Substance Abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice (3rd Edition) [Paperback]

Patricia Stevens (Author), Robert L. Smith (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0131133233 | ISBN-13: 978-0131133235 | Publication Date: June 6, 2004 | Edition: 3

Known for clarity, accessibility, and practicality, this widely-used book thoroughly examines substance abuse in the population, addressing both ways to measure the problem and how to treat individuals and families who seek assistance. It educates prospective clinicians and counselors by guiding them, step-by-step, through the process of working with substance-abuse clients. Chapter content builds in sequence; however, each chapter can be taken as a stand-alone source of valuable information. Individual chapters on special populations add substantial depth to the text's treatment of its subject.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This book provides information regarding the enormity of substance abuse problems in the population, how to assess the problems, and how to treat individuals and families who seek assistance. It educates beginning clinicians and counselors about substance abuse by guiding them through the process of working with substance-abuse clients. Written in an understandable, and easy-to-grasp manner, it covers the basics of substance use and abuse—Terminology, physiology, psychokinetics, and psychodynamics. Case histories are used in selected chapters to help readers integrate the various approaches by offering a sample of the types of issues presented when working with this population. An emphasis on special populations includes minority populations, women, elderly, special needs groups, and children/youth. For substance abuse counselors seeking information on the stages of counseling—from assessment and diagnosis through relapse prevention. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Patricia W. Stevens, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Leadership and Secondary Education Department at Morehead State University in Kentucky. As a Counselor Educator, she has more than 15 years of experience in training counselors for school and agency settings. She is the past president of the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors and a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Stevens is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Supervisor, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Supervisor, and a National Certified Counselor. She is also a Fulbright Scholar and has received awards for teaching, research, and service as well as the IAMFC Mentoring Award. Dr. Stevens has written and presented extensively at the local, regional, national, and international levels in the areas of substance abuse, gender issues in training and learning, and ethical and legal issues in counseling.

Robert L. Smith, Ph.D., is Professor, Chair of the Counseling and Educational Psychology Department, and Doctoral Program Coordinator at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. As a licensed psychologist, he has worked as a private practitioner in addition to serving as the chair of three counselor education programs. He is the author of several books and more than 60 professional articles. He serves as the Executive Director, and was one of the founders of, the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors. He is also the founder of the National Credentialing Academy for Family Therapists. Dr. Smith authored the initial prospectus for this text and surveyed professionals concerning the need for this manuscript. His research interests include the efficacy of treatment modalities in individual psychotherapy, family therapy, and substance abuse counseling. He is a Diplomate-Fellow in Psychopharmacology with the International College of Prescribing Psychologists.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 3 edition (June 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131133233
• ISBN-13: 978-0131133235
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a pretty good substance abuse textbook, August 2, 2007

By 

Midwest Master Gardener - See all my reviews

This review is from: Substance Abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

I just finished a graduate level course on substance abuse counseling, and this was my text. It's a pretty good textbook, with a lot of good information. Most of it is pretty dry reading though. Like a lot of graduate level textbooks, it's written in a dry yet information-dense style, which makes information retention challenging.

The best chapters by far are 1 - histories of various drugs of abuse, and 2 - their effects on the body.

I wasn't very fond of the sample cases they had in the text. I would have preferred a lot of "real life" case studies, with the interventions that were attempted, alternative interventions suggested by other experts, and outcomes.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource!, May 29, 2007

By 

cam29 (VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Substance Abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

This book provides a wealth of information on substance and alcohol abuse. It is an interesting and informative book. It gives an overview of common substances and their affects on the body. Case studies provide practical application for concepts presented in the book. Must have for those working in the substance abuse field or those who just want to learn more.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Depth and scope of addictions limited, June 8, 2010

By 

Daneman (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Substance Abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice (4th Edition) (Paperback)

Substance Abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice covers the most common themes found in the area of addictions. As advertised by the title, it only covers substance abuse based addictions and says nothing about process addictions such as gambling, sex, etc. addictions. The first two chapters in the book focus on the various substance and their categories (i.e. depressants, stimulants, etc.). This could have been condensed into one small chapter, instead the authors chose to give information regarding each drug such as street names, tolerance issues, overdose, etc. The fact is that this information is readily available on the Internet and does not need to be covered in such detail as the book. The third chapter covers etiologies of substance use. The major theories are discussed: moral, disease model, genetic, behavioral, socio-cultural, and an integrated approach. The truth is, there is more theories covering addiction than these ones and they are not covered at all. The ones that are covered are given appropriate depth. The chapter on assessment was particularly rich with information. After this, the rest of the book is acceptable in it's depth and detail.

The readability of this book is nothing to shout about, though I have read worse text books. This book was good enough for me to keep it, though it is not one of the top books that is in my collection. I decided to keep it mostly because the content is unique in that there are not very many texts regarding addiction counseling out there that I am aware of.