This text offers a comprehensive introduction to the basic tenets of mental health-related counseling. Aimed at graduate-level students studying mental health counseling, school counseling, or similarly related professions, this text will enable students to become familiar with the foundational skills required to implement various counseling approaches and to work in diverse counseling environments. The first section of the text presents a contemporary introduction to the practice of professional helping. It addresses the basics of helping relationships with an emphasis on understanding the ways in which these relationships are shaped by power, privilege, and experiences of bias and discrimination. Readers are introduced to the concepts of social discourse and positioning theory. These theories offer insight into many of the challenges that clients bring in to therapy, so understanding them augments the ways in which we think about clients and about helping. This section also includes a basic overview of interpersonal neurobiology to help students understand the complex connections between human behavior and the central nervous system, particularly in regard to the expression of empathy, affect regulation, and complex trauma. Finally, this first section provides an overview of ethical practice and the importance of self-awareness and self-care. With these foundational ideas in place, the second section of the text delves into particular counseling skills that can be used in individual counseling work, in leading groups, and in crisis response. These skills range from communicating empathy, attentive listening, and asking questions, to using paraphrases, immediacy, confrontation, and many additional additive skills. Readers are also introduced to some basic change strategies that can be used across modalities. These include problem solving, affect regulation, motivating change, mindfulness, advocacy, and other transmodality change strategies. The text concludes with separate chapters on basic skills for working with groups and crisis response work. Designed to introduce fundamental skills in helping to mental health counselors, as well as clinicians across a variety of professional disciplines, Helping Skills for Counselors is an invaluable resource for students of mental health counseling, school counseling, social work, and psychology. For a look at the specific features and benefits of Helping Skills for Counselors, visit cognella.com/helping-skills-for-counselors-features-and-benefits.

Written specifically for non-clinical undergraduate students, but also relevant to graduate studies in helping professions, Skills for Helping Professionals, by Anne M. Geroski focuses on helping students develop the skills they need to effectively initiate and maintain helping relationships. After exploring the literature identifying critical components of helping relationships and briefly reviewing developmental and helping theories, the text covers such topics as the helping process, self-awareness, and ethics in helping, and then focuses on specific helping skills such as listening and hearing, empathy, reflecting, paraphrasing, questioning, clarifying, exploring, and offering feedback, encouragement, and psycho-education. The final chapters focus on individuals in crisis and helping in groups.

Helping Skills Training for Nonprofessional Counselors provides comprehensive training in mental health first aid. Through a trusted approach, grounded in evidence-based psychological research and counseling theory, this training manual provides step-by-step instruction in helping skills written exclusively for nonprofessionals. Focusing on the basics of nonprofessional counseling, the author has written an easy-to-read text that pinpoints strategies, action steps, and investigation procedures to be used by nonprofessionals to effectively aid those in distress. The LifeRAFT model integrates multi-theoretical bases, microskills training, evidence-based techniques, and instruction on ethical appropriateness. It also includes case studies, session transcripts, and practice exercises. With undergraduate students in applied psychology and nonprofessional counselors being the primary beneficiaries of this text, it is also ideal for anyone seeking training to effectively respond to mental health crises encountered in their everyday lives.

This book presents a three-stage model of helping, grounded in 25 years of research, that can be used to assist individuals who are struggling with emotional or transitional difficulties. To master the skills they need to lead clients through the Exploration, Insight, and Action stages, students are given both theoretical guidance and opportunities for formulating solutions to hypothetical clinical problems. Grounded in client-centered, psychoanalytic, and cognitive-behavioral theory, this book offers an integrative approach. Tables and lists supplement the text, along with clinical examples.--From publisher's description.

Helping Skills for Counselors and Health Professionals provides a model of foundational helping skills that is grounded in a multicultural framework. Chapters explicitly examine implicit bias and the role of culture and systems of oppression and marginalization within the lives of both individuals and communities. The text also uses ecological systems theory to assist readers in conceptualizing the ways in which culture influences communication styles, perceptions of professional helpers, and individual needs. Readers will be introduced to concepts that increase awareness of micro and macro-level influences on helping skills, communication, and the patient’s life. Within the book’s multicultural framework, readers will also find tools for increasing self-awareness for improving the communication skills and cultural humility.

Counseling and Helping Skills: Critical Techniques to Becoming a Counselor provides counselors and other helping professionals with a complete guide to developing the skills and competencies necessary to support a diverse spectrum of clients. The text is divided into two sections. Part I begins with a chapter that describes nine characteristics of an effective counselor and then moves on to chapters that examine foundational, essential, and commonly used skills. Some skills discussed include nonverbal behaviors, forming an equal relationship, non-pathologizing, honoring and respecting clients, listening, empathy, affirmation giving, offering alternatives, self-disclosure, modeling, collaboration, and more. A separate chapter on information-gathering and solution-focused questions is provided next. Part I concludes with a chapter on specialized skills such as advocacy, assessment for lethality, confrontation, cognitive-behavioral responses, interpretation, positive counseling, life-coaching, and crisis, trauma, and disaster counseling. Part II focuses on treatment issues, including chapters dedicated to case conceptualization; case management, such as DSM-5, psychotropic medications, writing case notes, and more; cultural competency, which describes models of culturally competent counseling and considerations when working with eleven select populations; ethical, professional, and legal issues, which examines the purpose of ethical codes, ethical decision-making, ten critical areas in ethical codes, vignettes, best practices, and malpractice insurance. Comprehensive in nature and filled with valuable insight, Counseling and Helping Skills is ideal for graduate-level counseling and related programs. It can also be used by those entering the helping professions to support their transition into the field and serve as a helpful ongoing reference. For a look at the specific features and benefits of Counseling and Helping Skills, visit cognella.com/counseling-and-helping-skills-features-and-benefits.

With its practical, experiential approach, the Second Edition of Applied Helping Skills: Transforming Lives covers the basic skills and core interventions needed to begin seeing clients. By approaching therapy as an art rather than from a prescriptive diagnostic position, this text encourages readers to look at every situation differently and draw from their embedded knowledge to best serve the individuals in their care. Authors Leah Brew and Jeffrey A. Kottler weave humor and passion into their engaging prose, effectively conveying their excitement and satisfaction for doing helping work.

Readers will be introduced to the three core approaches of counselling, coaching and mentoring, and shown how they work across a variety of settings, including therapy, teaching, social work and nursing. Part 1 takes readers through the theory, approaches and skills needed for helping work, and includes chapters on: The differences and similarities of counselling, coaching and mentoring Foundational and advanced skills for effective helping Supervision and reflective practice Ethical helping and working with diversity Part 2 shows how helping skills look in practice, in a variety of different helping professions. 10 specially-written case studies show you the intricacies of different settings and client groups, including work in schools, hospitals, telephone helplines and probation programs.

This practical bestseller from leading expert Richard Nelson-Jones introduces the essential counselling skills for the helping professions. Now in its fourth edition, it guides you through the key skills for helping work across a range of settings, such as counselling, nursing, social work, youth work, education and many more. It explores 17 key counselling skills, including: -asking questions -monitoring -facilitating problem solving -negotiating homework Each chapter describes a particular skill, illustrates it using clear case examples across a range of settings and then helps you consolidate and practise what you′ve learned through a set of creative activities. Further chapters cover professional issues including a new chapter on managing crises and chapters on ethical dilemmas, supervision, working with diversity and more.

Counselling skills are very powerful. Really listening and providing compassionate empathy without judging is a core part of social work practice with service users. This book provides a theoretically informed understanding of the core skills required to provide counselling interventions that work. It provides detailed discussion of three core skills which are identified as: talking and responding, listening and observing and thinking. Over 11 chapters these core skills are described in terms of what they mean, how they can be learned and developed, how they can be used and misused and, most importantly, how specific skills can be employed in a coherent and evidence-informed counselling approach. Loughran also looks in detail at the skills required to deliver interventions consistent with three approaches: Motivational Interviewing, Solution-Focused Work and Group work. Illustrative case examples and exercises offer further opportunities for reflection and exploration of self-awareness as well as for practising and enhancing skills development, thus making the book required reading for all social work students, professionals looking to develop their counselling skills and those working in the helping professions more generally. Terms such as social worker, therapist and counsellor will be included as they inform counselling skills in social work.