Paul Gilbert: I would like to thank the Derbyshire Mental Health Trust and the University of Derby for their continuing support of the Mental Health Research Unit. Set up in 1996 as a joint venture, we are pleased to have been able to develop a research programme on shame and the treatment of shame. Special thanks go to Chris Irons for all his help with compassionate mind research. Chris Gillespie as head of psychology has not only been supportive for many years but has impressed on me the importance of micro-skills training in the therapeutic relationship. My colleague Tom Schroder has run the psychodynamic therapy course at Derby University and has recently taken up Head of Clinical Psychology training in Nottingham. Over many years we have had many illuminating discussions and peer supervisions, and I am indebted to him for his openness, range of experience, and education. Tom and I are now engaged in a qualitative study of shame in psychotherapists. The British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy has been immensely supportive of work in a range of new CBT approaches including mindfulness and compassion training. Not only one of the friendliest of associations, it provided the conference platform for us to offer symposia on the therapeutic relationship, and we are indebted to its support. This book would have been more difficult without the help of my long-suffering secretary, Diane Woollands, and her great patience in reading and checking references.
Robert Leahy: I would like to acknowledge the support from the Foundation for the Advancement of Cognitive Therapy and, in particular, grants from the George F. Baker Trust and the Robert Wood Johnson IV Charitable Trust. I also wish to thank both Beth Elliot and Rena Shulsky for their generous support of my work. I would like to thank my colleagues at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy for their support, ideas and critical insights. In particular, thanks go to Danielle Kaplan, Lisa Napolitano and Dennis Tirch for their valuable ideas about the nature of relationships and emotion. Special thanks goes to my research assistant, David Fazzari, who has been an essential part of our research programme. I also want to thank Philip Tata of the BABCP for being an enthusiastic and caring friend.
Of course there can be little knowledge or insight on these things without the support and guidance of patients, and we both wish to acknowledge our debt to their effort to educate us on the value of the therapeutic relationship, especially during their times of struggle. You can only understand relationships by living them; both of us have been fortunate to have found partners with whom we have been able to grow and we appreciate the love, patience and support of our wives. Bob is grateful to Helen, who has had to endure his obsessive preoccupation with his work as well as the “over-the-top” nature of his often infectious humour. Paul is grateful to Jean for all her love, deep friendship and encouragement over many years, and for smiling sweetly while listening to yet another (dreadful) CD of his guitar playing. The advice of “don’t give up the day job” is probably wise.
For these and other reasons we dedicate this book to our beloved and long-suffering wives, Jean and Helen.