Client Assessment

Stephen Palmer, Gladeana McMahon, Stephen Palmer, Gladeana McMahon

`This chunky little book is packed with interesting approaches to the currently fashionable area of client assessment.... This is a book for any counsellor or counsellor trainee?s shelf, a necessary reference for the sound professional? - Counselling News

`The comprehensive series of essays... is a timely contribution.... This book is about being professional and effective... a valuable multimodal life inventory for use with clients is provided? - Counselling, The Journal of The British Association for Counselling

What information will help you assess the therapeutic needs of a client? Could you identify a suicidal client? How can you tell whether or not you are working with appropriate clients? Answering these and other questions, this book sheds light on a crucial, but often neglected, area of counselling. The authors provide clear guidelines, backed up by practice points, which clarify the assessment, monitoring and evaluation of clients.

The book adopts a broad approach, transcending specific counselling theories and covering the main issues involved at key stages in the client/counsellor relationship - from the initial contact, through monitoring of the therapeutic programme, to ending the counselling process. Areas examined include: assessing the best type of therapy for each client; identifying the client?s therapeutic goals; history taking; referral; and evaluating goal achievement.

Gladeanna McMahon is presenter of the ITV programme Dial A Mum.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• What Do You Say After You Say 'Er'?
• 1 - General Assessment Issues
• 2 - Client History Taking and Associated Administration
• 3 - Medical and Psychiatric Assessment
• 4 - What Type of Help?
• 5 - Assessing for Optimal Therapeutic Intervention
• 6 - Assessment and Accountability
• 7 - Modality Assessment
• 8 - Reviewing and Evaluating Therapeutic Progress
• Appendix: Multimodal Life History Inventory
• Index