Houser, R., Wilczenski, F.L., & Ham, M. (2006). Culturally Relevant Ethical Decision-Making in Counseling. London: Sage Publications Ltd. 334 pages. ISBN: 1-4129-0587-7.

Counsellors are active participants in the counselling process, and the intimate relational aspect of counselling such as ethical decision making requires that counsellors have an understanding of ethics that goes beyond a basic knowledge of counselling skills and ethical codes.

Expanding counsellors’ knowledge base to include philosophical and moral considerations has the potential to do much more than strengthen their capacity to make ethical decisions and conduct themselves as ethical professionals. Familiarity with such considerations may also serve as the unifying structure for exploring the essence of counselling, that is, what counselling is about and who a counsellor is as an individual and as a professional.
 
Culturally Relevant Ethical Decision-Making in Counseling presents a hermeneutic orientation and framework to address contextual issues in ethical decision-making in counselling and psychotherapy. Hermeneutics is the theory and practice of interpretation.

The word derives from the Greek god, Hermes, whose task was to communicate messages from the gods to the ordinary mortals. Authors suggest that the ethical decision-making includes a wider horizon than pure interpretation of existing ethical codes. Emphasizing that ethical decision making is an ongoing process with no easy answers, the book offers a paradigm for decision-making and provides readers with the knowledge and understanding they need to effectively think through issues. 
 
Authors Rick Houser, Felicia Wilczenski and MarryAnna Ham incorporate broad perspectives of ethical theories from Western, Eastern, Middle Eastern and Southern hemisphere perspectives. Utilising numerous case studies, authors present a comprehensive exploration of counselling ethics in a cultural context. Examining the implications and consequences of competent multicultural counselling, they present ethical dilemmas arising in face-to-face counselling interactions and supervisory relationships.

This is an ideal textbook for students and educators in counselling and/or psychology programmes. The book is also an essential guide for social workers and health professionals who work in multicultural environments. Although the publication is created in a different cultural environment, many aspects have practical and universal application to every professional working in a multicultural context.

Jones, F., Bright, J. (2001). Stress - Myth, Theory and Research. Pearson Education Limited. ISBN: 0-130-41189-2.

The sub-title of this book clearly outlines the scope of this wide-ranging study of stress. The authors, Bright from Australia and Jones from the UK, together with a range of other contributors, are experts in the field.

Divided into five parts, each containing two or three extensive sub-sections, the book also contains a detailed index.

Starting from the question What is Stress?, moving through consideration of its effects and why different people handle stress differently to two chapters focusing on stress at work, it concludes with Stress Reduction Strategies containing a brief overview of current research.

As the authors state in the preface, so much research has been done into stress that one book cannot hope to provide a comprehensive review of related literature; thus this book introduces issues which they believe are central to gaining a basic understanding of the concept of stress.

While myth shares equal billing with theory and research in the title, this book is an academic study encompassing a range of theoretical approaches: psychological, emotional and physiological. A strong recommendation for this book is the recency of the theorists cited.

The section looking at stress at work is of particular contemporary interest, with its focus on the work/home life balance: the possible effects of work on home life and vice versa. It also puts the spotlight on the impact of work on an individual’s family and partner relationships.

The book ends with a brief glossary and a very broad reference list covering 42 pages, providing a wealth of sources for further reading.

While not an easy read, this book provides a valuable resource for a range of professionals; as the authors state:

Stress has become an issue which affects nearly every part of our lives, having  an impact on our work, health and personal relationships. At the same time it  remains a controversial phenomenon. Despite the high profile it has in the media and the public consciousness, there are many who consider stress a  problematic term which has been used indiscriminately to describe a wide  range of very different symptoms and problems.

Reading the book will certainly provide considerable food for thought; having it on the bookshelf will offer a comprehensive reference for information on stress.

Carroll, M., Gilbert, M. (2005). On Being a Supervisee: Creating Learning Partnerships. PSYCHOZ Publications. 157 pages. ISBN: 0-958-5796-7-9.

In the opening paragraph of the Introduction the authors clearly state their reason for writing this book: to ‘empower’ supervisees; ‘supervision is for supervisees, not for supervisors’, a fact not always completely understood by those in supervisory positions.

In defining just what they believe a supervisee to be they encompass a fairly broad field, considering a supervisee to be ‘anyone, of any profession, who brings his/her work experience to another in order to learn from it’. In addition to empowering them this focus on the supervisee, according to the authors, will help them to be honest and open about their work and also involve them actively in creating a collaborative learning relationship.

The book is described as a manual by the authors so the somewhat dry text is unsurprising and acceptable; it is divided into three sections with clearly marked topics to allow it to be used in a non-sequential way.

1. Section One provides an overview of the supervisory relationship and includes what to look for when choosing a supervisor, roles, contracting and preparation.
2. Section Two looks at the developmental stages of learning in supervision: learning how to learn; how to give and receive feedback; realistic self-evaluation; reflection; emotional awareness and dialogue. This section also covers group supervision and how to deal with problems which may arise in the supervision process.
3. Section Three is a twelve part appendix consisting of exercises and frameworks which can be used to assist the supervisee during the process.

Each chapter concludes with a ‘Review and Discussion’ panel, containing a list of questions for the reader to consider in the light of the chapter’s content. There are also Case Examples for the reader to consider how they might deal with the issues raised.The book has a useful reference and further reading list.

The manual format of this book makes it easy for the reader to quickly access specific topics; the layout is clean and clear and at just over 150 pages it does not overwhelm the potential reader. The focus on the supervisee rather than the supervisor also provides for some valuable insights into the supervising role for those who offer supervision.

Editor’s Note: ‘Book Reviews’ is a brand new sub-category of ‘Professional Development’. This section will review popular counselling, psychology and mental health books - comprising both national and international publications. Each review will also be available for direct access under the new ‘Book Reviews’ link category, at the right-side column of this Blog.

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