Fifty Years of Counselling - My Personal Past

Michael Jacobs is a pioneer in the development of psychodynamic counselling. While his writing is praised for its lucidity in explaining difficult concepts, and it is well illustrated with case examples from his own work, he has rarely said much about his own history as a psychodynamic psychotherapist and counsellor.

In this personal account, concerned mainly with both his professional life as a therapist, writer and teacher and with the developments of counselling generally in Britain, in which he has played a major part, Jacobs presents his own past. It is one that surprisingly for so experienced a therapist, started with no formal training, but which has gone on to be an influence on the training of hundreds of counsellors and therapists.

Jacobs traces the development of BACP and UKCP and his part in the formation of both organizations, the development of training in counselling in Britain, much of which with regard to psychodynamic counselling was pioneered by him, and finally his writing and teaching career. The book concludes with a critique of the present state of counselling and psychotherapy in Britain today.

“A delight to read! Everyone benefits from a lovely memoir like this: students, experienced colleagues, and the author himself. Michael has built a deserved reputation as an outstanding authority and innovator in the counselling field, in practice as well as in training. His restlessness and his challenging nature are still needed as the sense of crisis in depth and relational therapy work intensifies. The account of his experiences, whether entirely fortuitous and haphazard or fuelled by an individuating sense of vocation, will stimulate thought, feeling and a profound questioning of where our field is heading.”
Professor Andrew Samuels, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK

“This is the moving and revelatory account of the personal and professional evolution of one of Britain’s most prominent pioneering counsellors.  In telling his own story, Michael Jacobs also illuminates the development of the counselling movement during the past fifty years and younger readers will discover much to inform and surprise them. This deceptively passionate book inspires and challenges on almost every beautifully written page.”
Brian Thorne, Emeritus Professor of Counselling, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK; Co-founder, The Norwich Centre for Personal, Professional and Spiritual Development

“Michael Jacobs’s new memoir kept me wide-awake for most of the night, because I simply could not put this book down!  Written with consummate story-telling skills, Jacobs has created an inspiring and enthralling portrait of his remarkable career in the fields of psychotherapy and counselling.  A true pioneer of mental health in Great Britain, Jacobs has much to teach us all, and I recommend this new volume most heartily!”
Professor Brett Kahr, Institute of Medical Psychology, London, and Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health at the Centre for Child Mental Health, London, UK