Expertise In Counseling And Psychotherapy

Thomas Skovholt and Len Jennings' landmark Master Therapists: Exploring Expertise in Therapy and Counseling was the first book to apply qualitative methodology to the study of validly selected expert therapists. Considering the growing number of international qualitative studies on psychotherapy expertise, the authors join forces once again to provide students, academics, researchers, and practitioners with Expertise in Counseling and Psychotherapy: Master Therapist Studies from Around the World. In this book, Jennings and Skovholt compile and compare, for the first time, a series of parallel studies of expertise in psychotherapy from around the world. The studies include therapist expertise research projects in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Japan, and Korea), North America (the U.S.A. and Canada), and Europe (Czech Republic and Portugal). Synthesizing and presenting common characteristics of master practitioners on a global scale, Expertise in Counseling and Psychotherapy is the most comprehensive description of psychotherapy expertise at the international level that has ever been conducted.

In this 10th Anniversary text, Thomas M. Skovholt and Len Jennings paint an elaborate portrait of expert or "master" therapists. The book contains extensive qualitative research from three doctoral dissertations and an additional research study conducted over a seven-year period on the sameten master therapists. This intensive research project on master therapists, those considered the "best of the best" by their colleagues, is the most extensive research on high-level functioning of mental health professionals ever done. Therapists and counselors can use the insights gained from thisbook as potential guidelines for use in their own professional development. Furthermore, training programs may adopt it in an effort to develop desirable characteristics in their trainees.Featuring a brand new Preface and Epilogue, this 10th Anniversary Edition of Master Therapists revisits a landmark text in the field of counseling and therapy.

In this work, qualitative studies on psychotherapy expertise from the USA, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Portugal, and the Czech Republic are compiled and synthesized. Understanding the universal characteristics of expert therapists practicing around the world provides training programs and mental health practitioners with a heuristic for optimal therapist and counselor development.

What is it that makes some therapists so much more effective than others, even when they are delivering the same evidence-based treatment? This instructive book identifies specific interpersonal skills and attitudes--often overlooked in clinical training--that facilitate better client outcomes across a broad range of treatment methods and contexts. Reviewing 70 years of psychotherapy research, the preeminent authors show that empathy, acceptance, warmth, focus, and other characteristics of effective therapists are both measurable and teachable. Richly illustrated with annotated sample dialogues, the book gives practitioners and students a blueprint for learning, practicing, and self-monitoring these crucial clinical skills.

This engaging, straightforward, and easy-to-read text is designed to prepare students for beginning mental health practice by helping them develop an overall appreciation of counseling and psychotherapy, along with the basic skills they will need to work effectively with clients. Skill-building exercises throughout the text help students master four types of skills: personal and professional development skills (including cultural sensitivity), communication skills, skills associated with the client's thoughts (cognitive skills), and skills associated with the client's emotions (affective skills).

Many textbooks teach the practice of counselling to new learners by relying on basic ideas generated before the 1970s and grafting more recent developments onto this foundation as optional modalities. David Pare avoids this trap. He does not assume that the world has not changed or that innovative ideas that demand attention are not constantly being produced. Neither does he dismiss the foundations of counselling laid a generation or two ago as irrelevant. Instead he weaves into them new emphases drawn from the most creative practices of recent decades and makes them relevant to students learning the basics of practice. Specifically, ideas drawn from the turn to meaning are placed alongside well-established traditions of counselling.

"This is a superb book, rich in understanding of human behavior and creative in helping clients grow and change....If you aspire to be great in this profession, you will use up a highlighter on this book." -Kevin Elko, PhD Author of The Pep Talk and True Greatness "It is rare for a book in counseling to enlighten its readers and enable them to see the profession, themselves, and their clients in an original, enhanced, and productive wayÖ. Conte is a master storyteller, a clear communicator, an innovative thinker, and a creative therapist." Samuel T. Gladding, PhD Chair and Professor, Department of Counseling Wake Forest University This book presents advanced techniques, concepts, and models that have proven to be both practical and readily usable for counselors who work with individuals, couples, families, and children. Dr. Conte provides in-depth coverage of a wide array of therapies, including metaphor, creative, projective, and classic. This collection of advanced, creative techniques, each accompanied with detailed case studies, will prove useful for both health professionals and counseling students. Key Features: Provides guidelines for some of the basics, such as active listening, empathizing, self-disclosure, and dealing with resistance Guidelines for using classic techniques include Adler's Push-Button technique, the ABC Model, and eye integration therapy Includes introductions to the author's original models such as the "Five Errors of Communication" and the "Four C's of Parenting" Using lucid, engaging prose, this book contains all the essential, creative, and advanced techniques that every counselor, psychotherapist, and educator should know.