Learning the Language of Addiction Counseling

by Geri Miller

Comprehensive and current Learning the Language of Addiction Counseling, Third Edition introduces students to the field of addiction counseling and helps them develop the knowledge, understanding, and skills needed to counsel people who are caught in the destructive cycle of addiction. Drawing from her years of experience working in the addiction-counseling field, Geri Miller provides a balanced overview of the major theoretical underpinnings and clinical practices in the field, covering all of the essentials—from assessment and diagnosis of addiction to preparing for certification and licensure as an addiction professional. Fully revised and expanded, the Third Edition offers a positive, practice-oriented counseling framework and features:

Genres: Counselling, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Addiction

512 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 1998

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up. It was a textbook after all

[Ahri · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book left too many gaps for me, I always had to go in search of outside sources to fully comprehend the concepts.

[Susa Schwalbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, comprehensive textbook on addiction counseling. A keeper.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information, well-thought chapters, and structure, but one of the driest texts I've read in a long time. Most chapters could have easily been halfed based on repetition alone.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps there are some issues that will show up in the application of the ideas here, but the book is a comprehensive resource that is well organized and has resources at the end of each chapter.

[AmyRose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the majority of this book for class. Good intro to the addictions field, with helpful resources listed at the end of each chapter.

[Michael Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alright introduction into the realm of addiction counselling with a decent amount of information. However, the reading itself is extremely dry with excessive amounts of repetition.
Despite the topic being addiction counselling, nearly no medical information (besides correlations and prevalence statistics which are quite useless clinically) was given for the various common drugs encountered in the field and their effects on our brain systems. Drug-on-drug synergistic actions were not discussed either. In short, this book will not teach you about the drugs you're supposed to be weaning your patients from... which appears to be quite the oversight given its importance.
It does has some good case studies to think through however.
Overall, it's alright... but I'm certain there are better books out there on this topic..

[Fishface · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information in here is good enough, but nothing to write home about. The book is woefully in need of a thorough text- and copy-edit. Nobody involved in producing this volume appears to have known the difference between an adjective and an adverb, and I would expect better if I had bought this new! They also use "like" when they mean "as." Here's a quote: "...in a attitude survey they were doing." Here's another: "One type of schemata is person schemata, where the impressionsof a group of people are overly rigid..." Sheesh. The first half of the book is NOT about 'the language of addiction counseling," but goes instead into the language of domestic violence, sexual assault and mental illness.