Book Review: Embodied Theories

I approached this book with some trepidation. Eight therapists with a diverse range of theoretical orientations being asked to write a chapter in response to a series of questions about theory-practice links – surely such accounts would swerve recklessly between over-exposure and under-exposure. That some participants who were approached to participate in the project resolutely avoided even communicating with the editors, suggests my reservations albeit from the perspective of a reader were not entirely idiosyncratic. Yet, after reading what was a thoroughly enjoyable book I wonder whether some of those very same participants may be left regretting their taciturnity.

The editors gave participants six questions through which they could structure their pieces. These questions are important and may well explain both people's engagement and non-participation in the project. The questions essentially focused on the ways in which theory was expressed both personally and professionally experienced and covered both current lived experience, past experiences and hypothesised 'experience' (What would you have been like as a psychotherapist, or as a person, if you had not come across your model?) The contributors thankfully, approached these questions in a diverse range of ways, emphasising some elements and neglecting others. This not only allowed each contributor their own voice, but also created a series of convergences and divergences between each account, something with the editors do their best to summarise in the final chapter.

In reviewing a book like this I think it is useful for potential readers to know who the contributors are and the sweep of the psychotherapies discussed. Thus the eight contributors cover Psychodynamic psychotherapy (Michael Jacobs), REBT (Windy Dryden), Gestalt Psychotherapy (Malcom Parlett), Personal Construct Psychotherapy (Dorothy Rowe), Existential Psychotherapy (Miles Groth), Analytical psychology (Anthony Stevens), Humanistic-Integrative Psychotherapy (John Rowan) and Experiential Psychotherapy (Alvin Mahrer). All of the authors are important figures in their own fields and some have the distinction of being more widely known. As such this is a book about people who have been or are successful professionally and who are for the most part still engaged in client-contact. This of course creates interesting issues around self-disclosure. Mostly such disclosure is kept firmly in the historical past and the silence as to any current life problems or dilemmas would indicate either a judicious sense of caution or a slightly skewed sample of therapists who have rather successfully embodied their theories. In a way though such current personal details neither add nor detract, since all of the authors either restrict the scope of their theory (e.g. Windy Dryden) or articulate those points at which the chosen therapy took on particular salience (e.g. John Rowan). Given the reticence that many therapists feel about any personal disclosure and the rather more complex question of how theories can be embodied then all of the authors have pulled off a rather difficult and neat task.

Three things emerged both while reading the book and reflecting on what to write about it and these can be summed up through the terms integrity, optimism and radicalism. All of the contributors exuded integrity both in the ways they sought to understand how they had arrived at where they were and in the ways they explained the lived experience of their particular theory. This occurred particularly in the non-dogmatic way each participant approached their theory. Given the almost accidental way in which contributor encountered their theory this is perhaps not surprising, but welcome all the same. Secondly a profound sense of optimism emerged in all of the accounts as to the possibility of both client and therapist change. While this was mostly presented without the problematics of relapse so common in the field of addictions, the sense that change could occur through an encounter with another person who had both integrity and knowledge was clear. Thirdly and perhaps most surprisingly, the accounts managed to propound and remind the reader that therapy is by its nature a radical human activity, which at the end of the day simply involves two more or less fragile people communicating and exploring ideas about the world.

There are two minor things that I think would enhance the book. Firstly I think the Editors set themselves an almost impossible task in the last chapter entitled 'Embodied Theories: A preliminary analysis.' Given the various ways in which contributors chose to interpret the editors' questions, the task of analysing and looking for sources of convergence and divergence was by no means easy. That the editors did this well is impressive, that it is necessary, is a more difficult question to answer. My own preference would have been for a longer concluding chapter focusing less on an overview of the accounts and more on some of the interesting questions that Spinelli and Marshall raise towards the end of their chapter, in particular the question of embodiment from the perspective of the client.

The second thing concerns the range of therapies covered. The authors provide a clear justification and rationale for the theories chosen, and yet I like many other readers will wonder why in such a relatively brief book (I read it at two sittings) other therapies were not included. This is of course where the disagreements probably start and one that I am sure the editors have already grappled with. Given the prerogative of being the reviewer I'll stick my neck out and lay a claim in the revised edition for a chapter on solution-focused therapy. I am sure many readers will add their own therapies, but in the meantime I think this book may well act as both a stimulus for therapists and an important reminder of the vulnerabilities that we all have, but do not always choose to share.

R.G. Hill