Book Genre: China, Counselling, Mental Health, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Psychology, Self Help Imagine that you live on a small planet with two giants, and you depend on them for food, water, and emotional support. They are nice to you most of the time, but they are occasionally angry with you. This leaves you feeling helpless and insecure, but you’re unable to escape. So, you have to adjust to them. This is the family environment that many find themselves in. First they nursed him. Then they encouraged him. Then they told him to pull himself together... Finally, Badger could stand it no longer. That admirable animal, though long on exhortation, was short on patience. This engaging pastiche of Kenneth Grahame's riverbank classic... manages to be not only instructive and, at times, extremely amusing, but also to remain remarkably faithful to the cheery, bucolic spirit of the original... extremely enjoyable." - Paul Sussman, in the Independent on Sunday Best-selling author, Robert de Board says: 'Toad's experiences are based on my own experiences of counselling people over a period of twenty years. Counselling for Toads is really an amalgamation of the many counselling sessions I have held and contains a distillation of the truths I have learnt from practice.'

Under the guidance of his counsellor, Toad comes to understand that these are all possible causes of his depression, but the root cause comes from his family of origin. 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

Organisational Psychology

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 Psychological counseling refers to when counsellors use psychological methods to help us sort out our emotions, analyze issues, and solve problems when we are struggling to adapt to certain things. This helps us restore psychological balance, increases our ability to adapt to the environment, and improves our physical and mental health. In fact, counseling is not just a restorative activity for people who have experienced serious or traumatic events. Ordinary people who are dealing with insomnia, long-term emotional instability, heartbreak, family issues and other psychological troubles can also seek psychological help.

I would recommend this book to any counsellor or counselling student. Or indeed anyone going through counselling themselves. Robert de Board. Counselling for Toads: A Psychological Adventure. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. Not only an instructive handbook for those in any way contemplating counselling... it is warmly funny and respectful of the spirit of Grahame's novel. If he had written his own sequel he might have ended it like this one." - Jan Mark,Times Educational Supplement Why do the emotions expressed by different people vary so much? Dr. Heron's theory of Life Positions gives us the answer. Robert de Board's engaging account of Toad's experience of counselling will capture the imagination of the growing readership of people who are interested in counselling and the counselling process. Written as a real continuation of life on the River Bank, Toad and his friends come to life all over again.

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The difference between psychological counselling and friendly advice mainly lies in the professional nature of therapy.

Counselling for Toads begins with Toad plunging into one of his periodic bouts of depression, but this time he cannot seem to snap out of it. His friends become so concerned about his mental state that they arrange for him to see Heron. Toad reluctantly agrees to go, but at first he is rather uncooperative with Heron's attempts to get him to talk about his feelings. Gradually, however, Toad begins to open up. Before we begin, we need to distinguish between a depressive mood and clinical depression. Despair is a common emotion. For example, if we plan to go hiking with our friends, and they tell us before we set out that they have to cancel, we may feel upset. Or, we may have secretly worked out for a month, in an effort to impress our friends, but they say they don't see any change, and we feel depressed as a result. Secondly, Toad had no close friends and no one to confide in. One time, Toad was being chased by a group of thugs. When he managed to escape, he fell into a river and almost drowned. But, his good friend, Rat, got him out in time. Toad was eager to share the excitement and danger with his friend, but Rat reacted coldly, which extinguished Toad's enthusiasm for sharing. Toad’s mouth fell agape briefly, but then closed again without a word. Following this incident, Toad's heart became closed off to the world. A delightful book which... offers a gentle introduction to transactional analysis and much more." - Relate NewsFor over 25 years Counselling for Toads has provided readers with a warm and engaging introduction to counselling, brought to life by Toad and his friends from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. For anyone wishing to know something about transactional analysis this is a clear and very readable introduction." - The Friend Clinical depression, or major depression, is a mental illness that is very different from a depressive mood. We will discuss the symptoms and causes of clinical depression in part one. In this article, when we use the word “depression,” we are referring primarily to clinical depression, not to a depressive mood. A clever intertwining of the tale of Toad and the intricate thought processes behind the science of counselling... a classic journey of discovery, triumph and pain." - Book of the Day, Glasgow Herald Someone who chooses the “I’m okay; you’re not okay” position often holds a status of power and authority. These people get angry easily, and they always feel that others have let them down, like Toad's strict father and Badger, who often criticize Toad. Another example can occur when someone makes a mistake in a work environment. That person’s boss can make a mountain out of a molehill and shout at their employee to prove their philosophy of “I’m okay; you’re not okay,” that others are fundamentally incompetent and unreliable, and that it is their duty to reprimand and punish others. However, people in this position never feel depressed, because they always blame others and rarely feel guilty themselves.