For psychotherapists and counsellors in training some of the practices associated with the therapeutic relationship can be mystifying - and none more so than the concept of the therapeutic frame. In An Introduction to the Therapeutic Frame, Anne Gray clarifies the concept for the student and shows how the frame - the way of working set out in the first meeting between therapist and client - contains and protects the therapeutic relationship.

The author argues that careful attention to detail, from first contact through to the ending of the relationship, can make case management within the frame more effective for both client and therapist. Each chapter is devoted to particular aspects of management which the trainee often finds difficult, such as first meetings, letters and telephone calls, money matters, and ending and evaluation.

Anne Gray has practical advice on how to handle these situations, supported throughout with well-chosen case material. She brings the scene alive for the reader and also shows clearly how the underlying theory can work in practice.