historical background, case-law and examples, rationale and balanced criticism, and it's right up-to-date, with indications of future developments in the law.... I anticipate that this important, authoritative book will become required reading for advanced counselling students and an indispensable resource manual for therapists, supervisors, service-providers and lawyers specializing in the relevant fields' - Counselling News

`Peter Jenkins has put together a comprehensive survey of English law as it relates to, may come to relate to and is assumed (often falsely!) to relate to the practice of counselling and psychotherapy. As a book about the law for therapists written by a therapist, rather than a law book as such, it should have a broad appeal to practitioners and trainees seeking a succinct and accessible overview of the legal framework for their practice... the bulk of the book constitutes a veritable "Cook's tour" of the nooks and crannies of existing English law as it may apply to therapists and their clients: from contract to confidentiality; from defamation to data protection; from stalking and from tort to trade description. Indeed, the book provides useful information about the law that absolutely any citizen and more particularly any provider of a service to the public for payment, should be aware of.... This book should prove a very welcome addition to any practitioner's bookshelf - to be reached for whenever either panic about exposure to the world of the law sets in or complacent insularity takes hold' - The Therapist

`This is the first comprehensive book for counsellors and psychotherapists about the law in the United Kingdom. It is written by a therapist for therapists... an excellent reference book and resource. It is compact and contains a phalanx of examples. I believe it is a necessary text for all training courses of counsellors, psychotherapists and supervisors as well as individual practitioners' - Psychotherapy & Counselling, The Sherwood Psychotherapy Training Institute Magazine

`Peter Jenkins has written a book which certainly deserves a place on every book shelf.... Increased awareness of the legal position can only assist therapists in the way in which they carry out their work and keep records. As a former solicitor myself I found it a very worthwhile read and certainly a reference book I intend to use' - Counselling at work

About the Author:

Peter Jenkins is a counsellor, trainer, supervisor and researcher. He has worked as a student and staff counsellor in college and university settings for the past thirty years. During this time, he has developed a particular interest in exploring ethical, professional and legal issues in counselling practice. He has run over two hundred workshops on these topics, aimed at addressing the current concerns of practitioners. He has been a member of both the BACP Professional Conduct Committee and the UKCP Ethics Committee and has published around one hundred articles on law and ethics in the professional counselling press. His publications include Therapy with Children, as co-author with Dr Debbie Daniels (Second edition, Sage, 2010), Counselling, Psychotherapy and the Law (Second edition, Sage 2007), online modules for Counselling Mind-Ed and other training material, such as Counselling Confidentiality and the Law (2013, Counselling DVDs). 

Peter has produced a wide range of free resources, which can be downloaded to supplement the material outlined in his recent book, Professional Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy: Ethics and the Law. These resources include a video presentation on key issues in recording therapeutic work with clients and online self-study programmes on legal issues in working with children and young people for MindEd. While his book closely follows the BACP Ethical Framework in terms of discussing the competencies required of counsellors and psychotherapists, he has also developed a critical analysis of the Ethical Framework, and of some of the legal resources designed to underpin it. In addition, the key area of data protection is undergoing change, with the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018. The impact of the GDPR is explored in a further piece, looking at its background and some of the main implications for counsellors.

• Video of PPS presentation on 'Records as Evidence'
• MindEd Counselling: Legal and Professional Issues, i.e. self-study online programmes on working with young people, in relation to record keeping, safeguarding, ethics and the law
• Article: 'What is wrong with the Ethical Framework?'
• Article: 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Supervisor liability revisited'
• Article on the new General Data Protection Regulation: 'An upgrade for data privacy?'

Webinars (access is free for counselling students via https://www.onlinevents.co.uk/library):

• Working with Children and Young People: An Ethical and Legal Minefield?
• Making Sense of the New Ethical Framework
• Supervisors – A New Duty of Care?

Brief video clips discussing:

• The Gillick principle in working with children and young people
• Limits to confidentiality in reporting a serious crime committed by your client 
• Aspects of professional negligence, in the watershed legal case of Werner versus Landau (1961)

Peter can be contacted at peter.jenkins@alumni.manchester.ac.uk 

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0803979878
• ISBN 13: 9780803979871
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352