Skills for Effective Counseling

Anyone in a helping profession―including professional counselors, spiritual directors, pastoral counselors, chaplains, and lay leaders―needs to develop effective communication skills. But learning these skills is like learning a new language: it takes time and practice to communicate effectively, and lack of practice can lead to declining fluency in this new language.

For both beginning students and seasoned practitioners, Skills for Effective Counseling provides a biblically integrated approach to foundational counseling skills. It trains the listener to use crucial microskills such as perceiving, attending, empathic connection, and authenticity.

Chapters include textbook features such as sample session dialogues, role plays, and a variety of exercises that will engage different learning styles.

This revised edition of Skills for Effective Counseling has been updated throughout to incorporate recent research and be even more useful for the classroom. This second edition includes a new chapter on video/online counseling, discussion of new approaches to biblical and theological integration, and expanded instructor resources.