Psychosocial Genetic Counseling

Psychosocial issues are integral to genetic counselling interactions. They include counsellees' beliefs about the cause of birth defects, and emotions such as anxeity and guilt. This study provides an integrated approach to understanding these issues and their applications to genetic counselling.

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Psychosocial issues are integral to all genetic counselling interactions. They include counsellees' beliefs about the cause of birth defects and genetic disorders, the cognitive procession of medical information and risk figures, emotions such as anxeity and guilt, and the complex process of decision making. Drawing on direct clinical experience and the growing body of relevant literatue, Psychosocial Genetic Counseling provides a comprehensive, integrated approach to understanding these issues and their applications to genetic counselling.

The book combines theoretical and practical approaches, including many clinical vignettes and examples of dialogue. It is written in an engaging style that conveys the emotional immediacy of genetic counselling. The emotional and social effects of genetic disorders are discussed with reference to the individual and to couple, family, and social interactions. Counselling techniques and the agenda of the genetic counselling session are then addressed in detail. Specialized aspects of prenatal diagnosis counselling, cancer risk counselling, and genetic counselling with children and adolescents are integrated with these general principles. Nondirective counselling and the psychology of risk interpretation and decision making are discussed from theoretical and historical perspectives, leading to recommendations for their application to clinical practice. The influences of ethnocultural history, beliefs and practices, for counsellee and counsellor, are then discussed as they enter into all aspects of genetic counselling.