The Theory and Practice of Assessment in Counseling

Richard S. Balkin and Gerald A. Juhnke have written Theory and Practice of Assessment in Counseling with counseling and psychotherapy students in mind. Unique to the marketplace, the authors keep their focus on the practical, the application of the theoretical and measurement concepts of counseling assessment, by presenting a unique new guide for administering, scoring, interpreting, and communicating assessment results. The conversational tone of writing will engage readers and put them at ease with the mathematical concepts and statistics involved. By focusing on the clinical examples and showing how each type of assessment may be utilized in various settings, the text provides an opportunity to view assessment as an integral part of the counseling process, rather than merely a specialization of counseling.  Practical and modern, with the most current assessment information available upon publication, the text covers the most recent revisions of assessments, with modern theories on intelligence and ability testing addressed. This is the only assessment in counseling text on the market that introduces two case studies and follows them throughout, and covers accountability, as well. The practicality element of this text is like none other, as students will get to experience assessment in action and learn how to interpret and write reports for each type of assessment presented.

Richard S. Balkin, Ph.D., LPC is an associate professor and Addictions Program Coordinator for the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.  He is a Past President of the Association for Assessment in Counseling and Education, a division of the American Counseling Association. Dr. Balkin is Editor of the Journal of Counseling & Development, the flagship journal for the American Counseling Association, and a former Editor of Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development and Counseling and Values, Journal of Professional Counseling: Practice, Theory, and Research. He has received counseling awards including the 2011 Counseling Vision and Innovation Award by the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision in recognition for his development of online resources and tutorials for teaching students assessment, measurement, and research, and the 2012 Best Practices Research Award by the American Counseling Association.  Dr. Balkin’s clinical and research experience span over 20 years and encompasses over 30 refereed journal articles, and 9 book chapters or refereed proceedings, many of which are related to assessment, research methods, and statistics.  Additionally, Dr. Balkin has authored or co-authored the Goal Attainment Scale of Stabilization (Mind Garden, Inc.), the Forgiveness Reconciliation Inventory, and the Juhnke-Balkin Life Balance Inventory.

Gerald A. Juhnke, Ed.D. is a Professor and former Doctoral Program Director in the Department of Counseling at The University of Texas at San Antonio.  He is a Past President of two professional counseling associations, The Association for Assessment in Counseling and The International Association for Addictions and Offender Counseling.  Dr. Juhnke is a former Editor and Chief of The Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling and a former Co-Chair of the American Counseling Association’s Council of Journal Editors.  He has received numerous counseling awards including the 2009 American Counseling Association’s Fellow Award, the 2008 International Association for Addictions and Offender Counseling Addictions/Offender Educator Excellence Award, the Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling Research Award, and the American Counseling Association’s Ralph F. Berdie Research Award.  Dr. Juhnke’s clinical and research experiences span 25-plus years, and include the intertwined professional topic of “life-threatening behaviors” that encompasses suicide, violence, addictions, and trauma.  During that time, he has authored more than 45 international or national refereed journal articles, and eight published or in-press books.  Dr. Juhnke’s best-selling counseling textbooks include: Suicide, Self-injury, and Violence in the Schools: Assessment, Prevention, and Intervention Strategies (Wiley & Sons, 2010); Counseling Addicted Families: An Integrated Assessment and Treatment (Brunner-Routledge, 2006); and Substance Abuse Assessment and Diagnosis (Brunner-Routledge, 2002).  Additionally, Juhnke’s co-edited book, Case Studies in Suicide: Experiences of Mental Health Professionals (Merrill-Pearson, 2009) and his first violence response textbook for counselors, Addressing School Violence: Practical Strategies, and Interventions, have received favorable reviews by mental health clinicians from various professions.  Dr. Juhnke has also authored or co-authored several assessment instruments including the Juhnke-Balkin Life Balance Inventory; the Juhnke, Henderson, Juhnke, Child Abuse and Neglect Risk Assessment Scale; the Homework Identification Plan; the VIOLENTSTUdent Scale; the DANGERTOME Personal Risk Assessment Scale; the Adapted – SAD PERSONS Suicide Assessment Scale; the SCATTT Suicide Response Instrument; and the SUBSTANCE-Q Adolescent Substance Abuse Instrument.  One of his recent instruments, EL SUICIDIO, written in Spanish, is a suicide assessment scale with correlating clinical guidelines specifically created for Mexican school counselors assessing Mexican students’ potential suicide risk.