Human history suggests that humans have coped with hearing loss and Deafness for centuries, because it was addressed in some of the world’s most ancient texts, including the writings of Plato and Aristotle, the Torah, and the Talmud. A person who is Deaf or hard of hearing from birth or in the first days of life has a congenital hearing loss. Mixed hearing loss results from a combination of both conductive and sensorineural causes. The distinction between medical hearing loss and membership in the cultural group is made by capitalizing the term Deaf when referencing individuals in the Deaf cultural community. Cultural transmission is primarily a function of residential schools for the Deaf, and for this reason, the Deaf community strongly resists public school mainstreaming or inclusion. Treatment and management of hearing loss are very important and usually involve provision of assistive listening devices.

The passage of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was originally an effort by Congress to ensure portability of health insurance between jobs for American workers. This chapter provides a brief overview of HIPAA regarding mental health services, compliance issues for providers, filing and investigating complaints, violation penalties, a list of terminology, and resource links for more detailed information. Patients must be informed of their rights and are required to sign the appropriate forms authorizing the health care provider to obtain and/or provide information to other health care providers as relevant. All psychotherapy notes recorded on any medium by a mental health professional such as a licensed counselor or psychologist must be kept by the author and filed separately from the rest of the patient’s medical records to maintain a higher standard of protection.

This chapter reviews dimensions of effective intake interviewing, including preparation, skills, cultural competency, informed consent, and format. Preparation is important for the effectiveness of an intake interview. This includes attention to space in which the interview will be conducted, a review of available client information, and consideration of the purpose of the interview. An intake interview relying primarily on questions may leave clients feeling disconnected from the counselor and discouraged about the potential benefits of the counseling process. The structure and the breadth of the intake interview is determined by many factors, including where the counseling is taking place, accreditation and insurance requirements, and the intensity of clients’ distress or level of functional impairment. An effective interview allows the counselor to accurately understand clients’ presenting concerns, collaboratively consider outcome goals, develop a supportive relationship, and promote hope about the benefits of the counseling process.

This chapter offers a practical approach for facilitating disaster mental health and stress debriefing groups using a combination of crisis response models; specific guidelines for structuring such interventions and responding to individuals and groups; and resources to assist in personal and professional growth in the specialty area of disaster mental health response. Additionally, three case scenarios are provided at the end of the chapter for the purpose of practicing the skills of disaster mental health and stress debriefing interventions. Initially, the preintervention and planning stage is critical in assessing, coordinating, and communicating with others on the disaster team concerning the trauma survivors’ psychological, spiritual, and medical/physical level of functioning. The ethical and competent disaster mental health practitioner knows that he or she should never force emotions or shame individuals for not disclosing, especially early on in the grieving and healing process.

Perceived prejudice events are recognized as stressors that are linked to lowered mental health for those who experience such events. Frequently misrepresented and even vilified in the press, Middle Eastern Americans are routinely negatively portrayed in the media and entertainment and are often the victims of stereotypes. Religion plays an integral role in the lives of many Middle Eastern Americans and may be a central component of their identity. The family is the central structure of Middle Eastern culture and plays a critical role in Middle Eastern social origination and in collective identity. Middle Eastern Americans may have a general skepticism of the authority of mental health professionals, in part due to the negative connotations of mental illness. The concept of mental disturbance may be difficult for them to accept as a diagnosis.

This chapter provides a general overview of the cognitive behavioral history, model, and techniques and their application to counseling practice. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) originally evolved out of two traditions, the behavior therapy tradition and the psychodynamic tradition. Behavior therapy was one of the first major departures from the more traditional, psychodynamically oriented approaches to therapy. Through the use of Socratic questioning, CBT involves an ongoing assessment of the person and the problems throughout the therapy experience and is very sensitive to the idiosyncratic nature of an individual’s problems. Once cognitive, behavioral, and emotive patterns are identified for change, the CBT therapist begins to introduce a variety of focused techniques to facilitate this process. Behavioral interventions can be especially helpful in promoting change in individuals who have a harder time making elegant core belief changes through cognitive methods.

The uniqueness of Native American Indian (NAI) people in the United States is founded on rich and diverse cultures that have enabled this population to survive severe political, economic, and environmental hardship. Counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health providers and therapists have an obligation to bear in mind the cultural differences of all clients in their vulnerable states. Respect for cultural beliefs and ways of living and thinking, regardless of how alien they may seem to the caregiver, will encourage the Native client to develop trust and more fully participate in his or her own healing process. It is important that therapists learn as much as they can about the NAI client because of the importance their identity and beliefs have for them as people with proud histories. In contrast, majority or White culture emphasizes saving, domination, competition, individualism, a future time orientation, and the nuclear family.

The history of counseling is a fascinating evolutionary process, particularly how the profession developed, and how quickly it has evolved through the professionalization process during the past half century. This chapter reviews and highlights the major events that led to the development of professional counseling, including the numerous professional specialty groups that make up the family of professional disciplines in counseling that provide services to clients in diverse practice settings. One of the critical issues that continues to challenge the counseling profession and related specialty areas are professional identity and professional unification. The unique divisions within the American Counseling Association (ACA) represent areas of specialized practice and special-interest areas that relate to a broad constituency of counselors regardless of their specialty areas of practice. Examination and certification standards for the certified rehabilitation counselor (CRC) credential have been established through empirical research throughout the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification’s (CRCC) history.

This chapter presents an overview of a guiding model for clinical practice for the use of homework with a broad spectrum of clients and presenting problems. As with many aspects of clinical practice, these guidelines will be most effective if tailored to meet the individual client’s goals for therapy. The chapter provides suggestions for increasing counselors’ skills in incorporating homework assignments into the therapy process. This material is primarily based on the work of Aaron T. Beck’s cognitive theory and system of psychotherapy. Certainly, behaviors and cognitions are commonly addressed by homework, but better accessing of emotions, or addressing interpersonal relationships, are examples of other directions that homework can take. A theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms behind how clients engage in homework assignments, and how such successful engagement can augment psychotherapy outcomes.

This chapter clarifies differences between two aspects of supervision and reviews the need to evaluate training interventions to improve clinical supervision competence. It examines evidence-based practice as it relates to qualities and competencies needed to work as an effective clinical supervisor. The chapter addresses the benefits of using group supervision and its potential for developing multicultural competence; examines possibilities through distance supervision; and concludes with a brief discussion of the importance of ethical standards in clinical supervision. It provides foundational material that is expounded elsewhere in this desk reference as applied to rehabilitation counselor supervision practice. Using the available information from various clinical and research sources to inform the professional field is commonly referred to as evidence-based practice. In general, supervisors who are knowledgeable about counseling theory and practice and help supervisees to develop a deeper understanding of clinical issues through constructive feedback, demonstrate respect and concern for their supervisees.