concrete suggestions. These include: how to set up and arrange an “ideal” playroom; how to choose appropriate toys for children of varying ages and developmental stages; how to deal with the inevitable mess; and how to explain the nuts-and-bolts, as well as the nuances and benefits, of CCPT to children, teachers, and parents. They also provide a user-friendly Axlinian checklist for maintaining a non-directive attitude. For the purposes of documentation, which becomes more and more critical in this age of managed care, the authors discuss case conceptualization with regard to emergent and recurrent themes in play, and how to document themes and client progress in a logical fashion for case notes. Toward the end of the book, the reader finds a helpful discussion of real-life extensions of CCPT that the authors have encountered in practice. Several controversial issues facing all therapists are unflinchingly examined, including the use and misuse of touch in therapeutic relationships. Attention is also given to the common occurrence of children’s use of curse words in therapy; cheating at games; and physical aggression toward the therapist, or to objects in the room. Personally, I did struggle with some of the terminology used. For instance, the authors’ frequent description of CCPT as an “intervention” felt jarring. I cannot help but read intervention as an invasive act, no matter how gently conducted. After all, one generally only intervenes in situations where something – or someone – is going awry. I also felt uneasy with the suggestion of “supplemental” or additional treatments for “severe cases” as from a classical client-centered perspective, the core conditions outlined by Rogers are not only necessary, but sufficient, regardless of presenting complaint or situation. I prefer to view directive treatments, in general, as entirely separate entities; rather than in any sense complementary or enhancing to the core conditions. However, this may be an indication of my own propensity to split linguistic hairs. Certainly the authors have achieved their own stated aim, and I would expect future editions to evolve from this solid theoretical and practical base. I would be comfortable sharing this book as a training tool. I extend my appreciation to the authors for an overall successful synthesis of their own experience, combined with the collective and evolving wisdom of their own teachers and students, amounting to a truly seminal volume. Amanda R. E. Aller Lowe Integrative Counseling, Psychological Services, Naperville, USA Email: [email protected] © 2013, Amanda R. E. Aller Lowe http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2012.753396 Therapeutic presence: a mindful approach to effective therapy, by Shari M. Geller and Leslie S. Greenberg, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2012, 304 pp., (hardback) ISBN 978-1-4338-1060-2 £50.47 I do not know of any other book at this time presenting an equally convincing and informed case for the .

1. concrete suggestions. These include: how to set up and arrange
an “ideal” playroom; how
to choose appropriate toys for children of varying ages and
developmental stages; how to
deal with the inevitable mess; and how to explain the nuts-and-
bolts, as well as the
nuances and benefits, of CCPT to children, teachers, and
parents. They also provide a
user-friendly Axlinian checklist for maintaining a non-directive
attitude. For the purposes
of documentation, which becomes more and more critical in this
age of managed care,
the authors discuss case conceptualization with regard to
emergent and recurrent themes
in play, and how to document themes and client progress in a
logical fashion for case
notes. Toward the end of the book, the reader finds a helpful
discussion of real-life
extensions of CCPT that the authors have encountered in
practice. Several controversial
issues facing all therapists are unflinchingly examined,
including the use and misuse of
touch in therapeutic relationships. Attention is also given to the
common occurrence of
children’s use of curse words in therapy; cheating at games; and
physical aggression
toward the therapist, or to objects in the room.
Personally, I did struggle with some of the terminology used.
For instance, the authors’
frequent description of CCPT as an “intervention” felt jarring. I
cannot help but read

2. intervention as an invasive act, no matter how gently conducted.
After all, one generally
only intervenes in situations where something – or someone – is
going awry. I also felt
uneasy with the suggestion of “supplemental” or additional
treatments for “severe cases” as
from a classical client-centered perspective, the core conditions
outlined by Rogers are not
only necessary, but sufficient, regardless of presenting
complaint or situation. I prefer to
view directive treatments, in general, as entirely separate
entities; rather than in any sense
complementary or enhancing to the core conditions. However,
this may be an indication of
my own propensity to split linguistic hairs. Certainly the
authors have achieved their own
stated aim, and I would expect future editions to evolve from
this solid theoretical and
practical base. I would be comfortable sharing this book as a
training tool. I extend my
appreciation to the authors for an overall successful synthesis of
their own experience,
combined with the collective and evolving wisdom of their own
teachers and students,
amounting to a truly seminal volume.
Amanda R. E. Aller Lowe
Integrative Counseling, Psychological Services, Naperville,
USA
Email: [email protected]
© 2013, Amanda R. E. Aller Lowe
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2012.753396
Therapeutic presence: a mindful approach to effective therapy,

3. by Shari M. Geller and
Leslie S. Greenberg, Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association, 2012, 304 pp.,
(hardback) ISBN 978-1-4338-1060-2 £50.47
I do not know of any other book at this time presenting an
equally convincing and informed
case for the promotion of being rather than doing in the art of
therapy. The authors define
therapeutic presence as “the state of having one’s whole self in
the encounter with a client by
being completely in the moment of a multiplicity of levels –
physically, emotionally,
cognitively, and spiritually” (p. 7). Presence involves “being in
contact with one’s integrated
and healthy self, while being open and receptive to what is
poignant in the moment and
immersed in it” (p. 7).
Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies 177
The book’s refrain, variously articulated over 300 pages, is
twofold: (a) given the subtle
attunement (pp. 70–71) and interoception (p. 260) it engenders,
therapeutic presence is
beneficial to the client and to the therapeutic relationship; (b) it
is also good for the therapist:
being at heart a way to cultivate care of the self, it decreases
stress and burnout, heightens
vitality and decreases anxiety (p. 9).
The book is expediently divided into four sections: (1)
Theoretical and Empirical Basis
of the Model; (2) The Model of Therapeutic Presence; (3)

4. Additional Perspectives on
Therapeutic Presence; (4) The Cultivation of Therapeutic
Presence. With part four also
including useful exercises and practices, this book is a welcome
addition to the library of any
person-centered trainer and practitioner.
Grounded in their broadly humanistic ethos, yet generously
reaching out to all
orientations, Geller and Greenberg recognize how, for over a
century, diverse and even
contrasting perspectives have championed the essential notion
of therapeutic presence.
From Freud’s “evenly suspended attention,” which underlined
“receptivity” and “impar-
tial non-judgemental … attention” (p. 18) and Rogers’ own
formulation of presence
(p. 27), to Daniel Stern’s emphasis on the “moment of meeting”
(p. 20), to Gestalt and
the dialogical approach exploring presence emerging “in the
between” (p. 21), the
question of how to be with a client has indeed been at the center
of the therapeutic
endeavor.
And yet, in spite of the trans-theoretical nominal endorsement
of presence, the book’s
argument in favour of presence feels more urgent than ever. In
fact, given the technologiza-
tion of therapy we are witnessing today (alongside the
mishandling of its purpose – towards
becoming the policing and normalisation of individuals) the
book’s claims take on a
counter-cultural significance. This is not because the authors, in
their contagiously
optimistic tone, seemed to have noticed how technical,

5. prescriptive and bluntly unsympa-
thetic to the subtle nuances of presence mainstream therapy has
become in recent years. “It is
true that certain therapeutic approaches are more technical than
relational in their approach”
(p. 8) they write. “However, more recently these therapies have
also identified that the
development of a therapeutic relationship … is important and
helpful in facilitating the use
of cognitive-behavioral techniques” (p. 8). This is certainly
auspicious and (broadly speak-
ing) true. Yet the “mindfulness” model, a dominant brand name
in mental health settings
discussed at some length in the book, has itself drawn from the
arguably reductive para-
meters of cognitivism and behaviorism alongside a reified, i.e.
non-contextual reading of the
Buddha’s teachings.
The authors make an important and often forgotten distinction
between presence and
mindfulness: the former is a way of being; the latter (now
pervasive thanks to the way in
which mindfulness it is currently apprehended), a set of
techniques. It is true that, unlike
mindfulness, “therapeutic presence does not necessarily involve
teaching clients to be
mindful”, focusing instead “on the therapist being mindful” (p.
13). This crucial distinction
between presence and mindfulness, so perceptively made, could
have been developed
further. This is not a book on mindfulness, but since a whole
chapter is devoted to it, I
would have appreciated a more detailed analysis. Instead, the
book relies on a current,
reductive understanding of “Buddhist mindfulness,” passively

6. accepted as a given, with the
authors displaying at times a submissive ethos with regard to,
respectively, an arguably
reductive and nowadays obligatory alliance to neurobiology,
and a presentation of
mindfulness almost entirely decontextualized from the complex
array of social, ritual and
religious components into which it is embedded.
As a Zen practitioner of 30 years, I did not know (nor, frankly,
cared to know) that my
central nervous system’s circuits and the parasympathetic
nervous system are activated and
178 Book reviews
working harmoniously together (p. 166), nor that my regular
practice of zazen (sitting
meditation) helps me achieve a satisfactory level of neuronal
integration (p. 168). MRI
scans of Buddhist monks and nuns are all the rage now –
weirdly reminiscent, if in reverse,
of Phrenology, that pseudo-science which in Victorian times
claimed to determine a person’s
moral fiber and acumen by the shape of his skull. This is not to
suggest that neurobiology or
neuroscience are pseudo-sciences, but to emphasize how
seeking the validation of an
essentially unquantifiable experience via quantifiable means, is
an effort which produces
mixed results and in the process bolsters the view that the mind
is reducible to the brain. I am
intrigued by the argument of measurable reduction in physical
arousal brought about by

7. yoga and mindfulness practices (p. 166). This is undoubtedly
therapeutic, yet might confirm
the current western handling of meditative practices for the
appeasement of troublesome,
intense vitality and passion – in short, the creation of a
veritable technology manufacturing a
reliable and evidence-based opium of the middle-classes. At
heart, the teachings of the
Buddha are not a set of techniques for “stress-reduction” but,
with their emphasis on
remembering impermanence, the certainty of death and the
uncertainty of the time of its
occurrence, “stress-inducing”. Their existential edge challenges
complacency rather than
offering soothing consolation.
Which brings me to a crucial point: in their discussion of
mindfulness, the authors
overlook its most important element: mindfulness is
mindfulness of impermanence. For the
Buddha there is no such reified, capitalized notion of
“Mindfulness” as such but always
mindfulness of, mindfulness-in-context. The context here is the
transient, fundamentally
unsatisfactory nature of life. Mindfulness is first and foremost
mindfulness of imperma-
nence. Understanding this engenders a way of being in the
world; it does not emphasize
proficiency in a set of techniques or mere control of
troublesome emotions and states of
mind.
Instead of the Buddhist context in which mindfulness
developed, what the reader finds
repeatedly emphasized in the book is the mystique of the
present moment. But being present

8. and attentive is the very basic requirement for any practice, of
any profession, any work or
craft. There is nothing special or particularly “Buddhist” or
mystical about being present and
attentive. It is just that a whole industry has been created with
this central tenet of “being
present.” In the Zen tradition this is known as selling water by
the river.
The quarrel here is not with the authors, but rather with their
surprisingly supine
acceptance of the dominant interpretation of Buddhist ideas,
variously presented as useful
in regulating emotions and as surrogacy affect regulation (p.
189), a set of skills (p. 188)
and often quoting an unreferenced “Buddha” who has recently
and speedily become
(in contemporary psychology literature) as ubiquitous, as
Americanized and as watered-
down as that other ‘prophet’ of the ‘inner world’, the Sufi poet
Rumi.
Do not get me wrong. This is a wonderful book on therapeutic
presence. I found the
argument in favor of the latter nothing less than formidable.
Two chapters in particular,
chapters 11 and 12, respectively discussing experiential
approaches and presenting a set
of very useful exercises, are reason enough to want to buy this
book and learn a great
deal from it. The argument in Part 1 presents a powerful case
for presence as a trans-
theoretical methodology, and I have personally found several
insights and exercises
invaluable for my own work. I also found welcome references to
teachers and practi-

9. tioners whose work continues to be relevant, inspiring and
profound: I am thinking of
pivotal figures in the world of contemporary spirituality such as
Bernie Glassman, Ram
Das, and my wonderful friend and teacher of urban shamanism
and dance Gabrielle Roth,
who sadly died recently. Co-author Leslie Greenberg movingly
and convincingly writes
of drumming, dancing and rhythm work as additional ways
towards greater integration
Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies 179
and the developing of presence. In their laudable aspiration to
reach out to everyone the
authors perhaps stretched the scope of the book to the point of
diluting its powerful
central message.
Manu Bazzano
University of Roehampton, London, UK
E-mail: [email protected]
© 2013, Manu Bazzano
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2013.804653
180 Book reviews
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