Skills for Effective Counseling: A Faith-Based Integration

Master Effective Listening and Foundational Intervention for Counseling and Beyond

Anyone in a helping profession-including professional counselors, spiritual directors, pastoral counselors, chaplains, and lay leaders-needs to develop effective communication skills. But learning these skills is like learning a new language: it takes time and practice to communicate effectively, and lack of practice can lead to declining fluency in this new language.

For both beginning students and seasoned practitioners, Skills for Effective Counseling provides a biblically integrated approach to foundational counseling skills. It trains the reader to use crucial microskills such as perceiving, attending, empathic connection, and authenticity.

Chapters include textbook features such as sample session dialogues, role plays, and a variety of exercises that will engage different learning styles. Interwoven throughout are special topics related to:

• clinical tips for using skills in real-world counseling settings
• biblical/theological applications
• current and seminal research on microskills
• multicultural counseling
• the relevance of skills to interpersonal relationships and broader ministry settings

This textbook and the accompanying IVP Instructor Resources include all of the activities and assignments that an instructor might need to execute a graduate, undergraduate, or lay course in foundational counseling skills. Professors teaching in CACREP-accredited professional counseling programs will be able to connect specific material in the textbook to the latest CACREP Standards.

This revised edition of Skills for Effective Counseling has been updated throughout to incorporate recent research and be even more useful for the classroom. This second edition includes a new chapter on video/online counseling, discussion of new approaches to biblical and theological integration, updated references, and expanded instructor resources.

About the Series

Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.

Heather Davediuk Gingrich taught at Denver Seminary for seventeen years, taught in the Philippines for eight years, and before that counseled and taught in Canada. She currently directs the graduate certificate of trauma therapy program and the MAin counseling ministries program at Toccoa Falls College and offers consultation to counselors treating complex trauma. She is the author of Restoring the Shattered Self and Shattered No More and coeditor of Treating Trauma inChristian Counseling.

Fred C. Gingrich served as professor of counseling at Denver Seminary for sixteen years. He previously taught in Ontario and directed MA and EdD degrees in counseling at seminaries in the Philippines. He retired as developer and director of the MA in marriage and family therapy program at the University of Toccoa Falls. He is coauthor of Skills for Effective Counseling and coeditor of Treating Trauma in Christian Counseling.

Elisabeth Nesbit Wagner is a licensed professional counselor with over twenty years of clinical experience. She served on the faculty of Denver Seminary for ten years and currently works as the director of member care for a missionary organizationbased in Denver. She speaks and consults nationally on various topics related to generational culture in business and ministry, identity, faith, and career development. She is the coauthor of Effective Generational Ministry.