Conversations with Jeremiah on the Magic of Counseling

by Geoffrey G. Yager, J.G. Woodward (Editor)

Conversations with Jeremiah on the Magic of Counseling by Geoffrey G. Yager, Ph.D.: A non-traditional introduction to counseling with a special focus on counselor self-care. Conversations with Jeremiah on the Magic of Counseling is not a typical textbook. It is a unique approach to teaching, written in a conversational and casual style in order to engage students. The book describes the weekly meetings of two young counseling graduate students and their mysterious mentor over the course of the academic year. The mentor answers the questions of his protgs using thirty illustrative stories. The underlying themes of the stories encompass the crucial components of counseling relationships, and the topics cover the concerns most commonly voiced by students during their early experiences with actual clients. The issues addressed include counselor self-care, the nature of counseling, empathy, perfectionism, ethics, and, of course, the magic of counseling Although the text is written from a counseling point of view, it will prove useful to any clinical class in a closely related field, such as counseling psychology, clinical psychology, clinical social work, health promotion, or psychiatric nursing. The text will also be beneficial to counselor trainees, experienced counselors interested in a refresher on basic skills, and potential clients who want to know more about counseling before they start seeing a counselor.

522 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Matthew Frye · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I initially began the book, it was novel, as it was essentially a textbook written in fictional form. The book does well in highlighting various important aspects of counseling: self-care, authenticity, the necessity of mistakes, ethical issues, empathy, unconditional positive regard, and other essential characteristics that every counselor must embody. Many of the illustrations used throughout the text are memorable and easy to understand. The story aspect of the book is cheesy in good fun, as character and plot are not the main point of the text.

The main problem that I had with the text revolves around the time frame in which I read it and determining an appropriate audience. I read this text toward the end of my masters counseling education, and while it was a fun review, I do not feel that it readily added to my abilities, or at least enough to justify it's price ($55). On one hand I feel that this book would be more appropriate for beginning counseling students (intro courses or undergrad courses) as it would provide a general overview of the profession. On the other hand, I feel that it would be more beneficial for those individuals to invest time in reading crucial texts to provide a solid foundation for their learning.

Apart from repeated grammatical and format errors, the book is creative and has its fun moments. However it does not provide the specifics that textbooks would supply, and is not sufficient in and of itself in providing crucial knowledge. It does excel in defining the humanness needed in counseling, in regard to a positive view of making mistakes and the ambiguity present in counseling interventions, as there are no clear-cut answers for working with clients.