Skills for Effective Counseling – A Faith–Based Integration

Effective counseling depends on mastering basic communication skills. In this integrative, classroom-ready text, Elisabeth Nesbit Sbanotto, Heather Davediuk Gingrich and Fred Gingrich break these skills into manageable microskills and connect them to insights and practices from Scripture, theology and spiritual formation.

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Anyone in a helping profession—including professional counselors, spiritual directors, pastoral counselors, chaplains and others—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 the loss of one's ability to use this new language.
Suitable for both beginning students and seasoned practitioners, Skills for Effective Counseling provides a biblically integrated approach to foundational counseling skills that trains the reader to use specific microskills. These skills include perceiving, attending, validating emotion and empathic connection.
Chapters include textbook features such as sample session dialogues, role plays and a variety of both in-class and out-of-class exercises and reflection activities that will engage various learning styles. Strategically interwoven throughout the chapters are special topics related to:


multicultural counseling
biblical/theological applications
current and seminal research related to microskills
diagnostic and theoretical implications
clinical tips for using skills in "real world" counseling settings
the relevance of specific microskills to interpersonal relationships and broader ministry settings


This textbook and the accompanying IVP Instructor Resources include all of the activities and assignments that an instructor might need to execute a graduate, undergraduate or lay course in foundational counseling skills. Professors teaching within CACREP-accredited professional counseling programs will be able to connect specific material in the textbook to the latest CACREP Standards.
Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.