The impetus for this volume is the growing awareness within the mental health and larger community of a culturally affirmative model for understanding and assisting deaf people. In contrast to the "medical-pathological" model which treats deafness as a disability, the "cultural" model guides us to view deaf persons in relation to the deaf community--a group of people with a common language, culture, and collective identity. A primary tenant of culturally affirmative psychotherapy is to understand and respect such differences, not to eradicate them.

The contributors to this volume present a practical and realistic model of providing culturally affirmative counseling and psychotherapy for deaf people. The three dimensions of this model have been delineated by the multicultural counseling literature. These dimensions assert that culturally affirmative psychotherapy with deaf persons requires therapist self-awareness, knowledge of the deaf community/culture, and understanding of culturally-syntonic therapeutic interventions.

The first to exhaustively delineate the implications of the cultural model of deafness for counseling deaf people, this book is essential reading for anyone who works in an educational or counseling capacity with the deaf. This audience includes not only psychotherapists, but also vocational, guidance and residence counselors, teachers, independent living skills specialists, interpreters, and administrators of programs for the deaf.

In this expanded and thoroughly updated second edition, Michael A. Harvey elaborates his pioneering biopsychosocial model of the effective assessment and treatment of deaf and hard-of-hearing clients in individual and family therapy. Taking a broad ecological perspective, he examines the influences of larger networks on the individual and vice versa, and illuminates the overt and covert conflicts among family members, school and vocational rehabilitation personnel, and friends that often exacerbate problems. The spiritual issues relevant to those who have experienced any kind of loss receive special attention in the new edition, as do the daily hurtful exchanges in the lives of the deaf he sums up as "ordinary evil." Throughout the reader-friendly text, theoretical description is balanced with practical advice; points are vividly illustrated with extended verbatim transcripts from actual therapy sessions and with exchanges in the author's question-and-answer column in the journal, Hearing Loss: Self-Help for the Hard of Hearing. Psychotherapy With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Persons, Second Edition, is essential reading for all mental health professionals who see even occasional clients whose lives have been affected by hearing loss in themselves or in family members.

In this expanded and thoroughly updated second edition, Michael A. Harvey elaborates his pioneering biopsychosocial model of the effective assessment and treatment of deaf and hard-of-hearing clients in individual and family therapy. Taking a broad ecological perspective, he examines the influences of larger networks on the individual and vice versa, and illuminates the overt and covert conflicts among family members, school and vocational rehabilitation personnel, and friends that often exacerbate problems. The spiritual issues relevant to those who have experienced any kind of loss receive special attention in the new edition, as do the daily hurtful exchanges in the lives of the deaf he sums up as "ordinary evil." Throughout the reader-friendly text, theoretical description is balanced with practical advice; points are vividly illustrated with extended verbatim transcripts from actual therapy sessions and with exchanges in the author's question-and-answer column in the journal, "Hearing Loss: Self-Help for the Hard of Hearing."
"Psychotherapy With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Persons, Second Edition," is essential reading for all mental health professionals who see even occasional clients whose lives have been affected by hearing loss in themselves or in family members.

The impetus for this volume is the growing awareness within the mental health and larger community of a culturally affirmative model for understanding and assisting deaf people. In contrast to the "medical-pathological" model which treats deafness as a disability, the "cultural" model guides us to view deaf persons in relation to the deaf community--a group of people with a common language, culture, and collective identity. A primary tenant of culturally affirmative psychotherapy is to understand and respect such differences, not to eradicate them.

The contributors to this volume present a practical and realistic model of providing culturally affirmative counseling and psychotherapy for deaf people. The three dimensions of this model have been delineated by the multicultural counseling literature. These dimensions assert that culturally affirmative psychotherapy with deaf persons requires therapist self-awareness, knowledge of the deaf community/culture, and understanding of culturally-syntonic therapeutic interventions.

The first to exhaustively delineate the implications of the cultural model of deafness for counseling deaf people, this book is essential reading for anyone who works in an educational or counseling capacity with the deaf. This audience includes not only psychotherapists, but also vocational, guidance and residence counselors, teachers, independent living skills specialists, interpreters, and administrators of programs for the deaf.