Instructional Counseling A Method for Counselors

Instructional Counseling presents a method of counseling that is founded on the similarity between effective counseling and effective teaching. The goal of counseling, as of all good teaching, is to enable clients to learn new skills, perceptions, attitudes, emotional responses, and behavior. Most important, it should help clients teach themselves in a self-directed way. The yardstick is effectiveness: how much has the client learned and changed?
Jack Martin and Bryan A. Hiebert take a clear and structured approach to their subject. They present an instructional model that suggests specific procedures to follow in working with clients: counselors should help clients to specify what they need to learn by using plain language, familiar examples, and concrete demonstrations; they should help clients to try out new skills, and encourage them with helpful feedback. Individual chapters discuss teaching, learning, decision making, problem solving, skill training, personal coping, self-management, eclectic uses of the instructional model, and the criteria for judging counseling.
A sophisticated blend of counseling psychology and learning theory, Instructional Counseling joins theoretical and humanistic points of view, keeping a balance between principles and examples. It will interest a wide audience in education and psychology, especially students of counseling and field practitioners.