This book presents the best short introduction to genius to be found. It is a valuable resource for all students of psychology and anyone interested in the field. The book examines the many definitions of “genius”, and the multiple domains in which it appears, including art, science, music, business, literature, and the media. The term genius is peculiar. It can be precisely defined or loosely defined. It can be applied to a diversity of phenomena or confined to just one or two. It all depends on how you use the term. The tremendous range in usage reflects the fact that genius is both a humanistic concept with a long history and a scientific concept with a much shorter history. There are two principal ways to assess degrees of genius. One is historiometric, and the other is psychometric. Whatever the actual association between historiometric and psychometric genius, we have a strong inclination to associate the two concepts. This connection was demonstrated in a recent survey of college students at both U.S. and Canadian universities. The book also examines three alternative positions on the nature of cognitive ability: unified intellect, diverse intellects and hierarchical intellect. Whether intelligence is unified or multiple, all budding geniuses must go through some sort of apprenticeship period in which they acquire the expertise that will enable them to make original and exemplary contributions to their chosen domain of achievement. The book further explains what psychologists have said about problem-solving research in cognitive psychology.

This book represents a compilation of years of theoretical and clinical insights distilled into a specific theory of disturbance and therapy and deductions for specific clinical strategies and techniques. It focuses on an explication of the theory, a chapter on basic practice, and a chapter on an in-depth case study. A detailed chapter follows on the practice of individual psychotherapy. Using rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) in couples, family, group, and marathons sessions is highlighted. The book commences with a note on the general theory underpinning the practice of REBT, outlines its major theoretical concepts and puts forward an expanded version of REBT’s well-known ABC framework. It then considers aspects of the therapeutic relationship between clients and therapists in REBT, deals with issues pertaining to inducting clients into REBT, and specifies the major treatment techniques that are employed during REBT. A number of obstacles that emerge in the process of REBT and how they might be overcome are noted. The book then distinguishes between preferential and general REBT (or cognitive-behavior therapy [CBT]) and specifies their differences. Individual, couples, family and group therapies are explained. The book talks about the Rational Emotive Behavioral Marathon, a highly structured procedure that is deliberately weighted more on the verbal than on the nonverbal side. The authors’ 8-week psychoeducational group for teaching the principles of unconditional self-acceptance in a structured group setting is described. The book concludes with a discussion on the concept of ego disturbance, REBT treatment of sex difficulties using the cognitive-emotive-behavioral approach, and REBT’s effectiveness with hypnosis.

This book is dedicated specifically to increasing the confidence and professional competence of graduate students and early career professionals who use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with children and adolescents. It shows some opening remarks for mental health professionals (MHPs) and trainees who are new to doing CBT and positive psychology (PP) treatments with kids suffering from an internalizing disorder. Behavioral activation is a tried-and-true stable of CBT. A common presenting complaint among depressed or stressed kids is poor sleep. The book shows some of the strategies for combating insomnia. Problem solving is another staple of CBT. The methodology for problem solving is a little bit different if it is done with an individual kid or in a family session. The factors to be considered to introduce communications training and problem solving in a family or an individual session are: age, maturity level, and psychological mindedness of the child. Exposure procedure is used for kids who are treated for anxiety. This chapter shows a list of common exposures among anxious youth. Physiological calming and coping thoughts are the two popular techniques for supporting exposures. Involving the parent is often key with doing exposures. The book also presents some of the principles and methodologies with regard to parent interactions. It is important for parents to be open with their kid about their thinking about the value of a mental health evaluation. Sometimes parents ask for guidance about how to have the discussion with their kid.

The authors have had many years of leadership and management experience in a variety of settings and have discovered that there are few books that cover the majority of topics related to leadership and management specifically for social work education and practice. This book covers all the main areas of expertise required in a typical social work leadership and management experience. It incorporates all 21 competencies and 126 practice behaviors from the Network on Social Work Management (NSWM) and nine competencies and 29 practice behaviors espoused by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and can serve as a textbook for social work programs at the graduate level. The book has many unique features. It provides a comprehensive list of leadership and management competencies from the NSWM and the CSWE along with a list of competencies and practice behaviors. The book presents leadership and management competencies and practice behaviors each chapter along with cases, examples, and activities of how to use them in practice situations. It discusses in detail the differences between management and leadership along with best management and leadership practices. The book provides examples of how to motive and successfully work with different age cohorts. It presents effective communication and marketing strategies. The book discusses in detail how to effectively work with groups and give examples of how to make meetings productive. It exhibits specific problem-solving and decision-making strategies along with examples. The book summarizes how to manage a range of organizational functions. It discusses the importance of collaborating with community groups and other stakeholders to succeed in making a difference. The book contains five parts that replicate the NSWM’s four domains of leadership: executive leadership in social work; resources management practices; strategic management and administrative skills for organizational growth and success; community collaboration; and supplemental materials.

This book provides a comprehensive model for effectively blending the two main postmodern brief therapy approaches: solution focused and narrative therapies. It harnesses the power of both models the strengths-based, problem-solving approach of solution focused therapy (SFT) and the value-honoring and re-descriptive approach of narrative therapy to offer brief, effective help to clients that builds on their strengths and abilities to envision and craft preferred outcomes. The book provides an overview of the history of both models and outlines their differences, similarities, limitations, and strengths. It then demonstrates how to blend these two approaches in working with such issues as trauma, addictions, grief, relationship issues, family therapy, and mood issues. Each concern is illustrated using a case study from practice that focuses on individual adults, adolescents, children, or families. Sample client dialogues and forms are included to help the clinician guide clients in practice. SFT has provided therapists with new tools for working with clients who are dealing with substance abuse. The book provides a summary of research findings that have shown the effectiveness of the solution focused approach over the problem-focused approach. The narrative model invites clients to construct a new presentation in a problematic story (narrative) and develop a script for a preferred future (solution focused), with a newly crafted character, instigating new strategies for actions (solution focused), based on exceptions.

Given the growth of MI in schools that has occurred since the first edition was published, the book has been revised and updated. Several key improvements have been made to the current edition. First, the literature on the science and practice of motivational interviewing (MI) in schools has been updated. Second, the chapter on MI with students has been vastly expanded and describes many new applications of MI in schools with youth. Third, the chapters on implementation and dissemination have been completely rewritten. These chapters reflect the latest science about how to ensure one is implementing MI as intended and strategies for learning and improving MI skills. Fourth, it has expanded coverage of MI applications with school problem solving teams. The authors believe that this is an emerging and important area of research and practice and hope this chapter sparks important progress for building and sustaining effective problem solving teams. Fifth, the chapter on the context of motivation and getting teachers, parents, and students to be willing to engage in MI conversations has been expanded. Finally, every chapter on specific applications of MI has been updated. The book is organized in three parts: an overview of MI; specific applications of MI with teachers, parents, students, families, and problem-solving teams; and implementation and dissemination strategies for learning MI and monitoring fidelity. This book includes several features intended to aid learning and retention of material. It provides extensive examples of MI conversations and dialogue, each with labels of MI strategies that are being used and consulted to change and sustain talk responses. These examples show MI is used in structured interventions and also how it can be used everyday as one interacts with anyone who is contemplating change. Finally, the current edition has many Expert Tips for learning and improving MI skills.

This book intentionally approaches positive psychology from two perspectives: One is the application of specific positive psychology constructs, such as strengths or the broaden-and-build model, to supervision and training. The second perspective, which is probably more pervasive throughout the book and provides the underlying conceptual framework, is to operate from the definition of positive psychology as simply “the study and science of what works”. The book provides a broad overview of some of the most influential supervision theories and perspectives and introduces the key research findings and constructs from positive psychology. The rest of the book focuses on the factors and practical applications that will have the most impact on providing supervision from a positive psychology framework, ranging from ways supervisors can help ensure that the supervisory relationship begins well to identifying and developing our supervisees’ strengths and fostering the development of expertise and lifelong learning. The book also presents several models for approaching the problems that can occur during supervision and offers practical suggestions to help your challenging situations lead to supervisee growth and a stronger supervisee-supervisory relationship. Problems are inevitable, but unlike customer service at a bank, there is not an outside department charged with solving them; however, successfully resolving problems can lead to more growth and development than a smooth journey ever could. The book finally examines ways to facilitate ethical “resiliency” to help us and our supervisees more effectively address the human tendencies that can land even the most well-intended supervisee or clinician into ethical quicksand.

Problem-solving therapy (PST) is a psychosocial intervention, generally considered to be under a cognitive-behavioral umbrella, that is geared to enhance one’s ability to cope effectively with both minor (e.g., chronic daily problems) and major (e.g., traumatic events) stressors in order to attenuate extant mental health and physical health problems. Rather than representing an updated volume of the theoretical and empirical literature on PST or social problem solving, the purpose of this book is to serve as a detailed treatment manual and to delineate general intervention strategies of contemporary PST that are required to effectively conduct this intervention approach. The book first briefly presents an overview of the theory underlying PST as well as the supportive research that documents its efficacy across various populations and clinical problems. Next, it offers an overview of problem-solving assessment and treatment planning as well as general clinical considerations. In order to achieve the treatment goals, the specific treatment objectives for PST can be thought of as: enhancing positive problem orientation, decreasing negative problem orientation, fostering planful problem solving, minimizing avoidant problem solving, and minimizing impulsive/careless problem solving. In order to achieve the treatment goals and objectives, PST focuses on training clients in four major problem-solving toolkits. The four toolkits include: problem-solving multitasking, the Stop, Slow Down, Think, and Act (SSTA ) method of approaching problems, healthy thinking and imagery, and planful problem solving. The book describes these toolkits and provides for detailed clinical guidelines in order to effectively conduct PST.

This book provides an overview of theories for direct social work practice and a framework for integrating the use of theory with central social work principles and values, as well as with the artistic elements of practice. It is intended primarily for graduate-level social work students and practitioners. The book has similarities to other books that provide surveys of clinical theories for social work practice; however, the authors think it has a number of distinctive and useful features. In brief, these features include: (a) grounding direct practice specialization firmly in the generalist perspective of social work practice; (b) documenting the trend toward, and rationale and empirical support for, eclecticism in the broad field of counseling/psychotherapy, and reviewing various approaches to eclecticism; (c) bringing order to, and demystifying theories by differentiating among levels of theory, organizing direct practice theories into like groupings, and providing an overview of the central characteristics of each grouping of theories; (d) providing a critical perspective on the dominant, scientific paradigm of direct practice that centers the use of theory and technique, and putting equal emphasis on the artistic elements of practice; and (e) proposing the problem-solving model as a useful structure for facilitating the integration of the artistic and scientific elements of practice. The contents of all of the chapters in this fourth edition have been revised and updated to reflect developments in theory, practice, and research since the second edition was published. In Part II of the book there is a new chapter on couples theory and intervention, as an additional metatheory for social work practice. In Part III, there are now chapters on trauma informed practice, motivational interviewing, anti-oppressive theory, mindfulness-based practices, eye movement desensitation and reprossessing and dialectical behavior therapy.

This book is a companion to Emotion-Centered Problem-Solving Therapy: Treatment Guidelines that a clinician using Emotion-centered problem-solving therapy (EC-PST) can use as handouts for current clients or can be purchased directly by clients actively engaged in EC_PST. The book underscores the importance of problem-solving in overcoming stress, improving self-confidence, and fostering better personal and professional relationships. It includes a Problem-Solving Therapy Worksheet, tips for developing goals, using brainstorming principles, and overcoming negative emotions. The Appendix includes a Problem-Solving Test, exercise and several stress-relieving and relaxation exercises, including a “Safe-Place” visualization