Counselling by Telephone

Maxine Rosenfield - Private Practice, New South Wales

Other Titles in:
Counseling & Psychotherapy | Counseling Psychology

November 1996 | 160 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

Challenging the view that telephone counseling is a poor way to counsel patients, Counseling by Telephone contends that for certain clients this may be the therapeutic medium of choice. This supportive, instructive, and highly practical volume explores the essential skills needed to carry out effective telephone counseling--how to welcome and establish a relationship with the client, listening and responding, understanding silences, working with transference and fantasy, and recognizing and reacting to feelingsùwhich are often very distinct from those involved in face-to-face counseling. Author Maxine Rosenfield goes on to examine the benefits to both client and counselor of working by telephone, and highlights the technical and practical issues that are important for the counselor to be aware of when engaging in telephone counseling. Other chapters address issues such as group counseling by phone and counseling by other media, such as by e-mail and by letter. Clearly written, informative, and practical, Counseling by Telephone will be extremely useful for trainees, practicing counselors, and for those in the helping professions who want to work with the telephone and want to understand the difference between counseling skills and counseling on the phone.

Introduction

What Is Counselling by Telephone?

Skills and Attitudes Needed When Counselling by Telephone

Training, Supervision and Quality Control

Theoretical Orientations

The Counsellor-Client Relationship

Telephone Group Work

Technology and Counselling by Telephone

Counselling by Other Media

`Well written, well researched... [the book] contributes to undermining ideas of professional hierarchy, in which long-term face-to-face is top of the pile, and short-term and the phone are the province of the amateur who knows not what they are up to. On the contrary, the counselling process as well as the use of counselling skills are resources that can be much more widely used than is possible if they are restricted to relatively long-term counselling. This is an excellent book covering a great deal of recent thinking about confidentiality, skills, training, quality and supervision in relation to the telephone [with] a useful chapter on its technology in relation to counselling' - Counselling and Psychotherapy, The Journal of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

`This book breaks new ground by focusing attention on the potential of the telephone as a medium for counselling. It acknowledges that many counsellors have been reluctant to embrace the potential of telephone counselling. Until recently, this reluctance has been endorsed by the counselling and therapeutic authorities. But the British Association for Counselling has now given telephone counselling recognition... The book [is] aimed at two potential groups of readers. First, it is a call for the counselling establishment to acknowledge that the forms of human communication available to counsellors are now many and varied, and that face-to-face contact is not always necessary, possible or appropriate... The second group of potential readers is individuals and agencies already committed to telephone counselling. The book will enable them to address issues of training, supervision, quality control and skills as well as theory... This is a valuable book that deserves to be read by those who are sceptical about telephone counselling as well as those who are convinced about its importance. Rosenfield has ensured through its publication that telephone counselling will be an unavoidable item on the agenda of counselling authorities' - British Journal of Guidance and Counselling

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Maxine Rosenfield

Maxine has had 20 years experience counselling clients with a chronic or life threatening illness, bereavement, grief and loss, addictions, relationship concerns, anxietyand depression and sexual identity issues.... More About Author

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