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Book Review: Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions

Barsky, A. E. (2007). Conflict resolution for the helping professions (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole. 364 pages. ISBN: 0-495-09225-8 Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions offers a comprehensive coverage of the fundamental principles associated with conflict resolution. Specifically the author focuses on the areas of negotiation, mediation, group facilitation and advocacy across a broad […]

New Technologies: Benefit or Prejudice?

From a practical perspective, the Internet and other communication technologies have affected nearly all areas of human life; and the helping professions are not an exception to this rule. In December 2007, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) published an article (“Therapy Today”, Vol 18 No 10) discussing the use of webcams and […]

Dealing with Negative Child Behaviour

The very basis of socially acceptable behaviour is clear communication from parents. Often parents will simply call out in a stern voice: “Jane” and expect the child to understand this command. But Jane could be shoving cake in her mouth with both hands while watching TV. So which behaviour is her parent referring too? Depending […]

Book Review: Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods

Nichols, P., Schwartz, R. (2006). Family Therapy — Concepts and Methods (7th Edition). USA: Pearson Education Inc. 497 pages. ISBN: 0-205-47809-3 In this volume Mike Nichols and Dick Schwartz tell the story of family therapy — and tell it very well. It’s hard to imagine a more readable and informative guide to the field. So […]

Book Review: Treating Substance Abuse: Theory and Technique

Rotgers, F., Morganstern, J., & Walters, S. T. (Eds.). (2003). Treating substance abuse: Theory and technique (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press. 374 pages. ISBN: 13 978-1-59385-374-7 Treating Substance Abuse: Theory and Technique provides comprehensive and theoretically diverse perspectives on working with clients seeking recovery from substance abuse. Skilled and experienced clinicians were enlisted […]

Relationships: Love Is All You Need

Love is a particular kind of need and expectation in a relationship. For many people approaching marriage, love will be the foundation of their entire future together. Committed and passionate love is an important predictor of a relationships success and satisfaction (Hecht et al., 1994). The relationship between passionate and erotic love and satisfaction, along […]

Relationships: Myths and Expectations

Separate to the issue of needs and wants, a counsellor may find that clients are expressing unrealistic notions about married life. Strong correlations have been found between certain unrealistic notions that are believed or maintained by married people and their levels of marital dissatisfaction (Tysoe, 1994). It is worth looking at some of these areas […]

Relationships: Needs and Wants

In 1972 Carl Rogers surveyed the changing marriage scene of his day and said “It is becoming increasingly clear that a man-woman relationship will have permanence only to the degree to which it satisfies the emotional, psychological, intellectual and physical needs of the partners”. He went on to quote the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard , saying […]

Styles and Approaches to Pre-Marriage Counselling

Relationships are necessarily complex. It will be helpful to a counsellor to align and govern their approach with a particular style. There are three usual styles of approach to pre-marital counselling: Instructive Pre marriage counselling has previously been very much the province of churches and religious groups. In this traditional approach there was a tendency […]

Series: Pre-Marriage Counselling

In Australia, over 40 per cent of all marriages end in divorce over a 30 year period, and marriage rates have dropped to the lowest rate they have been in one hundred years (ABS, 2007). Somewhere around one million people in Australia have experienced divorce. The costs associated with divorce, including social security payments and […]

Boundaries in Counselling

Boundaries are a crucial aspect of any effective client-counsellor relationship. They set the structure for the relationship and provide a consistent framework for the counselling process. Some boundary lines are clear. Most counsellors would acknowledge that it is ethically problematic, for example, to counsel your ex-partner because the pre-existing relationship impairs objectivity and serves to […]