This book is useful to a wide range of readers and can readily serve as a core textbook or resource to explain the history, development, and current practice of rehabilitation counselors (RCs) within the context of the contemporary practice of counseling. Although most clearly useful to counselors-in-training in an introductory course, people think that those RCs at the doctoral level or already in practice interested in the field and its broader positioning and potential will find this book appealing. The book consists of 22 chapters that are divided into parts that emphasize different themes important to understanding both the people and types of situations with which RCs work and the specific roles and skill sets that describe professional practice. It consists of basic information about the structure and professional practice of rehabilitation counseling, and serves the important role of introducing the readers to the RC’s most important partner in the counseling process, the person with a disability. The book also focuses on the professional practice of rehabilitation counseling and introduces the new work in the field that sharpens the emphasis on evidence-based practices and research utilization in the field. It describes in detail, the specific functions that constitute the work of rehabilitation counseling: assessment, counseling, forensic and indirect services, clinical case management and case coordination, psychiatric rehabilitation, advocacy, and career development, vocational behavior, and work adjustment of individuals with disabilities. Further, the book introduces the competencies that provide the types of skills, knowledge, and attitudes that must infuse the practice of rehabilitation counseling because of their pervasive and overarching importance in all aspects of practice.

This book attempts to provide a comprehensive review of the career development and employment issues, theories, and techniques that impact rehabilitation professionals in their work with people with disabilities. It starts out by introducing the reader to the centrality of work. The psychology-of-work framework provides the reader with a foundation for understanding how and why work is central to individuals’ lives. The centrality of work also provides significant meaning and value to the work that rehabilitation professionals undertake to enhance the career development and employment of individuals with disabilities. In addition to the centrality of work, the book introduces the Illinois Work and Well-Being Model (IW2 M) as a framework to guide career and vocational development. Specifically, the IW2 M provides a structure that researchers and practitioners can use to examine the core factors that impact all phases of the career development process. The book continues to underscore the impact of poverty on the career development and employment prospects of individuals with disabilities. Although the awareness of poverty as a factor impacting career development has increased over the last 10 years, poverty is still undervalued as a career driver in the rehabilitation counseling literature. The issue of poverty will be extremely relevant in the post-COVID-19 world. Finally, the book provides a comprehensive review of the major theories related to career development and employment, including job satisfaction, work analysis, labor market research, and transferable skills analysis. Given the uncertainty of our time, the book helps the reader to either find reinforcement or develop a new-found appreciation regarding the career development and employment of people with disabilities and chronic health conditions. The book serves to be an important resource that can help facilitate their own career development and the career development of people with disabilities with whom they work.

This book provides an integrated perspective on disabilities of the various disciplines of human services for counselors, social workers, and allied health professions in training. It provides an interdisciplinary and intersectional perspective on disability and psychosocial adjustment to disability in rehabilitation counseling, social work, and allied health professions. It also includes foundations of disability studies, advocacy, the disability rights movement and disability legislation, policy, and law. There is a focus on select persistent and emerging population trends in disability studies, which are supported in the literature as populations that are anticipated to represent a growing and greater proportion of individuals in need of disability and integrated services. The attention to psychosocial adaptation to disability along with the inclusion of case studies and field-based experiential exercises related to specific topics make this book an invaluable resource for students and professionals alike. The human services professions contain a wide variety of disciplines that assist individuals, families, and populations to improve their capacity to function as individuals and in society. These professionals possess specific competencies and credentials, but operate from an interdisciplinary knowledge base that requires coordination among professionals, programs, and agencies in service delivery. The disciplines typically included in responding to disability-related issues are rehabilitation counseling, counseling, mental health, social work, rehabilitation sciences, psychology, and allied and health sciences. A key feature of each chapter is application from an intersectional perspective of issues related to addressing the service needs of persons with disabilities. Based on the foundations of understanding services providers’ scope of practice, the text discusses the roles and functions of human services providers, ethics in service delivery, professional credentials, cultural competency, and family and life span perspectives of disability.

The field of counseling is an exciting and challenging career choice. It is a profession that has a prolific history of enabling person-centered counseling approaches for individuals, couples, partners, and families, and facilitates therapeutic services for children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. This book offers an excellent resource for graduate-level coursework that relates to an orientation to the counseling profession, professional issues, and special topic seminars, as well as other counseling-related coursework. It provides both contemporary insight and practical strategies for working with the complexity of real-life issues related to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of diverse clients and their families. The book provides professionals with chapters organized into the 10 CACREP and CORE content areas that address the awareness, knowledge, and skills required to work with children, adolescents, individuals, groups, couples, families, and persons from diverse cultural backgrounds. The content areas are: professional counseling identity, ethical and practice management issues, case management and consultation issues, multicultural counseling awareness, counseling theories and techniques, career counseling and human growth, assessment and diagnosis, counseling couples, families, and groups, counseling specific populations, and contemporary issues in counseling.

This book brings to life the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF; World Health Organization, 2001) for rehabilitation counselors. The book presents contemporary information that can be used to educate, guide practice, and provide the foundation for emerging research related to the psychosocial aspects of disability and chronic disease. It provides a powerful and informative resource for students, practitioners, and scholars in developing and reinforcing rehabilitation counseling principles that guide rehabilitation counseling education, practice, and research. The book is organized into five major parts containing 30 chapters. Part I presents the historical perspectives on illness and disability. Part II offers insights into the personal impact of illness and disability on individuals by looking closely at several unique psychosocial life experiences. It discusses various theories of adaptation to disability, the unique experiences faced by women with disabilities, gender differences regarding sexuality, multicultural and family perspectives of disability, and quality of life (QOL) issues for those with disabilities. Part III addresses issues such as involvement, support, and coping of family members (parents, children, spouses, and partners) which includes family caregiving and counseling, to promote optimal medical, physical, mental, emotional, and psychological functioning of the person with a disability. Part IV reflects the growing need for diagnostic, treatment, and preventive interventions, and the coordination of important resources to help persons with chronic illnesses and disabilities achieve optimal levels of independent functioning. It delves on substance use disorders, trauma-related mental health problems among combat veterans, and assistive technology. The final part addresses several contemporary issues faced by persons with chronic illness and disabilities (CIDs) that are relevant to counselors and practice. It discusses newer challenges that these individuals face, including obesity, poor nutrition, poverty, suicide, threat of terrorism, and depression, all of which are on the rise in the United States.