Lessons from the Therapy Room

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Beware of thinking that you fully understand your client. – Duncan Kitchin

No training course can teach you what thirty years in the therapy room can. In this collection of 91 candid, hard-won reflections, veteran psychotherapist and clinical supervisor Duncan Kitchin shares the wrinkles, wisdom, and unspoken truths that shaped his three-decade career – the things his supervisees kept telling him they wished someone had taught them.

From the first “What shall I call you?” to the final, unpredictable goodbye, Kitchin walks through the real texture of practice: the addictions clients never mention in the initial meeting, the questions therapists don’t ask about sex, and the silent signals of a room’s décor, a client’s coat, or the things a therapist notices without ever being told. He writes with equal honesty about breakthroughs and about the moments that stopped him in his tracks – a question that unravelled a client’s sense of home, the client who told him he’d never make a therapist if he let clients upset him, and thirty years of learning why she was wrong.

This is not a textbook of theory, but a book of practical, DIY craft – the kind of insight usually passed on quietly, one supervision session at a time. Warm, wry, and unflinchingly honest, it’s essential reading for trainee and practising therapists alike, and a rare, humane window for anyone curious about what really happens on the other side of the therapy room door.

About Duncan Kitchin

Duncan Kitchin graduated from Hull University in 1964 with a BSc (Econ), and was named Student of the Year. He went on to teach Statistics, Economics and Organisations in universities at Liverpool, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam, Nottingham, Nottingham Ningbo (China), Loughborough and the Open University. During his academic career, he published books with Penguin, Sage, Elsevier and Routledge. Alongside his university work, Duncan trained at the Sherwood Psychotherapy Training Institute in Nottingham, and practised as a psychotherapist from 1993 until 2023. He also worked as a clinical supervisor from 2012 to 2023. He established the Counselling Services at both Sheffield University and Nottingham Ningbo. Lessons from the Therapy Room, written between 2018 and 2026, draws on the lessons Duncan learned, and continued to learn, over 30 years as a psychotherapist. In retirement, he writes poetry and performs at open mic poetry evenings.