Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: An Integrative Approach

by Elsie Jones-Smith

"Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: An Integrative Approach is a core textbook for the theories of counseling and psychotherapy course at both the undergraduate and graduate level. It offers an extensive array of theories that includes all the mainstream theories as well as such contemporary approaches as narrative, feminist, LGBT, and post-modern . It offers students an integrative framework with which to assess the various theories with respect to possible clinical application. In addition to listing and describing theories, this text takes it a step further by comparing and contrasting them, showing strengths and weaknesses, in a way to help students to apply them flexibly. Students will be challenged to understand what it is about their own personalities that will lead them to accept or reject various theoretical perspectives"--

Genres: Psychology, School, Textbooks, Counselling

704 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Luke Heberle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly poor introduction to counseling theory. I felt that the explanations of theory were repetitive and lacking in insight. At times, I even found statements that revealed that the author fundamentally misinterpreted some theories, for instance, she equates functional competence in strengths based theory with the good enough mother in object relations theory. She also presumptuously credits herself as the founder of strengths based theory. To her credit, the descriptions and histories of theories aren’t completely inaccurate, only they are convoluted and not concise. Despite the authors credentials, I do not find this to be a credible academic text.

[Carolina Leal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to better understand different psychotherapeutic approaches

[Ashley Van Vonderen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author lays the bare theories out there for introductory courses. The text does what it aims to do, with clear and readable text.