Integrative Assessment: A Guide for Counselors (Merrill Counseling) - Softcover

Gersten, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 013503485X ISBN 13: 9780135034859

Publisher: Pearson, 2012

Synopsis

Integrative Assessment for Counselors presents valuable assessment information and guidance which emerging helping professionals, students, and those preparing for licensure can apply to various mental health, school, community, and organizational settings. Using a case study approach, and written in a practitioner’s voice, this practical guide presents a comprehensive, balanced look at a number of topics readers can put to immediate use in their practices including assessment information and guidance, testing, the risks and resources approach to assessment, interviewing principles and methods, exploring presenting problems and readiness for change, informal and formal observations, assessing the therapeutic alliance, standardized risk assessments, dangerousness to self and others, and assessing substance abuse.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In this all-new guide, helping professional practitioners, students in training, and those preparing for licensure get valuable assessment information and guidance they can apply to various mental health, school, community, and organizational settings. Using a case study approach—in a practitioner’s voice—this practical resource helps beginning and future counselors understand and use various effective assessment methods, from interviewing and observing to tests and counselor- and client-friendly standardized measures.

 

Based on the premise that assessment is an on-going information gathering process that relies on multiple methods and sources for making decisions or answering questions, this guide takes a balanced, comprehensive approach that looks at much more than the traditional coverage of assessment alone, including the risks and resources approach to assessment, interviewing principles and methods, exploring presenting problems and readiness for change, informal and formal observations, assessing the therapeutic alliance; standardized risk assessments, dangerousness to self and others, and assessing substance use.

 

• Practitioners and students in training and those preparing for licensure are engaged in learning the concepts and methods through the book’s helpful case study approach woven throughout each chapter.
• Learning and understanding is enhanced and accelerated through a number of helpful pedagogical features: the case study approach; practice suggestion boxes; chapter objectives, overviews, and summaries; reflection questions and experiential exercise; and sub-headings for specific tests and measures
• Readers see first hand the methods, interviews, tests, and measures they will be exposed to and need to understand as professionals.
• Multicultural counseling competencies are developed through the Cultural Considerations Sections. These sections integrate cultural concepts across different dimensions and help students understand multi-cultural factors that affect the selection and interpretation of specific tests and measures.

About the Author

Dr. Andrew Gersten is a private practitioner specializing in the assessment and treatment of children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Since his internship training at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center Developmental Clinic in 1986 he has provided cognitive and psychological assessments of children—pre-school through adolescence. He has worked in community mental health as a therapist, assessor, and supervisor and has consulted to elementary and middle schools on school climate, behavioral program development and special education services. In addition, Andy is a teacher, presenter, supervisor, and researcher.   He has been teaching in counseling programs for over 19 years. 

 

Andy is currently adjunct faculty at Antioch University New England where he has been teaching Assessment: Principles and Methods and Psychopathology: an Ecological Approach since 2008. Prior to Antioch he was an Associate Professor of Counseling at Rivier College, Nashua, New Hampshire, where he taught graduate students in school and mental health counseling and teacher education programs. His courses included: Assessment and Appraisal, Theories of Counseling, Human Development, Child Therapy, Techniques of Counseling, Fundamentals of Research, and Professional Issues and Orientation. He has presented at regional and national counseling and psychology conferences on various topics including: DSM-5, counselor intentionality, school counseling models, and Interpersonal problem solving. Dr. Gersten has co-authored several articles on the affects of shift work on sleep and well-being and counselor intentionality. A member of: the American Counseling Association, Association of Counselor Education and Supervision, New Hampshire Psychological Association, and American Psychological Association his current research focuses on the development of intentionality in counselor trainees.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 013503485X
• ISBN 13: 9780135034859
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432