This book explores the interplay between how we talk and how we relate. We learn to relate before we learn to talk, and every conversation depends on making sense of our interactions as much as our language. Conversation has the potential to bring us a deeper and clearer perspective, but we are also capable of getting lost or into a mess.

Tackling this and offering a means to improve conversational skill for those who depend on it (e.g. teachers, nurses, managers) as well as anyone seeking the courage, compassion and curiosity to have better conversations and relationships, Talking with a Map presents a series of simple steps for making word maps of discussions as they develop.

These maps track the hidden patterns in what we say and how we relate to each other while speaking, making visible the links and gaps in our discussions and helping us to achieve a shared understanding of conversations.

Reviews

‘This beautifully written book is a timely reminder of the importance of dialogue and the simplicity and complexity of talking. We need to remember how to talk now more than ever with the challenges modern society faces. This book starts a dialogue about how to do this. It is one to read over and over until tatty and well-loved.’ –Jenny Marshall, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, TEWV NHS Trust

‘Conversations around the world could be made easier with the knowledge from this book. Steve Potter shows how mapping enhances our ability to have conversations that are more co-creative and meaningful, and how it supports us to have a deeper, more integrated connection with ourselves, others and the world around us.’ –Siobain Bonfield, Psychology Discipline Senior, Peninsula Health, Melbourne

‘This rich and finely textured analysis of being conversational and relational opens doors and windows to therapeutic rooms and ‘mapscapes’. It will be considered a key text in the world of Cognitive Analytic Therapy, and for those who are CAT-curious or interested in conversational awareness in therapy, it is a gift and a joy.’ –Sandy McAfee, Clinical Psychologist, Scotland

About the Author
STEVE POTTER is a psychotherapist who is teaches and supervises Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) and its application to reflective practice in the UK and internationally. His central interest is in the co-creative process of relational mapping, and how it allows us to see and say things that otherwise might be too complex to hold in mind. He is co-editor of the International Journal of Cognitive Analytic Therapy and Relational Mental Health, and the author of Therapy with a Map.