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Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT) is a fusion of cognitive (CBT/REBT) therapy; narrative (talking and writing)
therapy; psycho-dynamic (processing of feelings) therapy; and other helpful systems of counselling and therapy ideas. Dr
Jim Byrne February 2010
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WHAT KIND OF COGNITIVE THERAPY?
Hello, My name is Jim Byrne. I am a Licensed Fellow of the International Society of Professional
Counsellors (MISPC); and I have completed the degree of Doctorate in Counselling at the University of Manchester. I also have
a higher Diploma (With Distinction) in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy from Rusland College, Bath. I was trained
as a Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapist (REBT) in 1998-99, by Dr Al Raitt, at the old Institute for REBT in Bristol. I subsequently took a range of other forms of training, and began to develop my own form
of therapy, which is a fusion of: - Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT);
- Transactional Analysis (TA);
- Zen philosophy (as described by Alan Watts in The Way
of Zen);
- Narrative therapy, based on the psychological insight that the thinking of individuals
is dominated by socialized language, stories, scripts and blueprints for life; and that we can rethink those
narratives at any time in our lives;
- Moral philosophy. For example, R.M Hare's Universal Prescriptivism;
or (secular) Buddhist morality, or other form of 'virtue ethics'; or John Rawls' Ethic of Justice. (My argument here is two-fold:
(1) That we cannot be complete human beings without becoming socially responsible and engaged in caring relationships; and
(2) that the happiest people are probably those who live their lives from a system of integrity, and a commitment to lead
a good, prosocial life). And:
- I also incorporate some psychoanalysis, of the type developed
by the British Object Relations school - which acknowledges the centrality of relationship to human
existence and functioning, beginning with the relationship between mother and baby.
I
call this fusion of therapies and philosophies Cognitive Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT). CENT
is not primarily a "listening therapy", like Rogerian counselling; although I do a good deal of listening. It is,
instead, an active form of 'philosophical coaching', in which I teach my clients to become their own counsellors; to outgrow
me; and to figure out how to control and manage their own thinking, feeling and behaviour, in every area of their lives. However,
I do include a good deal of 'reparenting', where appropriate, and use of the relationship as the primary vehicle of client
change. For a fuller discription of CENT, please go here: What is CENT? The Buddha is famous for advising his 'followers' to "find out for yourself".
And that is what I teach. How to begin to understand your life situation; and how to begin to find out for yourself. I offer
a presence, a 'being with' relationship, some insights and analysis, some theories and models of human functioning, and encouragement
to take responsibility for your own life, its direction, content and destination. Jim Byrne
Doctor of Counselling
Coaching and Counselling Psychologist/Philosopher Back to Homepage. ~~~
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