Counselling Central

Gerard Egan, PhD, is a Professor of Organisation Development and Psychology and author of The Skilled Helper. He has written over a dozen books, some in the field of counselling, including Interpersonal Living and People in Systems. The Skilled Helper is currently the most widely used counselling text in the world. Most of the counselling [...]

Gerard Egan was professor of organisational development and psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. Egan considered his methods to be more about prevention than cure. He believed the challenge for psychology was to get out of text books and into social settings. He also believed that clients were either in a troubled or crisis situation, [...]

Gerard Egan defined the acronym SOLER as part of his “Skilled Helper” staged approach to counselling. It is a non-verbal listening process used in communication, and a key skill taught to counsellors as part of their training. But what is it? SOLER stands for: S: Sit SQUARELY on to the client, preferably at a 5 [...]