Robert de Board's engaging account of Toad's experience in counseling will capture the imagination of the growing readership of those interested in counseling theory and practice. The ten chapters of the book are played as the ten sessions which help Toad to self-analysis and personal development. In portraying Heron as a counselor employing the theories of Transactional Analysis in therapy, the author demonstrates how theory is used in practice.

Counselling For Toads is a literary classic and is now available on Audio Book for your listening pleasure.

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Customer Reviews: (5 Stars for Counselling For Toads)

1. An absolute classic for anyone and a great introduction to counselling!

2. I bought this because I've just started an introductory course on counselling. Counselling For Toads would benefit anyone willing to learn about emotional intelligence. Each chapter is devoted to one of Toad's counselling sesssions with Heron. We're told that the method used by Heron is 'transactional analysis'. The mild mannered Toad learns that he has suppressed the anger he felt as a child. He is helped through a process of reflection and change to recognise and discard the Child Ego State and make positive progress in his life. He learns how to face up to the bullying Badger and even to like him. With a personality similar to Toad's (I didn't think I felt angry towards people) this was a counselling session for me too.

3.If you are interested in counselling and have a soft spot for the exuberant, exasperating, funny and irrepressible Toad - the riverbank celebrity in Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows - you will find Robert de Board's book absorbing, amusing and informative. On a belated visit to Toad Hall, Mole finds the formerly splendid gardens overgrown, the once grand entertaining rooms and guest rooms closed up, and his erstwhile hero and friend Toad reduced to the state of embarrassed and unkempt hermit in his own kitchen. What will happen now that Toad's bonhomie has bottomed out? Will the wildwooders finally gain the upper hand? And, worst of all, is the riverbank to lose its most colourful character?

Relating his discovery to Ratty, the riverbank friends decide that there is only one road left for Toad to travel; the path of self-discovery and personal development through counselling. But de Board's book is touching and engaging rather than po-faced or pontificating as it traces this most life-changing of Toad's adventures. In keeping with the best of humorous writing, Counselling for Toads is serious at heart. This is likely to make it especially palatable to those with a healthy streak of scepticism about the value of therapy. de Board gives an excellent introduction to the aims of counselling, the nature of the therapeutic relationship and the nuts and bolts of Transactional Analysis. While it is easy to read, it does not shy away from technical terms where these are necessary.

Discover the roots of Toad's penchant for adventure as he tells Heron, his counsellor, of his childhood and his relationships with family and friends. Toad's encounter with therapy turns out to be an education not only for this deserving hero, but for all those who would be close to him.