This book explains how a teaching system focused on identifying and stoking each student's strengths-rather than concentrating on deficits-can bring remarkable academic improvement and achievement. It's a familiar and seemingly logical model: to improve performance, identify weaknesses and target these problem areas. Could doing the opposite be a better way? Licensed clinical psychologist Elsie Jones-Smith argues that strengths-based systems are indeed more effective-not just in social work, where the philosophy became popular; or in the business world, where the concept is increasingly being embraced-but in the academic setting as well. Spotlighting the Strengths of Every Single Student: Why U.S. Schools Need a New, Strengths-Based Approach explains how and why a system that focuses on students' strengths enables kids to be self-confident, goal-directed, and to possess a stronger sense of self-efficacy, self-control, and academic achievement. Jones-Smith also explains how such a system spurs appreciation and advancement of multiple intelligences, which in turn gives students the ability to address weaknesses-on their own. Another plus: this approach has also been shown to generally reduce school disciplinary actions and increase class attendance time. Contains 25 teaching strategies that are part of the strength-based program Offers powerful vignettes to illustrate key points

This book empowers parents, educators, and counselors to prevent youth violence by teaching the thinking skills necessary for children and teens to deal with anger and frustration in healthy, productive ways. A longtime psychologist and counselor, as well as a parent and past teacher, Jones-Smith offers research and vignettes to recognize the growing problem of violence in youth, understand its causes, and help adults closest to children know techniques to nurture nonviolence as a way of life. This volume offers practical information like why a child may try to harm another and what to do when a child is angry. And, it also offers tips for parents, teachers, and counselors, including teaching children impulse control and anger management, teaching natural consequences, and instilling empathy, the antidote to violence. No other book addresses how parents, teachers, and counselors can, working together or separately, teach and instill an understanding of the self-control with thinking skills needed for children to handle conflict productively.

Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: An Integrative Approach by Elsie Jones-Smith is for the theories of counseling and psychotherapy course at both the undergraduate and graduate level. This Third Edition, offers an extensive array of theories that includes all the mainstream theories as well as such contemporary approaches as narrative, feminist, LGBT, and post-modern . It offers students an integrative framework with which to assess the various theories with respect to possible clinical application. In addition to listing and describing theories, this Third Edition takes it a step further by comparing and contrasting them, showing strengths and weaknesses, in a way to help students to apply them flexibly. Students will be challenged to understand what it is about their own personalities that will lead them to accept or reject various theoretical perspectives.

Culturally Diverse Counseling: Theory and Practice adopts a unique strengths-based approach in teaching students to focus on the positive attributes of individual clients and incorporate those strengths, along with other essential cultural considerations, into their diagnosis and treatment. With an emphasis on strengths as recommended in the 2017 multicultural guidelines set forth by the American Psychological Association (APA), this comprehensive text includes considerations for clinical practice with twelve groups, including older adults, immigrants and refugees, clients with disabilities, and multiracial clients. Each chapter includes practical guidelines for counselors, including opportunities for students to identify and curb their own implicit and explicit biases. A final chapter on social class, social justice, intersectionality, and privilege reminds readers of the various factors they must consider when working with clients of all backgrounds.

This book empowers parents, educators, and counselors to prevent youth violence by teaching the thinking skills necessary for children and teens to deal with anger and frustration in healthy, productive ways. A longtime psychologist and counselor - as well as parent and past teacher - Jones-Smith offers research and vignettes to recognize the growing problem of youth violence, understand its causes, and help adults closest to children know techniques to nurture non-violence as a way of life. She offers practical information like why a child may try to harm another and what to do when a child is angry. And, she also presents tips for parents, teachers, and counselors, including teaching children impulse control and anger management, teaching natural consequences, and instilling empathy, the antidote to violence.

Strength Based Therapy is the a text on working with clients through the lens of positive psychology. It lays a theoretical foundation to help students and practitioners understand the grounding and theory behind the approach and then lays out a model for use with a variety of client types/settings. The book draws from cutting edge research on neuroscience, positive emotions, empowerment and change. It helps students understand how to get the client engaged as an active participant in their treatment by assuming the client knows best about what has worked and has not worked in their lives. It draws heavily on skill building and cognitive behavioral (evidence based) approaches. The book will first present the theory and model and then go into application via various clinical illustrations.