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Counselling for Toads
- A Psychological Adventure
- Narrated by: Richard Pryal
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
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Counselling for Toads
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Summary
Ideal Xmas or Birthday present for counsellors—aspiring or fully trained. Light work with a serious message.
Friendly introduction to the ideas behind counselling, suitable for voluntary organizations, schools, social work departments, hospitals, etc. A book which a counsellor could give to a client. Many libraries, both public & institutional should find a place for it on their shelves.
Carries endorsement by Claire Rayner
Wind in the Willows—widely known and loved, and has had extra publicity recently—with film & TV versions.
Easy and fun guides to psychoanalysis or philosophy—v. popular recently—eg, Tao of Poo, Freud for Beginners etc.
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Critic reviews
"Brilliantly uses one of the world's favourite stories for all ages to engagingly and revealingly take us through the psychotherapeutic process and transactional analysis. Am I a better Toad for reading it? Of course I am!!!"—William Horwood, English novelist, author of the Wind in the Willows sequel series, Tales of the Willows
"Drawing on the figure of Toad, who is a rather pompous yet affectionate character who has fallen into depression, de Board takes us on a journey through the theory of Eric Berne’s classical transactional analysis. Toad goes to see Heron, the local counsellor, who is a gentle, kind, thoughtful, serious yet confrontational person, the type of person one would hope to meet in a counsellor. The theory is described clearly yet convincingly through the client/counsellor relationship with plentiful uses of metaphor, good humour, and irony that make us smile indulgently, not only at Toad but also at ourselves at times as we recognise some of our own frailties."—Helena Hargaden, psychotherapist, counsellor, and transactional analyst, author of Transactional Analysis: A Relational Perspective
"Through this anthropomorphic parable, de Board takes readers into a realistic, humorous, and humane account of being in psychotherapy. I suspect that Toad would find great pleasure to know that this story of his life, struggles, and recovering is still being read 25 years since its original publication. Counselling for Toads offers an overview of the basics of transactional analysis in practice. In the 25 years since the book was written, transactional analysis has continued to evolve and is now a model of human relations work applied in psychotherapy, counselling, education, and organizational development."—William F. Cornell, MA, TSTA, editor of the Routledge book series, Innovations in Transactional Analysis, and editor of Into TA: A Comprehensive Textbook on Transactional Analysis.
What listeners say about Counselling for Toads
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 02-10-24
the counselling relationship told delightfully through the story of toad
the information given about counselling and certain modalities were great especially if a counselling student
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Sophie
- 18-01-24
Helpful
Helpful to gain an objective perspective. An enjoyable story, sometimes sad, sometimes enlightening but it captures life perfectly.
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- SUE
- 10-06-24
A great follow on to Wind in the Willows
An insight into psychology using the loveable characters from Wind in the Willows taking one from childhood to adulthood
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-02-23
Transactional Analysis explained through narrative
I can see why this book is recommended to students of counselling and it's not a textbook! The story is realistic and moving, especially given the skill of the narrator to convey different emotions powerfully and the excellent voice acting of multiple different characters. I listened to the whole audiobook straight through, twice, as it was so engaging and packed full of therapeutic concepts (predominantly transactional analysis). The author cleverly uses Toad's experiences and his developmental journey during the counselling process to convey and explain these theoretical concepts in a comprehensive and easy to digest way. The pace of the story was very good and it seemed representative to me of Toad's possible progress in therapy. Although I found the ending (of the therapy) a bit abrupt, that too seemed like it probably could accurately depict how things could go.
Toad's rollercoaster of emotions and memories is highly relatable, whilst listening I thought a lot about what my own parents' upbringings would have been like, what mine was like and what psychological games I might be playing. The book is one of compassion and understanding. It illustrates well the unavoidable paradoxes of human existence and psyche, such as that harm is inherent in childhood (simply because a baby is born entirely helpless and dependent on others) and inevitably (that is not to say deliberately) harm is caused to children by their caregivers and that truly growing up is necessary to live a deeply fulfilled and authentic life but unfortunately, to get there is necessarily painful to look honestly at one's past, shed its influence and start actively choosing for yourself. It takes courage to face the discomfort rather than to keep trying to distract and avoid from it or just blaming others for how you feel, emotional work to become aware of and unpick the unconscious patterns, humility to accept that who you are and reality isn't what you've taken it to be, to recognise without judgement the psychological games we play, and to find compassion for one's self and to take the right responsibility, change your actions and life - becoming the adult is hard but it can be done and this book shows how one can do it, why it's important to do it and what life can be like if someone doesn't. It's a lovely mechanism to encourage self-reflection in the reader.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- S. J. Litchfield
- 19-11-23
Great book
Think everyone could learn something from this without even trying too might listen to it again
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- Laura
- 14-11-22
A must read/listen!
Wonderfully narrated. Incredibly insightful into how and why people behave the way they do. Whilst also written in a light hearted and accessible manner. Superb! I have learned a lot of behaviours I want to change, and how I relate to others during certain behaviours. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends!
Ps. I would recommend having read one of the wind in the willows books first. I appreciate this is a completely different book to the original collection but they give you a sense of the characters’ outward behaviour before embarking on this transactional analysis view. That said, I don’t think it’s essential as this book is packed with thought- provoking insights into behaviour and personal growth!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 18-10-23
A great help for those unsure about therapy
My wife recommended this book as I was struggling with mental health and getting therapy. This booked helped me understand in a light hearted but serious way what counselling entails and what it can do for you. I very much enjoyed this book.
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- Nanny Beach
- 14-03-24
We all need to hear this!
What a great wait to show how self awareness can bring joy to even the most curmudgeonous creature. Now I just need to reread Wind in the Willows. 😊
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Mrs Bonnie Leeming
- 15-08-24
Wind in the willows redone - self discovery
Interesting journey into Toads hectic life and self discovery as to who he is and his past. Well written and good performance.
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- Mark Austen
- 24-01-23
deceptively simple
superb psychodynamic ideas dressed in the form of a children's story. highly recommended. listen and learn lots.
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