Skills and Techniques for Human Service Professionals provides helpers with important knowledge in three areas: The counseling environment, helping skills, and treatment issues. SECTION I: THE COUNSELING ENVIRONMENT (Chapters 1-3) 1) Characteristics of the Effective Helper, highlights eight characteristics of the effective helper, including empathy, genuineness, acceptance, cognitive complexity, wellness, competence, cultural sensitivity, and developing your "it factor." 2) Entering the Agency, reviews agencies should respond to phone calls and emails, the atmosphere created by support staff and surroundings, whether helpers have embraced characteristics of the effective helper, the comfort level of the helper's office, and nonverbal behaviors of helpers, such as attire, eye contact, body positioning and facial expressions, personal space, touch, voice intonation, and tone of voice. SECTION II: HELPING SKILLS (Chapters 3-7) 3) Foundational Skills, presents skills or attitudes that helpers should provide early in the relationship including honoring and respecting the client, being curious, delimiting power and developing an equal relationship, non-pathologizing the client, and demonstrating the 3 C's: being committed, caring, and courteous. 4) Essential Skills, are core skills used in any helping relationship and often initiate movement toward goal identification and even goal achievement. They include silence and pause time, listening skills, reflecting feelings and content, paraphrasing, and basic empathy. 5) Commonly Used Skills, presents skills often exhibited by helpers, and include affirmation giving, encouragement, and support; offering alternatives, information giving, and advice giving; modeling; self-disclosure; collaboration; and advocacy. 6) Information Gathering and Solution-Focused Questions, distinguishes between information gathering skills, such as open questions, closed questions, tentative questions, and why questions; and solution-focused questions, such as preferred goals questions, evaluative questions, coping questions, exception-seeking questions, and solution-oriented questions. 7) Advanced and Specialized Training, examines advanced empathy; confrontation: challenge with support; interpretation; cognitive-behavioral responses; and specialized training skills in the areas of assessment for lethality: suicidality and homicidality; crisis, disaster, and trauma helping; token economies; positive helping; and coaching. SECTION III: TREATMENT ISSUES (Chapters 8-10) 8) Case Management, reviews issues related to informed consent and professional disclosure statements; assessment for treatment planning; monitoring medications; monitoring progress; writing case notes; ensuring security and confidentiality of records; documenting contact hours; making referrals; conducting follow-up; and practicing time management. 9) Multicultural Counseling, examines how to become culturally competent. It offers eight reasons why counseling has not been helpful for some, identifies definitions and models of culturally competent helping, and examines strategies for working with different ethnic and racial groups; people from diverse religious backgrounds; women; men; lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals; the homeless and the poor; older persons; individuals with mental illness; individuals with disabilities; and substance users and abusers. 10) Ethical Issues and Ethical Decision-Making examines ethical codes, reviews four ethical decision-making models, and presents ethical issues related to informed consent, competence and scope of knowledge, supervision, confidentiality, privileged communication, dual and multiple relationships, sexual relationships with clients, where the helper's primary obligation lies, continuing education, multicultural counseling, and values in the helping relationship. Ethical vignettes are presented.
About the Author: Raised in New York City, Dr. Ed Neukrug obtained his B.A. in psychology from SUNY Binghamton in 1973, his M.S. in counseling from Miami University of Ohio in 1974, and his doctorate in counselor education from the University of Cincinnati in 1980. After teaching and directing a graduate program in counseling at Notre Dame College in New Hampshire, he accepted a position at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, Virginia where he currently is a Professor of Counseling and former Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling. In addition to teaching, Dr. Neukrug has worked as a counselor at a crisis center, a substance abuse counselor, an outpatient therapist at a mental health center, an associate school psychologist, a school counselor, and as a private practice psychologist and licensed professional counselor. Dr. Neukrug has held a variety of positions in local, regional, and national professional associations in counseling and human services. He is currently co-editor of the Journal of Human Services. Dr. Neukrug has written dozens of articles and chapters in books, has written eight books, and has edited one encyclopedia. In addition to Skills and Techniques for Human Service Professionals, his books include: The World of the Counselor (5th. ed.), Experiencing the World of the Counselor: A Workbook for Counselor Educators and Students (4th ed.), Counseling Theory and Practice, Theory, Practice and Trends in Human Services: An Introduction to An Emerging Profession (6th ed.), Skills and Tools for Today's Counselor's and Psychotherapists, Essentials of Testing and Assessment for Counselors, Social Workers, and Psychologists (3rd ed.), and (8) Brief Orientation to Counseling: Professional Identity, History, and Standards (2nd ed.). He is editor of the two volume Sage Encyclopedia of Theory in Counseling and Psychotherapy. In addition to his books, Dr. Neukrug has been developing an interactive and animated website entitled Great Therapists of the Twentieth Century. If you get a chance, visit the site which can be found on his web page at www.odu.edu/ eneukrug. Dr. Neukrug is married to Kristina, a former school counselor and currently developing counseling-related workbooks and activities for mental health professionals. They have two children, Hannah and Emma. If you are interested in their books and counseling-related activities, visit www.counselingbooksetc.com.