The first of the books, published in 2016, is by British PBSP Trainer, Juliet Grayson, and is titled, “Landscapes of the Heart.” This book focuses on couples counseling. The first half of the book is a clearly written introduction to couples counseling drawing on communications theories such as NLP (neuro linguistic programing) and some models that Grayson herself has come up with. The theoretical perspectives are presented via case presentations. Rather than just presenting theory, Grayson presents cases and uses them to illustrate how she works with couples. PBSP comes in, as most couples work eventually encounters, when it is apparent that the emotional development of the individuals becomes an unconscious obstacle to attaining good communication. Although Grayson has referred to PBSP, it isn’t until about halfway through the book that she presents a summary of PBSP theory and practice. She again does this by using case presentations. Her discussion of “magical marriage,” the phenomenon that Al Pesso expanded into the notion of holes in roles, was a refreshing reminder that the magical marriage is still alive and highly relevant as a subsection of the holes in roles dynamic. This book is both a very fine introduction to working with couples as well as an introduction to PBSP.

The second book, “Working with traumatic memories to heal adults with unresolved childhood trauma,” written by Petra Winnette and Jonathan Baylin, is an explicit, comprehensive summary of PBSP theory and practice. Winnette is well versed in attachment research while Baylin is an expert in the field of neuroscience. Both of these fields of attachment and neuroscience are used to bolster the scientific foundations of PBSP theory. Working with traumatic memories would be/is an excellent text book for a PBSP training program. While students of PBSP will want to read Al Pesso’s writings (available in electronic reader form at Amazon) it is very valuable to have a clearly written, very readable, summary of PBSP. Those of us who use PBSP in our individual work as well as in groups, will appreciate Winnette’s extensive case studies of her work with individuals. This book should be required reading for all students of PBSP.