Counseling: A Comprehensive Profession (4th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: For example ...
Review: I bought this book for my counseling class, and found it mediocre. It was very informative, but gave hardly any examples. I work well with examples, and even though most concepts were easy to understand, some would have been made clearer with a good example of how it applies to a counseling session, clients, etc.

Rating:
Summary: I Hope the Newer Editions Fill the Hole
Review: I have not had the chance to read the newer editions of this college textbook, but I hope they are better than this one. It is not so much what the author wrote that bothered me, but what he did not write. This textbook, introducing college students to the profession of counseling, all but ignores the roll religion plays in a person's life!

The section "Counseling in a Multicultural and Pluralistic Society" has small sections dedicated to European/North American Whites, African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Asian Americans, Native American Indians, the aged, women, and men. Other sections of the book touch on Sexism, sex-role steriotypes, various forms of abuse, various forms of attachments, health problems , ego, art, AIDS, adolescents, etc. The list goes on and on . . .

BUT not religion. Why? Are we to believe that religion plays such a minor role in the lives of Americans that it is an insignificant factor in the lives of clients? Current statistics list 92.5% of Americans as religious in some form or another.

I have several close friends who are professional counselors in a variety of settings. All of them agree that a client's religious view is an important key to relating to the client. For example, if a counselor does not know how to take charismatics' or Buddhists' faith seriously that counselor will be of limited use. Religion runs deep...