I AM A COUNSELOR

Debut author and licensed clinical social worker Rounds offers an introspective guidebook for counselors looking to learn new skills.

The author begins by asking her readers to define their motivations for becoming professional counselors. She shares her own personal stories (“I was fascinated by the discussions I heard my father having with other men….I was able to focus on how I could effectively enter the conversation without being told to leave”) as well as her counselor husband’s (“People come to pastors with many emotional, intellectual, relationship, spiritual and other needs. I found myself ill prepared to deal with the depth of needs which were presented to me”) and her student intern’s. Along the way, she gives readers lots of opportunities for self-reflection. For example, she asks them when they first learned about injustice, how they learned to be good listeners, and who were the biggest influences in their lives. (She includes blank lines for readers to write their responses down.) Later chapters include information on different counseling approaches, the use of transference when relating to clients, and how to know when it’s time to retire. Rounds also pays a great deal of attention to methods for dealing with clients who may be con artists and manipulators—something that a typical social worker’s grad school curriculum may not cover. The book’s second half offers “Tool Box” sections—practical scripts that counselors may use to employ concepts described earlier in the book. For example, a “THOUGHTS-TO-FEELINGS-TO-ACTION” chart can show at-risk clients how to avoid getting into trouble that could land them in jail. The author’s personal anecdotes give her book a conversational tone, as if she’s mentoring the reader. Some of the tales don’t serve a clearly defined purpose, though, including one about her parents having lunch in a restaurant, which she repeats. The table of contents is also excessively detailed, reading more like an outline of the book rather than a list of chapters. Still, social workers will likely find the author’s counsel to be entertaining and informative throughout.

A pleasantly informal guide for new and midcareer social workers.