This book is for counselors and counselors-in-training who are interested in exploring the many employment options that are available to persons with a graduate degree in counseling. Days in the Lives of Counselors is a collection of personal essays from counselors, each of whom has presented a description of his or her own unique and rewarding experiences. Each offers descriptions of his or her typical activities, including the challenges, the paperwork, the meetings, the successes, and even the frustrations. Many also share their hints on surviving the stresses that are inherent in a career in counseling. The chapters are clustered in categories within similar settings, but each person's experience is unique and different. In addition to school and college counselors, counselor educators, and mental health counselors, contributors include a sexologist, an editor, a gerontologist, an addictions specialist, a counselor who is a part-time deputy sheriff, and a professional association manager. Also included are two international stories, one by a school counselor working in Guam and another by a school counselor who worked in Africa. But all of the essays have one thing in commonthey are written by counselors who love their work.

"Every marriage has its rough patches. If you're wondering how to repair yours, step away from the therapist, put down the magazine, and pick up this book. If you want to build a long, happy, fulfilling marriage, why not learn from the women who've done it? Laura Doyle's marriage was in trouble. After five years, her husband had become distant. He seemed checked out of their relationship, preferring watching TV to making love. There were frequent fights that ended with tense silences and even threats of divorce. Marriage counseling actually made their problems worse. Each session seemed to reinforce the feeling that she and her husband were just too far apart. Desperate to avoid divorcing the man she loved, Laura tried something different. Rather than consulting with experts or professionals, she simply started talking to women who'd been happily married for more than fifteen years. What she discovered shocked her. Everything she had heard in marriage counseling was wrong. Laura realized that there are some basic truths to relationships that can help women maintain loving, intimate marriages, such as: The happiness of your relationship is up to you! Women hold the keys to a happy relationship 95 percent of the time (and will learn what to do the other 5 percent). What men want most of all is to be treated with respect. Treat your man with respect (even if you aren't feeling it), and he will treat you with love and care. Your man wants to know he has your trust. Give it to him, and he'll realize you are special, because you will be! After seeing her own marriage transform, Laura set out to help other women do the same. In this book, you'll learn Laura's "Six Intimacy Skills," which have been used by over 50,000 women who have transformed their previously unhappy marriages into blissful unions. Stop reading articles about how important it is to schedule date night, and learn how to transform your relationship into one bursting with energy, intimacy, and love. First, Kill All the Marriage Counselors will put you on the path to having the marriage you want with the man you love"--

One of the greatest gifts helping professionals can share with others is a sense of their own peace. However, retaining and renewing a sense of a healthy perspective requires not only self-care strategies, but also an awareness of basic profound, yet simple, wisdom themes. The Inner Life of the Counselor presents classic and contemporary wisdom that examines and explores each of these themes in a way that both professional and non-professional helpers will find revealing and meaningful in understanding their own journey. Informed by the author's over thirty years of experience as a therapist, mentor, and clinical supervisor of professional helpers?as well as by his expertise in resiliency and prevention of secondary stress?The Inner Life of the Counselor thoughtfully looks at those elements that encourage sustained personal growth and professional development, such as self-care, stress management, and mindfulness. Lively, practical, and marked by an elegant sense of simplicity, this nurturing book demonstrates how exploring the inner life can lead counselors to new wisdom and inner peace?not only for themselves but also for those who come to them for relief and insight. It is an invitation to pause, reflect, renew, and navigate one of contemporary society's most challenging yet rewarding professions.

Culture and Identity by Anita Jones Thomas and Sara E. Schwarzbaum engages students with autobiographical stories that show the intersections of culture as part of identity formation. The easy-to-read stories centered on such themes as race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, and disability tell the real-life struggles with identity development, life events, family relationships, and family history. The Third Edition includes an expanded framework model that encompasses racial socialization, oppression, and resilience. New discussions of timely topics include race and gender intersectionality, microaggressions, enculturation, cultural homelessness, risk of journey, spirituality and wellness, and APA guidelines for working with transgendered individuals.

In Our Lives First: Meditations for Counselors is a collection of six week's worth of readings about the work of counseling and its impact on the counselor's life and soul. Based on her 40 years of counseling experience, the author shows how the true work of counselors is tending first to their own souls in relationship to Jesus Christ, since they cannot lead clients where they themselves have not gone first. Change, growth, and spiritual health must be a reality in their lives first, in order to effectively facilitate change, growth, and health in others. Dr. Langberg's essays are interspersed with quotes from her favorite authors, most of them Puritan pastors and theologians, for 40 days' worth of readings.

"Dr. Jill Schwarz' Counseling Women Across the Lifespan is tailor made for gender-specific counseling courses. This text is highly accessible and comprehensive, and includes specific learning objectives, state-of-the-art research, and questions for student reflection and discussion. Importantly, each chapter is a Call to Action for all counselors to be advocates for change in a world that desperately needs empowering approaches for counseling girls and woman." - Mark Woodford "Within the pages of Counseling Women Across the Lifespan lay the seeds of professional and personal transformation. The text provides a comprehensive review of the issues that today's women face, while providing practical ideas for intervention and advocacy. With thought-provoking reflection questions at the end of each chapter, testimonials from graduate students who have been transformed as a result of this work, and actionable steps that you can take on behalf of women's rights, you cannot be but changed after engaging with this compelling text." - Corinne Zupko This book, the first comprehensive text to focus specifically on counseling women and girls, provides a sweeping overview of female life span development and issues and offers a unique integration of prevention, advocacy, and interventions. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in diverse fields, it provides information, resources, and practical suggestions that counselors can use to help empower individual women and girls to live as their authentic selves, and to engage as effective collaborators in addressing societal inequities. With a strong focus on empowerment and adherence to a social justice framework, the book highlights the value of mental health practitioners employing strengths-based approaches and advocating for systemic change. Based on a foundation of understanding females' diverse holistic development, the text explores the major theoretical approaches relevant to counseling and psychotherapy with women and girls. It then discusses the key issues faced by females at different developmental stages and describes appropriate counseling strategies for each, focusing on prevention as well as intervention. Specific concerns and strategies for women in different contexts, such as education, physical health and body image concerns, and violence, are emphasized. Unique to the text is coverage of how men specifically can serve as allies and advocates in creating healthier and safer societies for women and girls. Replete with supporting features such as learning objectives, self-reflection prompts, personal narratives, discussion questions, abundant resources, and strategies for how professionals can serve as advocates and change agents, this book is an ideal core text for courses on counseling women or gender issues in counseling, social work, psychology, marriage and family therapy, and women's studies programs, as well as a useful resource for mental health practitioners. Key Features: Uniquely covers life span development and counseling issues, needs, and application for females across the life span Emphasizes advocacy, prevention, and practical intervention strategies Examines the contextual elements that affect the female experience, including the oppressive structures in which they live Addresses global perspectives, diverse women, a social justice framework, and empowerment Includes learning objectives, first-person accounts, "Calls to Action" and self-reflection and discussion questions A sample course calendar and syllabus are available to instructors to aid in course development