Kathryn C. MacCluskie – författare

For those developing and teaching Counselor Education courses in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling programs, this unique text will be a valuable resource. In it, experienced instructors provide guidance based on their own breadth of experiences, demonstrating how to design and implement an effective curriculum. Chapters cover course topics such as theories of counseling, multicultural counseling, legal and ethical issues, psychopharmacology, and many more. Each chapter is organized in the following sequence:an overview and objectives of the course, including CACREP standards criteria for evaluating a text and evaluations of the most popular texts used supplemental reading and web sites learning activities counseling vignettes assignments and a tentative course schedule concluding comments and advice from the author(s). The authors also speak about the main points they want their students to master and some of the dilemmas and challenges they have faced in their own teaching. Both seasoned faculty looking for ways to enrich a course and new educators teaching for the first time will find this an indispensible resource for both themselves and their departments.

"I do think the idea proffered by these authors is a wonderful one: a text that will facilitate graduate students' application of widely-used personality, intelligence, and career tests…Their systematic, step-by-step approach will be welcomed, I'm sure."

-- Gordon MacNeil, University of Alabama

"I believe that the book provides an additional guide in using and interpreting test results and would be useful in professional libraries and as a supplementary text in courses that integrate assessment information at the graduate level."

-- Roy H. Tunick, West Virginia University

  Material presented in many testing textbooks is appropriately broad and comprehensive, but the effect for students new to testing is difficulty in then translating the extensive information into the practical skills of administering, scoring, and interpreting tests to help inform the treatment process. Few resources exist to help students and mental health clinicians with the daunting task of learning how to synthesize test data from numerous instruments into a meaningful treatment plan and strategy for a client.

This book was written to address that need. It provides readers with clear and detailed step-by-step procedures for using the WAIS-III, MMPI 2, MMPI A, Kuder Occupational Interest Survey, and the Strong Interest Inventory. It features case examples and practice opportunities in test usage, detailed discussion of approaches to client feedback and report writing, and a review of ethical and legal considerations in using tests in clinical settings. It takes readers through a systematic explanation of how to understand and integrate data from multiple sources to maximize the information gleaned from the tests. It also emphasizes using test data to maximize helpfulness to the client and how to interpret test data to clients in language that is understandable. 

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.

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.

Tests and Assessments in Counseling provides students with current information on assessment tools and techniques through detailed case scenarios and vignettes. Going beyond basic information about a multitude of assessments, the authors focus on the use of instruments in individual cases to allow readers to more fully grasp the integral relationship between tests and assessment data and the counseling process. Chapters guide students through choosing the most effective assessment tool, successfully administering the assessment, and making meaningful and useful results of the data with the client. Test questions are also included at the end of each chapter.