"Robertson and Freshwater explicitly use the development of a therapeutic relationship and, parallel with it, the development of an individual psyche, as a vehicle for their exploration of emotions and needs. The subtlety is that their exploration, like psychotherapy itself, begins with the complexity and ends with the simplicity." Self & Society

Through the centrality of the concepts of needs and emotions, this volume describes and discusses issues that are fundamental to psychotherapy. As an alternative to classifying modalities of psychotherapy (and the way in which they understand needs and emotions) by their author, era or underpinning philosophy, this book focuses instead on the emotional patterning of psychotherapy.

The book explores need and emotion in relation to what patients bring to therapy and what subsequently facilitates effective engagement. Examining ways of understanding the manifestation of needs and emotions, the authors bring differing therapeutic schools of thought together in contemporary models of integrative psychotherapy which draw upon the transpersonal, postmodern and poststructural. The book is illustrated throughout with clinical vignettes which help the reader ground the theoretical concepts in everyday practice.

The discussions in this volume not only add to the current body of knowledge surrounding the fundamental concepts of emotions and needs, but also make a long overdue contribution to the psychotherapeutic professions. Emotions and Needs will be of interest to students and practitioners in fields such as: counselling, psychotherapy, clinical psychology and social work.