Personal and Relational Construct Psychotherapy

This book introduces Personal and Relational Construct Psychotherapy, a development by the authors of an approach to psychotherapy originated in the 1950’s by George A. Kelly. Drawing on a lifetime of experience in working with people in mental health settings, Procter and Winter focus on the crucial relationships that form the context of human struggles, and how these can be a fertile resource in problem-resolution. The book provides step-by-step descriptions of assessment and therapeutic methods for working with individuals, families, and groups, as well as exploring the philosophical background of the approach, its application to formulation, supervision, and reflective practice, its relationships to other models of psychotherapy, and its evidence base. The book will be invaluable for psychotherapists, counsellors, and psychologists of all levels and traditions, and useful for students and trainees in health, education, social work, and any field involving helping people with thedifficulties of everyday life.

“This is a remarkable book, destined to become a point of reference in the large field of clinical psychology and psychotherapy. … This comprehensive, conceptually grounded and documented volume is a total pleasure to read. The reader is introduced to personal and relational construct psychotherapy through a compelling clinical case, which is accompanied in the following chapters by a clear and engaging style.” (Valeria Ugazio, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, May 20, 2022)

“Easy read it may be, but being able to write such a demanding book and deliver it as an easy read is all-together another matter. … The book is replete with a lot of useful knowledge … . Having read the book Personal and Relational Construct Psychotherapy I sincerely hope that it may represent the beginning of relationality which may start the eagerly awaited recovery of the interpretative paradigm preferred by many.” (Dušan Stojnov, Personal Construct Theory & Practice, Vol. 19, 2022)

“The book achieves its objectives extremely well. It is full to the brim with practical resources for therapists, and brings the richness and sophistication of Kelly’s legacy also to those unfamiliar with it.” (Raya Jones, Theory & Psychology, August 21, 2021)

“The notion of reflexivity is so brilliantly put in the context of truly democratizing the field of personal and group transformation. The book could so much contribute to initial education and training of psychologists, but also other professionals who define their job as creating change without resistance. The questions then is how to scale up and make the approach described in the book more widely available and accessible.” (Jelena Pavlovic, Journal of Constructivist Psychology, March 27, 2021)

“The quality of the writing is superb and the interlacing of theory and practice means that my attention never wandered even when the going was tough in terms of following the complexity of the material. I think this book will appeal to anybody who wants to enhance their therapeutic practice. It should be compulsory reading for trainee individual and relationship therapists and for trainee clinical psychologists.” (Andy Treacher, CONTEXT, Issue 173, February, 2021)

“A timely and important contribution to the psychotherapy literature. … The book gives a clear and concise overview of PCP and its underlying philosophy before Procter and Winter then extend Kelly’s theory to more clearly elaborate what Kelly had to say about interpersonal relationships … . This book should have a place on every psychotherapist’s bookshelf – either as a comprehensive introduction of PRCP in its own right, or to complement and enhance the practice of any other approach to psychotherapy.” (Kev Harding, The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy, Vol. 20 (4), 2020)

“Personal and Relational Construct Psychotherapy is a scholarly tome. It is extensively referenced and, between them, the authors demonstrate an impressive familiarity with contemporary developments in a range of psychological treatments, schools of philosophy, systemic therapy and research methodology as well as their predictably comprehensive understanding of Kelly’s own work. My three word summary – erudite; readable; original.” (David Green, Clinical Psychology Forum, Issue 336, December, 2020)

“In this magnum opus, Procter and Winter generously offer us the distilled wisdom and encyclopedic knowledge of two professional lifetimes spent in the creative extension of personal construct psychology and its application to psychotherapy.  Delving into the cornucopia of clinical cases, the fresh rendering of classical Kellian concepts, and their substantial elaboration by subsequent generations of construct theorists, I discovered a book as readable as it was comprehensive, and as practically relevant to my weekly work with clients as it was theoretically coherent.  For any helping professional who has ever wondered, “Whatever became of personal construct theory?” I recommend this book as the definitive, accessible, and eye-opening answer.  Or perhaps it is more than an answer--it is an invitation to deep and fruitful dialogue with a living tradition that has much to tell us and teach us half a century after the death of its founder.”

(Professor Robert A. Neimeyer, author of Constructivist Psychotherapy) 




“A fascinating presentation of Personal Construct Psychotherapy perspective and its developments through a relational key, expressing the growing convergences between systemic psychotherapies and Kelly’s clinical perspective. Richly researched and elegantly written, this remarkable book is destined to become a point of reference not only in the PCP world but also in the larger field of clinical psychology and psychotherapy”. 
(Professor Valeria Ugazio, University of Bergamo and and Scientific Director, European Institute of Systemic-relational Therapies, Milan, Italy)




“A well written, succint and updated primer for contemporary constructivist therapy based on both the Kellyan and systemic traditions, this book deserves to be read by psychotherapists of all orientations who are striving for fresh intellectual air. Indeed, the approach presented as “Personal and Relational Construct Psychotherapy” is a highly integrative endevaour offering ways of understanding human suffering in their relational context, with a strong focus on meanings (both shared and individual) rather than labels or personality types. Readers will find here the voice of two writers who have a lifelong experience as psychotherapists but with a strong grounding in the philosophical, theoretical, and scientific bases of their approach. The book is full of practical guidance and clinical tips, including a series of very specific questions to be used with clients or patients”.
(Professor Guillem Feixas, University of Barcelona, Spain)






“Understanding others – and thus the process of psychotherapy – requires that we take a credulous approach to the other… If there was ever a book that reveals how practitioners, theorists and researchers alike can engage the meanings that mediatethe mentalities of the other, it is this one.  …Procter and Winter…bring the reader through an engaging, accessible and thorough discussion of the nature of the conceptual and philosophical foundations of personal and relational construct psychotherapy; the process of constructivist clinical interviewing, assessment and case formulation; and the process of engaging in psychotherapy with individuals, couples, families and other groups. They have written a volume that is both comprehensive and succinct; practical and theoretically grounded; and readable without compromising conceptual rigor. It will be useful to practitioners, practitioners in training, graduate students, theorists, researchers, and anyone else who wishes to learn how to foster constructive transformation through deep interpersonal engagement”.


  (Professor Michael Mascolo, Merrimack College, Massachusetts, USA)




“Kelly’s work was extraordinarilythoughtful, and the authors don’t shy away from covering this depth, providing insight into the underlying philosophy of the approach, and giving a flavour of the context in which the ideas were formed. Above all, they capture the creativity which is perhaps a key feature of the therapy. For those whose only knowledge of personal construct psychotherapy is that it was a major influence on the development of cognitive psychotherapies, it may come as a surprise to read about the contemporary flavour of so much in this book, such as the approach to diagnoses and formulation, and the significant political dimension to the ideas. Case material brings the approach to life, and again may surprise some in the range of problems treated, with useful chapters on working with families and couples, groups, and supervision and reflective practice.”
(Dr Gary Latchford, University of Leeds clinical psychology training programme)

“This book is a guide for therapists helping people bring about change in their lives. …it advocates collaborative ways of assisting people solve problematic situations, by focusing on future possibilities, rather than over-emphasizing the past, and by treating relationships less as a hindrance, and more as a resource to be placed at the heart of therapy. The authors provide detailed research in relation to a variety of therapies, research that should inspire therapists who are struggling with restrictive policies in their own agencies. … For readers not already familiar with PCT, links with more familiar and conventional theories are helpfully spelled out, allowing for a rich integration of existing and novel ways of thinking and practising. The book provides a sympathetic critique of the systemic field, and makes a useful contribution to bridging the old gap between the first- and second-order approaches that troubled the family therapy field for so many years”.


(Sigurd Reimers, Family therapist, West of England)

Harry Procter is Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire, and was formerly a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the UK National Health Service, specialising for many years in working with families in both adult and child mental health and disability settings.





David Winter is Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. He has around 200 publications, primarily on personal construct psychology and psychotherapy research.