PERSONAL COUNSELING SKILLS

Book excerpt: This revised first edition is a comprehensive, easy-to-read introduction to personal counseling written for professional and volunteer counselors and those who train them. A major new addition to the book, making it particularly attractive to those who train counselors, is the inclusion of training group exercises for all skills chapters. After reading a particular chapter, the exercises relating to that chapter, in part VI of the book, can be used by trainers to greatly enhance the learning process. These exercises have been found to be popular with both students and those teaching them. The chapters describing basic and more advanced counseling skills are arranged in a sequence that is particularly suitable when teaching student counselors to learn and practice using these skills for the first time. The authors adopt an integrative approach that allows the reader to learn, understand, and use skills taken from major counseling approaches, and to integrate these into a sequential process that maximizes the possibility of facilitating change in clients. Of considerable value for new counselors are those sections of the book that describe the fundamental principles of the counseling relationship, and explain the theories of change applicable to the various approaches to counseling. Unique features include: a highly practical integrative approach; discussion of the specific skills required for success; practical suggestions on ways to learn and develop new skills; an understanding of the role of a counselor’s supervisor; information on practical issues such as keeping records, arrangement of the counseling room, and ways to look after yourself as a counselor; plus practical information on issues of confidentiality and professional ethics. The text will serve as a valuable resource for workers in a wide variety of helping professions where counseling skills are useful, such as psychology, social work, welfare work, medicine, nursing, human services, and education.