Tools For Hard Conversations will help professionals who routinely have hard conversations in the course of their work. It is a guide for how to have these types of conversations, while avoiding the compassion-fatigue and burnout that often comes with these roles. It goes into depth about the philosophies, approaches and practical tools that enable workers to help people more effectively without sacrificing their own well-being.
Often helping professionals, unduly influenced by the medical-model approach to mental health, which sees them as the expert who needs to fix their clients’ problems, are just looking for tangible tools to guide their practice and to help people find their own solutions.
The co-authors have developed and road tested a conversational map that can assist workers to enable change with the people they work with, positioning each client as the expert of their own life. With the help of extensive case studies, Tools For Hard Conversations enables workers and clients to walk away stronger from each therapeutic conversation.
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
As a trainer of counsellors, I think this book is a stimulating resource for anyone interested in putting post-structuralist ideas into practice. I have met many people whose eyes simply glaze over when introduced to post-structuralism. All very interesting, they say, but how do you actually use it? What do you actually say to people? How could I use it in my situation? The authors address these questions in a readable and accessible way, providing a practical ‘SKILSS’ map that offers clear guidelines without being formulaic. As they suggest, it is not a matter of either-or. The helping professions exist in a structuralist or modern world, so the question becomes, how can we engage in constructive dialogue and offer useful poststructuralist contributions within it? The book will be valuable reading for both practitioners new to the field and, just as importantly, for those of us who want to re-acquaint ourselves with the energy and optimism that these approaches continue to offer.
– Roger Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Counselling, Queensland University of Technology