Jul 11, 2014 | Book Reviews
The role of sexuality in the mental health profession can be somewhat blurry for both the novice and the trained counselor. Stephanie Buehler, MPW, PsyD, and certified sex therapist skillfully tackles this issue in her book, What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know about Sex. She demystifies the role of sex in therapy by expanding mental health professionals’ knowledge of common sexual issues through outlining stereotypes, appropriate language, sexual anatomy, sexual health and sexual problems, as well as assessment and treatment.
In Chapter 2, Buehler challenges counselors to dispute their present belief system, modifying any current rules they have about topics of sexuality within therapy. Buehler cites Ford and Hendrick’s (2003) report that counselors tend to view promiscuous clients as having more pathology, highlighting the prevalence of this conservative sexual worldview found among counselors. After bringing awareness to this issue, Buehler quickly changes gears and focuses on sexual anatomy (Chapter 3), providing scholarly terms and definitions for both sexual anatomy and the stages of psychosexual development. Next, Chapter 4 references the World Health Organization when defining sexual health as the absence of disease, dysfunction, or infertility and the presence of positive sexuality.
Buehler also identifies sexual health problems unique to both women (Chapter 6) and men (Chapter 7), since addressing potential health issues is imperative in order to further tailor treatment goals for each sex. For instance, the author provides multiple tips for helping men reduce sexual dysfunction and increase sexual health. Transitioning towards couples, she offers several sexual exploration activities to help increase intimacy and sex. Buehler’s ecosystemic approach guides professionals in assessing couples’ sexual problems (Chapter 8) in accordance with their personal development and interaction with others. Additionally, the author provides a comprehensive list of questions to help counselors assess for numerous influences on each partner’s sexuality and/or sexual-related issues. When bringing to light the emotional distance of couples, the author emphasizes, “When sex goes, love withers.”
Throughout the remainder of the book, Buehler offers insight into various populations particularly affected by sexual issues. The overarching goal of the author is to provide knowledge, increase awareness, and highlight counseling implications for these groups. Chapter 9 addresses parents’ questions about sex, providing a framework for helping parents learn to appropriately share sexual information with their children. Chapter 10 covers therapy with sexual minorities, addressing gaps in practitioners’ knowledge of special issues for LGBTQ individuals. The author believes it is necessary for clinicians to expand their knowledge of the LGBTQ community and other sexual-minority populations, because a counselor’s acceptance of his or her client is crucial for therapeutic success. Furthermore, flexibility from the counselor will also facilitate counseling sessions regarding topics like gender, age, and lifestyle preference (e.g., swinging, polyamory, etc.). In the remaining chapters, Buehler discusses other sexuality issues including sexual abuse, pain disorders, reproduction, medical problems, aging, problematic pornography viewing, and alternate sexual practices.
What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know about Sex provides a framework to expand upon the reader’s current knowledge of sexual issues with diverse populations. Moreover, it serves as a guide containing techniques for mental health professionals to utilize in their future work with clients.
Reviewed by: Kelley Holladay, NCC, doctoral student, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.
Buehler, S. (2014). What every mental health professional needs to know about sex. New York, NY: Springer.
The Professional Counselor
http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org
Jun 5, 2014 | Book Reviews
Set against a backdrop of survival, Michael Bloom’s Thinking Like a Therapist provides readers with a different approach to the typical case study. The author follows a young couple through an immense tragedy and subsequent strife, inviting the reader on a journey through isolation and its effects on the couple’s relationship. In a unique conceptualization of a case study, the author juxtaposes scenes of the couple fighting for their lives with scenes of the couple in therapy sessions, as though they can magic themselves from the wilderness to the therapist’s office. Each chapter has three sections: journal entries narrating part of the couple’s adventures, a dialogue between the couple and the therapist, and a discussion of the therapist’s goals and interventions in the preceding therapy session. The book offers a new approach to discussing mental health therapy in a more entertaining fashion than typical counseling books.
What Bloom does exceptionally well is illuminate the inner workings of a therapist’s mind. He offers readers well-articulated insights into the mind of a highly competent therapist, which is an excellent learning tool for those studying the art of counseling. The therapist acts with intentionality, and Bloom clearly demonstrates the process of translating thought into action. Novice counselors will learn the importance of intentionality as well as the importance of implementing structure into counseling.
Readers unfamiliar with the counseling field will be introduced to what counseling looks like and how the process of change manifests itself outside sessions. Even though the events surrounding the young couple are extreme in nature, what surfaces during their excursion is highly relatable to anyone who has been in an intimate relationship. Among the many issues the couple work through are joint decision making, depression, differentiation, boundaries, jealousy, and sexual intimacy. Bloom describes the couple’s struggles and successes with the eye of a behavioral expert. Ultimately, all readers will find the implications of Bloom’s book realistic and applicable.
Reviewed by: Joseph M. Graham, Jr., doctoral student in counselor education, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL.
Bloom, M. (2013). Thinking like a therapist: A novel overview of psychotherapy. Sioux Falls, SD: Cogitavi.
Jun 5, 2014 | Book Reviews
In A Counselor’s Introduction to Neuroscience, the authors claim that “neurocounseling” is the fifth force in the history of psychology and counseling. Although a precise and detailed definition of neurocounseling is elusive (both in this book and in the professional literature), it is described as the marriage of counseling and neurobiology. They offer a crash course in brain anatomy, function and development in order to lay the groundwork for how neurocounseling can be used effectively with clients. Several chapters focus on the ways the brain is affected by certain mental disorders, and how specific counseling approaches address various brain regions and functions. The remainder of the book focuses on assessment of brain function and fictional cases to illustrate neurocounseling techniques. The chapters include numerous tables, figures, cases and opportunities to stop and reflect. The overall intent of the book is to arm counselors “with yet another highly effective and efficient way to help clients cope with (overcome, etc.) their personal psychological distress.”
Although the authors are clearly enamored with the interaction between neurobiology and counseling, they purposefully offer honest words of caution regarding the nascent and speculative nature of contemporary brain science. However, on occasion, they also make promising statements without citing scientific evidence and generalize results from animal studies (including rodents) to humans without offering their reasoning for doing so. As with any other resource, practitioners are responsible for weighing information and evaluating whether it is accurate and whether it will be helpful in their work. It is important to note that this book bills itself as an “introduction”—readers should not expect concrete or realistic examples of how professional counselors can use their new neuroscience knowledge to understand and enhance client functioning.
A Counselor’s Introduction to Neuroscience will help counselors begin to grapple with the implications of neuroscience for our profession. Although the neuroscience knowledge base that the authors provide is a good start, scientific rigor in terms of concrete application would be useful. Years from now, neurocounseling may well be a new force in counseling, but presenting it to the counseling community as an effective and efficient way to help clients today is premature. In the end, it is best to consider this book as a reasonable beginning and food for thought rather than a how-to guide for counselors seeking neurocounseling training. Hopefully in the ensuing years, there will be clearer guidance available to help professional counselors integrate neuroscience into their practice.
Reviewed by: Tara Smart and John Sommers-Flanagan, University of Montana.
McHenry, B., Sikorski, A. M., & McHenry, J. (2014). A counselor’s introduction to neuroscience. New York, NY: Routledge.
Available at http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415662284/
Feb 28, 2014 | Book Reviews
Conceptualization and Treatment Planning for Effective Helping by Barbara F. Okun and Karen L. Suyemoto (2013) is presented as a two-section book. The chapters in section one are intended to facilitate the choice and development of a theoretical orientation for counseling trainees. These chapters intend to accentuate the connection that exists between theoretical approaches to counseling and the specific implications in formulating a case conceptualization, as well as a sound treatment plan. Section two of the book focuses on the process of conceptualization and treatment planning. This section incorporates an integrative approach and is intended to be more practically oriented.
The specific goals stated by the authors of this book are: (1) assist counselors-in-training in developing their own theoretical orientation; (2) explore the conceptualization process in light of specific theoretical approaches; (3) identify the impact that the counselors’ and clients’ worldviews, as well as their therapeutic relationships, have in case conceptualization and treatment planning; (4) assist counselors-in-training in gathering, organizing and integrating information necessary for case conceptualization and treatment planning; and (5) further develop the case conceptualization and treatment planning skills of counselors-in-training.
Section one of the book mainly focuses on the strong connection between the counselor-in-training’s understanding of change, his or her theoretical orientation and the formulation of a case conceptualization. A significant emphasis is placed on the counselor’s worldview and how it affects the understanding of clients, formulation of a case conceptualization and treatment plan, as well as the course and outcomes of counseling. The authors assume an ecological perspective and stress the importance of looking at both the counselor and client contexts. From a multicultural, advocacy and a social justice perspective, this section of the book facilitates a brief but comprehensive understanding of how these very important relational factors play a concrete role in the process of understanding both the client’s and counselor’s perspective, as well as the implications for case conceptualization and intervention.
The main goal in section two of the book is to help counselors apply their self-awareness, skills in gathering and incorporating information from clients, and understanding of the process of problem formation and change to case conceptualization and treatment planning. The authors used an integrative approach to illustrate this process and emphasize the continuous nature of the case conceptualization and treatment process. This section includes several significant contributions, including the emphasis placed on integrating information provided by multiple sources in the client’s systems, the connection to issues of multicultural competent diagnosis, and the iterative nature of the conceptualization process as an event that needs to be revisited and developed continuously and collaboratively with clients.
In general, the authors do a great job of formulating the basic parameters that could be used by advanced counselors-in-training in the often-confusing process of selecting a theoretical approach. They specifically facilitate a practical and reflective context in which counselors-in-training are able to explore the influences in their personal world views. They are able to explore, for instance, the relationship between their ideas of problem formation, change, power, privilege, health, and pathology and how this influences the choice of a specific theoretical approach. A point they are trying to make throughout the book is the importance of looking at the case conceptualization and treatment planning process through the lens of both the client and the counselor, as well as considering the issues that arise because of their interaction, and the contexts in which these interactions occur.
The authors provide specific reflective and practical strategies to illustrate the process of organizing and integrating information at different points of the case conceptualization and treatment planning process. As a whole, the book provides a good integration of conceptualization and treatment planning, and explores the connection between these factors and other aspects of the counseling process, from initial assessment and establishing therapeutic rapport to evaluation and termination.
Okun, B. F., & Suyemoto, K. L. (2013). Conceptualization and treatment planning for effective helping. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Reviewed by: Raul Machuca, NCC, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL.
The Professional Counselor Journal
HOME PAGE
Feb 28, 2014 | Book Reviews
The counselor’s role when working with an individual with a life-threatening illness is not always straightforward. Counselors sometimes do not know or fully understand how to work with these clients, as treatment is frequently exclusively biological and often ignores psychological, social and spiritual factors. However, Doka stresses the importance of interdisciplinary teams using the biopsychosocial-spiritual model in the treatment of individuals with life-threatening illness. In his book, Doka clearly outlines and demystifies the role of counselors who are working with these individuals and their families.
The second edition of Counseling Individuals with Life-Threatening Illness includes updated information, such as models of concurrent care and counseling families throughout life-threatening illness and during the grieving process. Following a brief introduction, Doka begins Chapter 2 by discussing historical perspectives on dying and illness, and then explores early and contemporary contributions on dying. Doka follows with a chapter on the seven sensitivities of effective professional caregivers: sensitivity to the whole person, pain and discomfort, communication, autonomy, needs, cultural differences and treatment goals (Chapter 3). He thoroughly depicts each of these sensitivities, and then describes the specific skills counselors need in order to work effectively with families and individuals impacted by life-threatening illness (Chapter 4). In this chapter, Doka includes a discussion on sensitivity to various age groups, populations and generational cohorts, as life-threatening illness impacts individuals in various phases of the life cycle in vastly different ways. This segment includes information on working with children, adolescents, older adults and individuals with intellectual disabilities. Chapter 5 describes possible responses to life-threatening illness, including physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral and spiritual responses. Doka outlines the role counselors have in assisting clients with recognizing how they are impacted in each of these areas when responding to the crisis of illness. For counselors who desire to strengthen their understanding of the illness experience, Chapter 6 provides a discussion on the numerous factors that may influence the client’s experience of illness.
Chapters 7–11 recommend ways to effectively work with clients in each phase of illness: “The Prediagnostic Phase: Understanding the Road Before,” “Counseling Clients Through the Crisis of Diagnosis,” “Counseling Clients in the Chronic Phase of Illness,” “Counseling Clients in Recovery,” and “Counseling Clients in the Terminal Phase.” Doka gives a great deal of attention to assisting the client with expressing his or her feelings and fears, as well as preserving and redefining relationships with family members, friends, and caregivers. Chapter 12 explores ways to counsel families throughout each phase of a life-threatening illness, including how to continue to work with these individuals following the death of their loved one.
Counseling Individuals with Life-Threatening Illness provides a practical guide for counselors who work with clients and families impacted by life-threatening illness. The language and content are appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as workshops and trainings for professionals. Doka integrates examples from his own personal work with clients, which makes the application of concepts and theories presented in this book easy to comprehend. Doka also includes an appendix with discussion questions, role-playing scenarios, and case studies that may be used for workshops, trainings, or activities in a classroom setting. As the healthcare system continues to evolve, Counseling Individuals with Life-Threatening Illness is a valuable resource for counselors as they find themselves working on interdisciplinary teams with individuals and families impacted by life-threatening illness.
Doka, K. J. (2014). Counseling individuals with life-threatening illness (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Reviewed by: Rebecca G. Cowan, NCC, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Portsmouth, VA.
The Professional Counselor
HOME PAGE
Dec 18, 2013 | Book Reviews
Written in a clear, concise and strategically delineated manner, The Clinician’s Guide to Psychological Assessment and Testing: With Forms and Templates for Effective Practice is written for people seeking a better understanding of various psychological tests and how those tests can inform professional practice. The author of this book, Dr. John Spores, clearly meets his stated purpose, to provide practicing clinical or counseling psychologists with a reference volume to inform their testing practice. I would note, however, that this volume can also help professionals from the fields of counseling, psychology, social work, and other related fields understand more fully how standardized psychological testing can inform their clinical work.
In order to do this, Dr. Spores has divided his book into three parts. The first section reviews the process of psychological assessment and standardized testing. In the introductory chapter, he makes a clear and convincing case for the use of standardized psychological testing as a way to augment and sometimes even surpass clinical interviews. Most helpful is his delineation of how the process of testing should be done and what events need to happen for the process to be done correctly. The author is also an attorney, and this comes out in the straightforward and step-wise manner in which he describes this process.
In the first section, the reader is introduced to one of the most useful aspects of this book. The author has provided numerous forms and templates for each of the processes for psychological testing. It should be noted that the author’s in-text references to the provided forms and templates are extremely helpful. For example, when the author writes about how referral sources make a referral for testing, he provides an excellent example at the end of the chapter of a “Psychological Test Referral Form.” This is consistent throughout the book. When the author references a form or report of some type, he provides an example of that form or report at the end of the chapter. This gives readers a concrete example, something they can immediately reference to understand the ideas and concepts discussed in this guide. This invaluable resource is also available in electronic format on the publisher’s Web site.
The author continues to inform the reader in section two with concrete examples of the standardized tests used in psychological testing. Divided into subsections, the section provides the reader with information about widely known and utilized tests in the following areas: (1) intelligence tests; (2) achievement tests; (3) neuropsychological tests; (4) symptom rating scales; (5) self-report clinical and personality inventories; (6) examiner-administered personality tests; and (7) adaptive behavior tests. To help clinicians even better understand the process of selecting and administering these types of tests, each subsection has four parts: a description of the construct being measured; the diagnostic reasons for conducting such a test; insurance billing and coverage issues; and examples of common tests used to measure the described construct. The author is clear that the example tests he lists are those that he likes to use for measuring a described construct, and he gives compelling reasons why he believes that they are appropriate choices.
In the final section, section three, the author provides specific case examples of children, adolescents and adults for whom standardized tests have served as a means of identifying areas of clinical concerns. These vital case examples demonstrate how the testing process can work to a clinician’s advantage in providing the best care for clients.
The only caveat to this book is that Dr. Spores assumes that the reader is trained in diagnostic interviewing, psychometrics, and administering and scoring the tests presented and discussed in this book. Accordingly, those readers who are not familiar with the common standardized tests presented in this book (e.g., Wechsler tests, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Rorschach) may find themselves at a disadvantage. Dr. Spores does acknowledge his assumption in the Introduction, and those readers who are not familiar with these tests may benefit from some additional reading and training before attempting to utilize this guide.
Overall, this is an excellent guide to the use and administration of psychological tests. It provides straightforward directions and instructions on how to utilize testing in such a way as to better inform clinical practice. I could see this book as a mainstay on any counselor’s bookshelf, especially those who are seeking a way to utilize standardized testing in their practice.
Spores, J. M. (2013). Clinician’s guide to psychological assessment and testing: With forms and templates for effective practice. New York, NY: Springer.
Reviewed by: Joseph P. Jordan, North Carolina Physicians Health Program and North Carolina Veterinary Health Program, Raleigh, NC.
The Professional Counselor Journal
HOME PAGE
