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It was as a result of reading one of Yalom's earlier books, Love's Executioner, that I was motivated to embark on the road of training to be a psychotherapist. Now ten years later I am seeing clients as part of my own training as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. I bought Yalom's book, subtitled Reflections on Being a Therapist, partly because I have in the past enjoyed his books and partly as a sentimental gesture; after all, he had unwittingly been the catalyst for my own training. I was aware that Yalom described himself as an existential psychotherapist and so recognized that there would be differences in the way he practised and that taught by my training organization, but I was interested to understand his approach.
Yalom describes the book as ‘an open letter to beginning therapists’ and has grouped his suggestions into five areas of concern to the therapist: (1) the nature of the therapist-client relationship with particular emphasis on the here and now, the therapist's use of the self and the therapist's self-disclosure; (2) a variety of issues arising in the everyday conduct of therapy;