The Counselor as Practitioner-Researcher: A Practical Guide to Research Methods is designed to help readers integrate a researcher's perspective and research methodology into their professional practice. Approaching practice as a practitioner-researcher not only facilitates the gathering of data and the drawing of useful conclusions, but also results in more ethical and effective practice decisions. Section I provides readers with an overview of the need and value of research in support of the counseling profession and as a basis for sound and successful practice decisions. In Section II, the fundamentals of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed designs are reviewed. Section III highlights specific designs and their value to the counselor as practitioner-researcher, including between group, within subject, action research, and case study designs. The text concludes with an extensive case illustration of counselor research and the steps necessary to developing a specific research plan. The Counselor as Practitioner-Researcher assists those in training and those in practice to not only become informed consumers of research, but also "doers" of research as it guides their practice decisions, affords measures of accountability, and supports program evaluation.

Written for students in training and those new to the helping profession, Intentional Counseling: Practice Guided by Theory blends theory, practice, and guided personalized application to help readers move from simply gathering and receiving information to using information effectively to help their clients. The book discusses the importance of acquiring the necessary cognitive skills to "think like a counselor." Case illustrations, presentations, and analyses in combination with directed activities, provide opportunities for both practice and feedback. Each chapter includes a description of the theoretical constructs presented in the chapter, supporting research, clinical illustrations of the concepts and constructs, and guided practice. Designed to help those new to the field, Intentional Counseling moves beyond the traditional discussion of counseling theories to demonstrate their values in guiding practice decisions. Intentional Counseling helps the reader employ organizing schema to data reception, storage, and utilization, all in service of procedural knowledge. Illustrated through application of solution-based, cognitive, behavioral, reality therapy/choice theory, and feminist counseling theories, the book trains readers to think like experts, and then act accordingly.