Dr James Costello, Senior Lecturer in the College of Health, Science and Society, has written a new book on “Philosophical Foundations of Psychotherapy: Radical Relationality”.
The book challenges the unhelpful misconception that philosophy is for philosophers alone, because human reality is too complex for therapists to be unaware of the foundations, difficulties, and contradictions within our value systems, ethics, and assumptions.
By retrieving attitudes from other times and other places, traversing the relational contours of history right up to contemporary thinkers and practitioners, the book argues that not only do relationships heal, but they offer the only safe harbour in life’s sea of troubles.
We spoke to James about his inspiration behind this book:
“I’ve always been interested in how work and mental health are linked. I published my first book “Workplace Wellbeing – A Relational Approach” in 2020, and this immediately led to various Government Departments inviting me to provide supportive reflective spaces for professionals working on what are often distressing Public Inquiries (i.e., highly topical Covid-19, Child Sexual Abuse).
Taking this “bigger picture” toward how society processes its trauma got me thinking about deeper questions involving psychotherapy, and the society which shapes its foundations. Perhaps through our psychological methods, are we pouring petrol on society’s flames?
At a time when people seem to want an embodied connection with their environment, deeper engagement with their communities, something beyond “me” to believe in, and a purpose which remoralises our lives, what’s being offered?
More individualising self-mastery and empowerment – the current mouthpiece for this unhelpful myth is Mel Robbins and so called “Let Them” theory – to those of us who already feel beleaguered and abandoned by a society which progressively prizes more than anything else, getting a “good deal” out those around us.
As undoubtedly helpful philosophers are, it is important that it is the practitioners who re-formulate the foundations of what therapists do, and this is what inspired me to write this book.
And a final note. The book has been beautifully illustrated by one of our own graphic arts students here at UWE Bristol– Mackenzie Leigh Hawkins (Mac). I approached tutor Emma Levey in Arts and Design, and she suggested that students pitch for the project; Mac was the clear winner and what is more Routledge were happy to pay so it was a very “real world” experience for our students.“
James Costello, PhD, is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of the West of England, UK. He is an Accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and Senior Accredited Supervisor specializing in Groups. His experience as a therapist comes from over 20 years’ practice and consultancy across the private, third, and public sectors. He supervises psychotherapy training and has research interests more broadly in phenomenology and consciousness.