How do we explain the lurid fascination that most people experience when confronted by real or simulated acts of violence, murder, horror, and crime? This is the subject examined in this candid assessment of our dark vicarious thrills. Based on a series of interviews with perpetrators, victims, and "consumers" of violence, including several celebrities, the author of a best-selling book on serial killers explores what there is about this subject that draws such a wide audience. Unlike many other books that attempt to probe the murky psyches of deviant individuals, this book focuses on normal, average people who, despite themselves, enjoy getting close to the most forbidden, perverse side of destruction and evil. The persons interviewed range from homicide detectives and emergency room personnel to a heavyweight boxer and groupies of serial killers on death row. The author considers ideas from a variety of theories and research to explain our responses to violence, raises questions about the shifting line between normal and abnormal, evaluates the confusion and ambivalence that many people feel when witnessing others' suffering, and suggests future trends in society's attitudes toward violence.

Bad Therapy offers a rare and revealing glimpse into the mindset and actions of some of the profession's most seasoned and well-known authors, theoreticians and leaders. Kottler and Carlson guide us through these honest and poignant accounts of failure and entertaining stories of encouragement. Nobly revisiting their therapeutic mishaps and foibles, twenty-two leading cliniciancs show how moments of fallibility result in lessons that constructively lead to mastery.

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Although the impact that clients can have on therapists is well-known, most work on the subject consists of dire warnings: mental health professionals are taught early on to be on their guard for burnout, compassion fatigue, and countertransference. However, while these professional hazards are very real, the scholarly focus on the negative potential of the client-counselor relationship often implies that no good can come of allowing oneself to get too close to a client's issues. This sentiment obscures what every therapist knows to be true: that the client-counselor relationship can also effect powerful positive transformations in a therapist's own life.
"How Clients Transform Their Therapists" is Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson's testimony to the significant and often life-changing ways in which therapists have been changed by their patients. Kottler and Carlson draw not only upon their own extensive experience-between them, they have more than fifty years in the field-but also uponlengthy interviews with dozens of the country's foremost therapists and theorists. This novel work will present readers with a truly unique perspective on the business of therapy: not merely how it appears externally, but how practitioners experience it internally. Although these stories paint a complex and multi-layered portrait of the client-counselor relationship, they all demonstrate the profound and unexpected rewards that the profession has to offer.

This text is intended to inspire people to make a difference in their work. Told through the experiences of those who "do good" as a vocation, it reflects the realities of helping others through those who are successful and flourishing in their work. Focused on helping beginners to feel good about their commitment to service, it is thus appropriate as a text in both under-graduate and graduate courses in counselling, human services, social work, education, and similar survey courses. It is also of use to both professionals and those involved in volunteer helping efforts.

In addition to telling the story of Bradford Keeney, the first non-African to be inducted as a shaman in both the Kung Bushman and Zulu cultures, the authors present applications of indigenous shamanistic concepts to the practice of helping and healing.

Bad Therapy offers a rare and revealing glimpse into the mindset and actions of some of the profession's most seasoned and well-known authors, theoreticians and leaders. Kottler and Carlson guide us through these honest and poignant accounts of failure and entertaining stories of encouragement. Nobly revisiting their therapeutic mishaps and foibles, twenty-two leading cliniciancs show how moments of fallibility result in lessons that constructively lead to mastery.

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Many experiences, both positive and negative, stimulate us to make changes in our lives. While many people readily recognize the need to make changes in various aspects of our lives, quite often their attention is focused primarily on choosing to change. As Jeffery Kottler argues in this innovative new book, however, it is comparatively easy to make the choice to alter our behaviors or attitudes; lasting change is the more elusive goal. In an attempt to reach the personal goals we set for ourselves, we all struggle with the same fundamental concern: how can we make our changes last?
While hundreds of books have been written on the process of change in recent years, few address the vital issue of how to make change endure. Based on original research conducted by the author over the last twenty years, Making Changes Last is a definitive investigation of enduring change.
Hundreds of therapists and change agents, in addition to a diverse group of people who have transformed themselves through travel, trauma, self-initiated experiences, or structured therapy, have been interviewed about their most dramatic opportunities for personal growth, and what contributed to making their changes last. These stories are combined with a comprehensive review of the research on the subjects of treatment maintenance, addictions relapse, permanent learning, and enduring personal; change, into a comprehensive model for understanding this complex phenomenon.
In Making Changes Last, Kottler presents theories and research that examine why changes often do not last, and then offers several practical strategies aimed to help construct an optimal treatment program that will endure over time. Written for helping and leadership professionals, members of the general public too, will find the personable and engrossing narrative both illuminating and inspiring.
Making Changes Last will give readers the knowledge and tools they need to understand the mechanisms and processes of successful, lasting change.

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By necessity, today's teachers do much more than deliver instruction. In the classroom, on the playground, or even in the parking lot, teachers are often called upon to respond quickly and appropriately to students' social and emotional needs, drawing from instinct more than anything else. In this second edition of the bestselling Counseling Skills for Teachers, Jeffrey and Ellen Kottler expertly guide preservice and inservice teachers to be effective helpers in the context of today's most common challenges, highlighting issues related to homelessness, grief and loss, and bullying and harassment.The book also discusses: - Responding to a range of behaviors in formal and informal school settings - Building a culture of tolerance and respect in the classroom - Motivating disengaged students - Communicating effectively with counseling professionals and parents With an entirely new chapter on "Counseling Yourself," the book offers teachers surefire techniques for taking better care of themselves and the students in their schools.

Graduate school and professional training for therapists often focus on academic preparation, but there's a lot more that a therapist needs to know to be successful after graduation. With warmth, wisdom and expertise, Jeffrey A. Kottler covers crucial but under-addressed challenges that therapists face in their professional lives at all levels of experience.

Focusing on how to conduct and lead groups in a variety of therapeutic settings, Learning Group Leadership: An Experiential Approach, Third Edition covers theory, process, leadership, techniques, ethics, special populations, and challenges as they relate to group work in a positive, realistic, and knowledgeable way. The authors introduce important conceptual and practical information and then use activities, exercises, field study assignments, and personal application questions to help students apply concepts to their work and lives. The fully updated Third Edition brings concepts to life through "student voices" in every chapter, examples drawn from the authors' over 25 years of experience, and demonstration video content that contains scripted sessions corresponding with every chapter.

Based on original research conducted by the author over the past twenty years, this book is a definitive investigation of enduring change. Hundreds of therapists and change agents, in addition to a diverse group of people who have self-initiated experiences, or structured therapy, have been interviewed about their most dramatic growth and the factors that contributed to making their changes last. Written for helping and leadership professionals, as well as the public, this book will give readers the knowledge and tools they need to understand the mechanisms and processes of lasting change.

How do we explain the lurid fascination that most people experience when confronted by real or simulated acts of violence, murder, horror, and crime? This is the subject examined in this candid assessment of our dark vicarious thrills. Based on a series of interviews with perpetrators, victims, and "consumers" of violence, including several celebrities, the author of a best-selling book on serial killers explores what there is about this subject that draws such a wide audience. Unlike many other books that attempt to probe the murky psyches of deviant individuals, this book focuses on normal, average people who, despite themselves, enjoy getting close to the most forbidden, perverse side of destruction and evil. The persons interviewed range from homicide detectives and emergency room personnel to a heavyweight boxer and groupies of serial killers on death row. The author considers ideas from a variety of theories and research to explain our responses to violence, raises questions about the shifting line between normal and abnormal, evaluates the confusion and ambivalence that many people feel when witnessing others' suffering, and suggests future trends in society's attitudes toward violence.

This book is intended to inspire people to make a difference in their work. Told through the experiences of those who "do good" as a vocation, the book reflects the realities of helping others through those who are successful and flourishing in their work.
Unlike more traditional texts that concentrate exclusively on content, this work is focused on helping beginners to feel good about their commitment to service. It is thus appropriate as a text in both under-graduate and graduate courses such as Introduction to Counseling, Introduction to Human Services, Social Work I, Introduction to Education, and similar survey courses. It is equally useful to both professionals and those involved in volunteer helping efforts.

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"Slacktivism" is a term that has been coined to cynically describe the token efforts that people devote to some cause, without long-term or meaningful impact. We wear colored wristbands, pins, or ribbons proclaiming support for a particular organization. We might post something on social network sites or send messages to friends about causes dear to our hearts. We might even volunteer our time to work on behalf of marginalized, oppressed, or neglected groups or donate money to a charity. Yet the key feature of significant social action is follow through continuing efforts over a period of time so as to build meaningful relationships, provide adequate support, and conduct evaluations to measure results and make needed adjustments that make programs even more responsive.

This book is intended as an inspiration for practicing psychotherapists and counselors, as well as students, to become "actively" involved in a meaningful effort. The authors have searched far and wide to identify practitioners representing different disciplines, helping professions, geographic regions, and social action projects, all of whom have been involved in social justice efforts for some time, whether in their own communities or in far-flung regions of the world. Each of them has an amazing story to tell that reveals the challenges they ve faced, the incredible satisfactions they ve experienced, and what lessons they ve learned along the way. Each story represents a gem of wisdom, revealing both questions of faith, as well as of sustained action. The authors have been encouraged to dig deeply in order to talk about the honest realities of their work. After reading their stories, you will be ready to pick a cause that speaks to you and begin your own work.

It is commonplace that counselors, therapists, teachers, business leaders, executives, coaches, and other helping professionals - specifically trained in group leadership - often fail to apply their knowledge and skills to settings in which they might matter most. The same practitioners who guide others may not be able to put that background to work when they find themselves supervising peers, leading meetings, or even managing conflict at the dinner table. What You Don't Know about Leadership, but Probably Should discusses ways that leadership skills and interventions can operate throughout daily life. Applications from group therapy and systemic intervention models will be applied to the realities that people face every day - inspiring others, facilitating meetings, running social events, guiding conversations, and empowering others. This text uniquely integrates the latest research, theory, concepts, and skills into a model that applies these ideas to every aspect of daily life. The author draws not only from the extensive literature in group dynamics, counseling, and psychology, but also includes insights from business leaders gleaned from over a dozen interviews he conducted.

'Relationship building is key to the successful mentoring and teaching of today's youth. This book is an indispensable reference for both students in teacher education programs and experienced classroom teachers.'uDavid Capuzzi, Scholar in Residence, Counseling and Human Services, Johns Hopkins UniversityIntegrate counseling and consulting skills into your daily teaching roles!By necessity, today's teachers do much more than deliver instruction. In the classroom, on the playground, or even in the parking lot, teachers are often called upon to respond quickly and appropriately to students' social and emotional needs, drawing from instinct more than anything else.In this second edition of the bestselling Counseling Skills for Teachers, Jeffrey and Ellen Kottler expertly guide preservice and inservice teachers to be effective helpers in the context of today's most common challenges, highlighting issues related to homelessness, grief and loss, and bullying and harassment.The book also discusses:Responding to a range of behaviors in formal and informal school settingsBuilding a culture of tolerance and respect in the classroomMotivating disengaged studentsCommunicating effectively with counseling professionals and parentsWith an entirely new chapter on 'Counseling Yourself,' the book offers teachers surefire techniques for taking better care of themselves and the students in their schools.

With its practical, experiential approach, the Second Edition of Applied Helping Skills: Transforming Lives covers the basic skills and core interventions needed to begin seeing clients. By approaching therapy as an art rather than from a prescriptive diagnostic position, this text encourages readers to look at every situation differently and draw from their embedded knowledge to best serve the individuals in their care. Authors Leah Brew and Jeffrey A. Kottler weave humor and passion into their engaging prose, effectively conveying their excitement and satisfaction for doing helping work.

`Any practising or former headteacher will warm to the central contention made by Kottler and McEwan that, although counselling does not form part of the formal job-description of any principal or headteacher, the realities of such a post are that such skills are required in abundance' - School Leadership and Management This book introduces the basic methodology of counselling, consulting and communication skills, and the multiple roles principals must play in today's schools. It describes how to assess systematically the concerns and problems principals encounter with students, staff and parents.