Description
This book provides a model for adapting best practices in cognitive-behavioral therapy to consumers whose language and cognitive deficits make it difficult for them to benefit from traditional talk oriented psychotherapy.
The book focuses primarily upon the mental health care of those deaf clients, sometimes referred to as “low functioning” or “traditionally underserved,” who are particularly difficult to engage in meaningful treatment.
Drawing most heavily upon the work of Donald Meichenbaum, Marsha Linehan, and Ross Greene, this book presents adaptations and simplifications of psychotherapy which make it accessible and meaningful for persons often viewed as “poor candidates.”
The heart of the book is a greatly simplified approach to psychosocial skill training, especially in the domains of coping, conflict resolution and relapse prevention skills, as well as an extensive discussion of “pre-treatment” strategies for engaging clients in mental health care.
Also included is research demonstrating how deaf mental health clients are different than hearing clients, guidelines for doing mental status examinations with deaf clients whose language dysfluency gives them the false appearance of having thought disorders, and a chapter on developing staff and creating culturally and clinically appropriate treatment programs.
I want to absorb and memorize every word from this book — just as his past book was beyond awesome, this one is even more practical, useful, and addresses the real issues that I constantly face as a Deaf therapist working with Deaf/HOH clients.
If you work in a mental health service for pre-verbally deaf adults, this book is a gem (as long as you can deal with the looooong title). In particular, Neil Glickman captures the complex needs of less able deaf service-users, conveying this in accessible language. The book is clearly based on extensive clinical practice. Unusually, it includes enough detail to be of practical help to professional therapists who are familiar with CBT and DBT approaches. The accompanying CD includes many pictorial images that can be readily adapted to make resources. As someone who was new to working with deaf service users two years ago, this is still the book I take off the shelf regularly.