Counseling in Communication Disorders: A Wellness Perspective

by Audrey L. Holland

This book is written to teach students and practicing speechlanguage pathologists and audiologists how to counsel clients and their families effectively. The counseling skills introduced in this book are based on the model of Positive Psychology, a rapidly growing branch of Psychology that focuses on mental health and well-being, and how to achieve and maintain it. By incorporating the key elements of Positive Psychology into clinical practice, speech pathologists and audiologists can more effectively help patients live productively and successfully with their communication problems. Clinicians should be prepared to counsel clients with communication impairments, and provides clinical guidance on a life span basis. Holland offers examples, exercises and specific techniques for working with individuals and families who have communication disorders acquired in adulthood, for working with parents of children with catastrophic conditions that are present at birth, and for working both with children and families of those whose communication disorders were incurred in childhood or adolescence. She also features one-on-one activities and model workshop examples for use with groups.

298 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2007

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

How on earth does this book have an average of 4.22 stars? I would actually round my 2 stars down to 1.5. I read this book because I unfortunately chose it as a textbook for my graduate counseling course for speech-language pathology students. I had to make a quick decision and selected it based on reviews and the Table of Contents. I’m trying to prevent others from making that mistake. Here are my problems with it:

1. It is full of personal stories and anecdotes, which I think it helpful for a counseling book, but that seems to be the main content. It’s mostly fluff, very little real content. It would have been nice to have more direct content related to therapy skills and some counseling theories other than positive psychology. I get that this book is based on positive psychology and therefore should focus on that. However, some mention of Carl Rogers’ theories, family-systems theory, etc. would be nice.
2. Zero use of person-first language. While I am okay with not using person-first language, since many people with disabilities are opposed to it, usually in writing the author addresses this intentional choice. It was never discussed or mentioned. Furthermore, the word “retarded” was used and that word is no longer appropriate is most settings.
3. I understand that focusing on hope and positivity are key tenets of positive psychology. I actually agree with that for the most part. However, nowhere in this book, even in the chapter on death, does grieving become an acceptable and supported emotion. There is a place for someone (and family) with a terminal or degenerative illness, loss of skill/independence, or developmental difference to grieve, have a pity party, or just be validated in their time of “this sucks.” Ultimately, it is hoped that one moves toward acceptance, a new normal, and hopefulness, but their negative feelings and experiences need to be recognized and validated too.
4. The chapters on counseling children were very dated in the examples and didn’t capture the myriad, depth, or additional challenges in counseling children, such as magical thinking, trust, bullying, cutting, suicide, etc.

I’m stuck with this book for this year, but will have to add plenty of additional reading to make it suffice for my course. I won’t be using it again.