Customer Reviews

Where to Start and What to Ask: An Assessment Handbook

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

These days, in preparation for my internship in the fall, I'm trying to read books that will remind me how to work clinically. This one is excellent, and I deeply wish I had read it in my second or third year of graduate school. I had to learn a lot of this stuff on the job, through floundering and making mistakes, and my field experiences would have been worlds easier if someone had just told me these things. This is an extremely practical (NO theory) how-to book for social work/psychology students who are just starting out and want to know how to conduct initial interviews with various clients -- adults, children (and their parents), couples, families, etc. It also covers issues such as assessing for violent potential, suicidality, and child abuse/neglect. It's written in a very simple manner and the style and information is appropriate for students rather than professionals. However, it's serving as an excellent review for me. I also recommend it to supervisors as a good resource for providing guidance to their supervisees.

This book is a quick read that clearly outlines exactly what the title says, where to start and what to ask. Questions to assess for suicidality, homicidality and abuse are provided. Intake interviews and the specific nuances involved are written about as well as a comprehensive set of questions to ask during an intake interview. There is a set of developmental and medical questions that really help to cover all the milestones. Some of the questions are quite detailed, but you can easily pick and choose what you want to utilize or leave out. I used many of the questions when developing my own intake interview questionnaire. Working with children, adults, couples and families are addressed as well as questions to ask during an initial intake interview for them. Pitfalls to look out for are given. This is a highly applicable book for those in the mental health or social work field.

This is a really good book... I only wish I had it when I was a graduate student social worker. It would have helped me so much. What a terrific resource. My only regret: Susan you ought to write more books for student and entry level social workers. The reading was enjoyable, clear and took the mystery out of how-to-begin. Thank you, Susan.

I found this book to be very helpful in supervision of both students and professionals preparing for licensure. I have the 1993 edition and cannot find the audio tapes for the book which are named on the jacket, Thinking Like a Therapist ISBN 0-393-70160-3. Can you help me locate these tapes?

I read this book as a beginning graduate student, and underlined, highlighted, and marked up many relevant passages. Now as a professor teaching graduate students in Counseling, my students find it every bit as useful as I did. They consistently rate this the most useful of all the books and readings they've done. As another reviewer noticed, you won't find theory. Just the practical, how-to nuts and bolts of how to do a mental status exam, describe a client's affect, what to say in your first meeting with a family, couple, child or adult, and how to keep youself safe when working with potentially violent clients. If you are starting out in clinical work, this book will be one you will reference often.

I ask all of my social work interns to buy this book. I found it when I was a student and it helped me tremendously. It has all the information everyone assumes you know.

This book gives real life situations to help the reader put the information in perspective. This book is very readable and easy to follow. I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the helping fields, not just for social workers.

The book was in great condition. Saved money from buying it from Amazon also. However, the content was not that helpful. There are other books out there that provide the same information in a better way.

The book was very informative with a great deal of information. It was easy to read and understand - very user friendly. The information was timely and well put together.

this book was purchased as an aid to inteviewing in action book. As a beginner clinican this book will assist in up coming assessments and interviews.