Helping Skills: Facilitating Exploration, Insight, and Action

by Clara E. Hill, Harold Chui, Judith A. Gerstenblith

This sixth edition of this seminal textbook offers an updated model for aspiring helping professionals to enhance their clinical skills.

Significant updates to this edition  

new interactive features to improve student learning, including self-reflection exercises to help them cultivate their own values and perspectives as helpers and role-play activities for hands-on learning; updated case examples and reflection questions that reflect a broad range of diversity among clients and providers; a shift from a stage-based model to a more fluid, goal-based model of helping skills; and empirical updates that help students understand the importance of tailoring interventions to clients’ individual needs. Clara Hill’s helping skills model consists of three main goals—exploration, insight, and action—in which helpers guide clients in exploring their thoughts and feelings, discovering the origins and consequences of maladaptive thoughts and behaviors, and creating positive long‑term change.

This easy-to-read guide synthesizes Hill’s extensive clinical and classroom experience with fresh, unique insights from coauthors Harold Chui and Judy Gerstenblith. They teach fundamental theory and provide students with clinical skills, challenge them to think critically about the helping process, and enable them to develop their own unique approach to helping clients.

Genres: Psychology, Counselling, Nonfiction, Textbooks, School, Grad School, Reference

455 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1999

Reviews

[Charvi]

I had to read this entire book for my course so you best believe I'm adding it to my reading tracker.

Academically speaking, this book brought forth good concepts and was always clear but I really think it could be shorter. There was just so much elaboration and repetition that I was falling asleep half the time.

[Jakob Peter]

This baddie took forever to read for class so you best believe I’m adding it to my Goodreads

[Catherine Woodman]

I got this book this year and think it is very good for teaching residents

[Zach]

5/5 - A great book to educate, inform, and show application for beginner therapeutic skills!

[Paula]

I bought this on a whim from Half.com for 75 cents a while back, and have only recently gotten around to reading it closely. As it turns out, it's one of the more helpful and well-organized books I've read on the topic of counseling, and I wish it had been assigned in one of my counseling courses. It brings together client-centered, psychodynamic, and CBT-ish techniques and lays out a good overall scheme for when to go from exploration to insight to action.

[Travis McBride]

Excellent book for all helping professionals!

I have been reading this book since the first edition. I credit this book for much of my success as a therapist. The author does an incredible job teaching the counseling process. I highly recommend this book to all practicing therapists.

[Tania]

Required text for Clinical Skills and Practicum I course.
Course Description:
This course provides students with a forum for integrating their classroom learning with their field
experiences. The course introduces students to basic counseling skills as well as the intake interview and mental status exam; the class is largely devoted to learning and practicing these skills. Course content will also address, as needed, ethics, psychopathology, psychological theory, and the role of the self in counseling. In addition, students will be in the field for the first part of a practicum that requires a minimum total of 360 hours, with 90 hours of direct client services. During the first semester, students will be observing and having limited interaction with clients under supervision.

Course Goal: The overarching goal of this course is to help students learn and begin to master skills essential to helping relationships and the competent practice of counseling and psychotherapy while having the opportunity to observe in a field setting. An additional goal is to provide a forum for discussing professional practice and development issues as they arise over the course of their training year.

[Shima]

It seems like a typical college textbook, and it is that, however, I think anyone who is interested in understanding a little about how therapy works (and why it works) and most importantly, anyone who wants to learn a little about how to be a better helper to people in day-to-day situation could enjoy paging through this book. It is well-written, I trust that it is well-researched, and it is just comprehensive enough for the average reader.

[Lorraynne]

Bought this book for my graduate program and I have found it to be useful. I enjoyed learning and practicing the different skills. Some things are a bit repetitive, but that's okay. My teacher complemented it with a few chapters from CBT which was a great addition.

[Savannah]

Had to read this book for graduate school. Very helpful in learning the skills for the counseling relationship. Especially appreciated her “three-step model” talking about Exploration, Insight, and Action. Helpful in learning basic counseling skills as well. A good resource for education.

[Naomi]

A good overview of the therapeutic relationship and process. I like that it gave examples and that basic skills were covered. One caveat - this is the author’s perspective! Not everything in here is the be all end all. Keep your own approach in mind.

[:p]

read for school

was very informative! that being said i felt like the book could have been a bit shorter. there was a lot of unnecessary repetition. often felt like i was reading the same thing over and over again in some chapters.

[Ally Schaan]

Although the concepts are basic there is something about reading them in a book that makes them interesting.

[Adrian]

An essential Manual for any helper to learn important skills. Helping skills. The three step model. Exploration, insight, and action.

[Teri]

Text for counseling skills class. I learned a lot reading this book, even more trying to apply it as we went.

[JH Yang]

very good foundational stuff on helping skills

[Em]

I actually really liked this textbook. This is the first textbook I have ever bought because I thought I might use it in the future.

[Sylwia]

Great text for beginner clinicians and a good refresher for us old-timers. Lots of references to Carl Rogers.

[Christopher]

CMHC 6020 - Techniques of Counseling
Fall 2022

Practical, smooth read, and application.

[M]

An essential book for beginning helpers.

[Megan]

fifth edition, not listed.
good basics though quite dull.
Counselling skills, term 1

[Maddi Whitman]

read for school

[Katie]

I feel my brain growing

[Ella]

Musste das für die Uni lesen, also tracke ich es. Stellenweise hilfreich, aber teilweise auch sehr ausschweifend und repetitiv beschrieben.

[Jonas Møller Pedersen]

A really good introduction book for the counseling field. I read it as curricullum in a master psychology course with the purpose as stated before. It deals with skills you automatic use in communication in your everyday life which normally, most of them, are used unconscious. It makes you more conscious about these skills which is really important regarding helping situations. Therefore I found it really ideal for 'first-time helpers' because it gives you the tools (in form of the three stages-model) to be very structured which give you a more relaxed attitude (contra nervous) as a first-time helper towards helping situations.

The only problem with the book, and why I give it 4 stars and not 5, is that it maybe restates itself a bit too often (the number of pages is a consequence of this). But in the end my conclusion is that it is a very good book which helped me develope a lot towards becoming a better helper.

[Lisa]

Written in such a way to apply to "helpers" in various capacities (professional and otherwise), I found this book a pleasing outline of useful skills that can be used both socially and in a therapeutic context. Though many of the techniques and skills described in the book were ones in which I was already familiar, I found it useful to revisit them. Additionally, the online supplements (activities, critical thinking, etc.) highlighted within the book provided multiple ways to process and become familiar with the presented information.

[Kellyanne Higgins]

I read this book at age 15 when I was a Peer Helper in high school. Now, I use this book in my clinical training for new staff to teach active listening. I recommend this book, especially if you work in a helping profession.

[Angela]

Besides the use of the word "helper" this was a pretty good book.

[Natalie]

Loved this book and the way it was organized. Appreciated how it blended three different styles to effectively empathize and understand your client.

[Cherene]

This book was super helpful in teaching counseling skills. Plus it was easy and enjoyable to read.