Thought Train to Pusan

  These are by far two of the shortest books that I have had to read for school in a long time. Hooray! And they were quite straightforward and easy to get through as well. However, this may be due to the fact that I have previously taken a Lifespan Development course before, so a lot of the information I received was nothing new. More like a refresher. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Leonie Sugarman’s book on Counselling and the Life Course presents a number of different theories regarding lifespan and development, though the focus is more on what these implications might mean when counseling a person. An individual’s present placement within their lifespan or their current stage of development can result in a number of different issues that may be more salient for them, or it can influence how certain life events may affect them. For instance, losing a parent during childhood or adolescence will have different implications for a person than if this were to occur dur...

This is a misleading little textbook in terms of how long it actually takes to get through it. I thought, “oh it’s so small compared to my other books, this will be easy!” But no. The writing is compact and while there is a lot of dialogue in the presented case studies to make things interesting, overall it is quite dry and I found it hard to focus on what I was reading. That is not to say that it wasn’t informative! But as compared to the other two textbooks I’ve read so far this year, it’s been the most difficult to get through. In this book, Gerald Corey presents the hypothetical counseling case of “Ruth”, and provides information that might be acquired during an intake interview. Corey then invites counselors from a variety of different theoretical perspectives to describe what their style of counseling might involve when working with someone like Ruth. There is also an inclusion at the end of each chapter with discussion on what Corey’s process would be with Ruth within eac...

In preparation for an upcoming course on issues of professional practice in art therapy, I read this book on postmodernism and art therapy, as edited by Helene Burt. The book itself is comprised of a number of different author’s contributions, who are practicing or researching art therapists themselves. The focus of the chapters vary, based on the practitioner’s area of personal research or practice. They include areas such as: language differences between clients and therapists, working with a diversity of culture in certain areas, feminist theory and art therapy, and working with transient youth populations. The one string that ties everything together, however, is the fact that the ideas presented all fall into what would be considered postmodernism ideas. The one problem I found, however, was that how each author understands postmodernism is not specifically defined by them. In a book that emphasizes individual differences and the individual experience, it would make sense f...

More textbooks! I swear this isn’t all I read, but when you have to read so much for school, the last thing you want to do when you have free time is crack open another book (so shameful, really, but I just got a few new comic books I should be able to work my way through soon!). And so, here are a few more of my required readings for my current educational program in art therapy. This joint review is for the following: - Essential Skills in Family Therapy: From the First Interview to Termination (2 nd edition) by Patterson, Williams, Edwards, and Chamow - Genograms: Assessment and Intervention (3 rd edition) by McGoldrick, Gerson, and Petry - Helping Skills: Facilitating Exploration, Insight, and Action (4 th edition) by Clara E. Hill First things first, “Essential Skills in Family Therapy” focuses on the basics of working with families and other systems in therapy. What I liked most about it was the fact that they did not assume the reader would be well-versed in ...

They may technically be textbooks, but I read them from front to back. And considering how I’ve been powering through so many lately, the last thing I want to do when I have free time is read anything for myself, even something fun (guess that means more time for drawing One Direction fanart portraits… I mean… uh…??). And so, here are my reviews #13-15, for the following books: - Spiritual Care and Therapy: Integrative Perspectives by Peter Van Katwyk - Ethical Issues in Art Therapy (2 nd Ed) by Bruce Moon - Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions by Gerald Corey, Marianne Corey, and Patrick Callanan Starting with the introductory-type book on Spirituality within the therapy profession by Peter Van Katwyk, the book did a good job of covering a number of topics largely focused on family systems and the integration of spirituality therein. There were a number of diagrams focused on helping styles and orientations that were well thought-out, but perhaps could have...