Consultation Skills for Mental Health Professionals

von Richard W. Sears

Consultation interventions are an increasingly popular alternativeto clinical practice, allowing the practitioner to interact withand affect many different individuals and organizations. This typeof work challenges mental health professionals, drawing on all theskills and resources they may possess, yet also offers some of thegreatest rewards and opportunities for service. Filled with numerous case examples and checklists,Consultation Skills for Mental Health Professionals containsa wealth of information on this important area of practice. Itprovides a comprehensive source for working with a diverseclientele in a variety of settings, discussing both traditionalmental health consultation models and the fast-growing field oforganizational consulting. The guide is divided into four parts: * Individual-Level Consulting Issues takes up individual careerassessment and counseling, along with how organizational contextsaffect individual jobs; leadership, management, and supervision;executive assessment, selection, interviewing, and development; andexecutive coaching. * Consulting to Small Systems discusses working with teams andgroups; planning and conducting training and teambuilding;diversity in the workplace and in consultation. * Consulting to Large Systems covers how to work with largeorganizations, including organizational structure, terms, culture,and concepts, as well as processes such as change and resistance;how to assess organizations, and the characteristics of healthy anddysfunctional workplaces; and issues involved in organizationalintervention. * Special Consulting Topics include issues such as the practicalaspects of running a consulting practice; the skills required forsuccessful clinical consultation; consultation services for specialpopulations; and crisis consultation, including critical incidentstress management, psychological first aid, disaster recovery,media communication, and school crisis response.