This book brings together the practical experience of 14 professionals working in various specialisms within counselling, making it one of the most authoritative general counselling books in this area.

'This exciting book provides a satisfying blend of theory and practice with vignettes of practice that bring the text to life.'Dr Graham Curtis Jenkins, Director, Counselling in Primary Care Trust. 'This is an excellent text that deals with the burgeoning areas of counselling and communication skills.'British Journal of Medical Psychology. 'It gives useful diagrams and models for interviewing, illustrating the text throughout with real patients. Overall it is an interesting and very readable book.'Practice Nurse. 'Although all the chapters are good, those dealing with "listening to stories about illness and health" and "rehabilitation counselling" are particularly impressive. I would not hesitate in recommending this book to nurses.'Journal of Community Nursing.

• Background. 1. Counselling and Communication in health care.2. Looking after yourself..General Skills.3. Listening: some basic qualities and skills.4. Listening to stories about illness and health: applying the lessons of narrative psychology.5. Mental illness and communication.6. Increasing multicultural competence.7. Psychological type (Myers-Briggs).8. Group Membership..Specialised Skills and Settings.9. Talking to children and adolescents about life, death and sex.10. Talking about sexuality and sexual problems.11. Working with infertility.12. Solution-focused brief therapy: from hierarchy to collaboration.13. Communicating about ethical dilemmas: a medical humanities approach.14. Rehabilitation counselling.