Counselling Skills for Social Workers/ Hilda Loughran.

"This book provides a theoretically informed understanding of the core skills required to provide counselling interventions that work. It provides detailed discussion of three core skills which are identified as: talking and responding, listening and observing and thinking. Over 11 chapters these core skills are described in terms of what they mean, how they can be learned and developed, how they can be used and misused and, most importantly, how specific skills can be employed in a coherent and evidence-informed counselling approach. Loughran also looks in detail at the skills required to deliver interventions consistent with three approaches: Motivational Interviewing, Solution-Focused Work and Group work."--Provided by publisher

Counselling skills are very powerful. Really listening and providing compassionate empathy without judging is a core part of social work practice with service users. This book provides a theoretically informed understanding of the core skills required to provide counselling interventions that work. It provides detailed discussion of three core skills which are identified as: talking and responding, listening and observing and thinking. Over 11 chapters these core skills are described in terms of what they mean, how they can be learned and developed, how they can be used and misused and, most importantly, how specific skills can be employed in a coherent and evidence-informed counselling approach. Loughran also looks in detail at the skills required to deliver interventions consistent with three approaches: Motivational Interviewing, Solution-Focused Work and Group work. Illustrative case examples and exercises offer further opportunities for reflection and exploration of self-awareness as well as for practising and enhancing skills development, thus making the book required reading for all social work students, professionals looking to develop their counselling skills and those working in the helping professions more generally. Terms such as social worker, therapist and counsellor will be included as they inform counselling skills in social work

TABLE OF CONTENTS List of figures; List of tables; List of exercises; Part I: Counselling skills for social work; Chapter 1: Social Work: Conversations, counselling and therapeutic interventions; Chapter 2: Talking and responding; Chapter 3 : Listening; Chapter 4: Thinking, processing and reflective practice; Chapter 5: Questioning; Chapter 6: Assessing and assessment; Chapter 7: Empathy, reflection and reflective responding; Chapter 8: Affirming, advising and motivating change; Part II: The application of counselling social work to methods; Chapter 9: Applying social work counselling skills in solution focused work (SFW); Chapter 10: Counselling social work skills and motivational interviewing (MI); Chapter 11: Applying counselling social work skills in groupwork; Appendices; Appendix 1: The social work tool kit, for summary of the three skills; Appendix 4.1 Listening, thinking to inform your response; Appendix 4.2 Reflection exercise using two axis tool; Appendix 4.3 Reflection exercise using two axis tool to explore your thinking about ‘Childhood Obesity’; Appendix 4.4 Thinking filters as a framework for reflection: before, in and on action; Appendix 5.1 Checking out open questions, closed questions and reflective responses; Appendix 7.1: Empathetic Observation; Appendix 9.1: Case example: Jack; Appendix 9.2 Edited example of case: Jack; Bibliography