Love and Therapy ─ In Relationship

The originator of the field of psychotherapy, Sigmund Freud, noted the importance of love in the healing of the human psyche. So many of life's distresses have their origins in lack of love, disruption of love, or trauma. People naturally seek love in their lives to feel complete. Is therapy a substitute for love? Or is it love by another name? This important book looks at the place of love in therapy and whether it is the curative factor. The authors continually stress however that within psychotherapy both ethical and professional boundaries should govern this "Love" at all times in order for it to be experienced as healing and therapeutic.

This book offers explorations of the complexity of love from different modalities: psychoanalytic, humanistic, person-centered, psychosexual, family and systemic, transpersonal, existential, and transcultural. The discussions challenge therapists and other allied professionals to think about their practice, ethics, and boundaries especially when considering the proposals to accept the therapeutic relationship in terms of "Love", or when exploring the complexities of the impact of love/lack of love on clients' lives and experiences and how this impacts on their behavior, presentation, and the material they present in the therapy room.