This comprehensive volume provides the knowledge and skills that mental health professionals need for more effective, informed work with clients with disabilities. Combining her extensive knowledge as a clinician, researcher, and teacher with her personal experience as someone with a disability, Olkin provides an insider's perspective on critical issues that are often overlooked in training. A lucid conceptual framework is presented for understanding disability as a minority experience, one that is structured by social, legal, and attitudinal constraints as well as physical challenges. Illuminating frequently encountered psychosocial themes and concerns, chapters describe a range of approaches to dealing with disability issues in the treatment of adults, children, and families. Topics addressed include etiquette with clients with disabilities; special concerns in assessment, evaluation, and diagnosis; the impact of disability on sexuality and romance, as well as pregnancy, birthing, and parenting; the use of assistive technology and devices; disability and substance abuse; and more. Filled with clinical examples and observations, the volume also discusses strategies for enhancing teaching, training, and research.

Much has been written about cognitive development in those who are cognitively impaired. Much is written about attachment for people who don't have disabilities. Yet people with disabilities have suffered discrimination and neglect of their emotional needs, perhaps because the pain of difference cannot be tolerated, perhaps because of lack of will or lack of knowledge. This book aims to help to fill the knowledge gap and to encourage others to overcome their resistance to facing the pain, and will be an important contribution to our understanding of the world of disability and emotional deprivation. In this book - a result of over twenty years experience with people who have disabilities and additional distress as a result of traumatic life experiences - an attempt is made to bring together what we know about early emotional development and the consequences of failure to provide an emotionally nurturing experience, and the results are then applied to people with disabilities.

This book provides the reader with insightful and useful ways to provide psychotherapy treatment for individuals who have intellectual disability (ID). It brings together all three modalities (individual, couple, and group), and a variety of theoretical models and techniques are discussed. The first section, Individual Therapy, offers a variety of approaches and techniques including dialectical behavioral therapy, positive psychology, mindfulness-based practice, and relaxation framing. Also included in this section are chapters on specialty populations including victims of abuse, people who have Autism Spectrum Disorder, and people in mourning. The second section is a chapter on group therapy addressing trauma issues. The third section is on family and couple therapy. The fourth section covers chapters on research, ethics, and training. The individual authors are respected authorities in the field of providing psychotherapy treatment for persons with ID, and all have contributed to the professional literature. This book is a major contribution to the effort to make psychotherapy available to individuals who have ID and should serve to further stimulate interest in the provision of psychotherapy treatment for individuals who have ID co-occurring with significant mental health problems. Book jacket.

Clinicians outside of rehabilitation psychology do not receive training on how to work with clients with disabilities. Nonetheless, given that people with disabilities comprise over 15% of the population, virtually all clinicians will have clients with disabilities in their practice. Without education or training in disability, clinicians are prone to make errors in estimating the role of disability in the presenting problems and the case formulation. Disability-Affirmative Therapy (D-AT) helps clinicians put the disability of a client into proper focus, without making one of the usual mistakes associated with cross-cultural therapy: overinflating the role of the disability, or underestimating its profound effects. D-AT provides a template for evaluation - nine areas to be discussed with the client - that allows understanding of the client's lifetime experiences with disability. The template is not a theory of therapy, but an overlay onto the therapist's own approach, thus having broad appeal and utility. D-AT is a positive and affirming approach to therapy with clients with disabilities, regardless of the theory of therapy used. The book contains many vignettes to illustrate key points and an extended case example to which the D-AT template is applied. Grounded in social and clinical psychology research, this book will be an important and unique guide to all clinicians working with clients with disabilities and their families.

Praise for the First Edition: "This is an excellent book, but the best parts are the stories of the disabled, which give readers insights into their struggles and triumphs." Score: 94, 4 Stars–-Doody's Medical Reviews What are the differences between individuals with disabilities who flourish as opposed to those who never really adjust after a trauma? How do those born with a disability differ from individuals who acquire one later in life? Fully updated and revised, this second edition of a unique rehabilitation counseling text reflects growing disparities among "haves and have-nots" as they bear on the psychosocial aspects of disability. New content focuses on returning veterans afflicted with physical and mental health problems, persons with disabilities living in poverty, and the need for increased family and community-based engagement. The book provides updated information about assisted suicide, genetic testing, new legislation, and much more. Using a minority model perspective, the text provides students and practitioners of rehabilitation and mental health counseling with vivid insight into the experience of living with a disability. It features first-person narratives from people living with a variety of disabling conditions, which are integrated with sociological and societal perspectives toward disability, and strategies for counseling such individuals. The text encompasses an historical perspective, psychological and sociological research, cultural variants regarding disability, myths and misconceptions, the attitudes of special interest and occupational groups, the use positive psychology, and adjustments to disability by the individual and family. A wealth of counseling guidelines and useful strategies are geared to individuals with specific disabilities. Designed for a 15-week semester, the book also includes thought-provoking discussion questions and exercises, an Instructor’s Manual and PowerPoints. New to the Second Edition: Reflects the growing disparities between “haves and have-nots” as they impact people with disabilities Includes new content on veterans with physical and mental disabilities Describes the experience of impoverished individuals with disabilities Examines the need for increase family and community-based engagement Discusses strengths and weaknesses of the Americans with Disabilities Act Covers assisted suicide, genetic testing, and recent legislationExpanded coverage of sexual identity Provides an Instructor Manual and PowerPoints Key Features: Provides 16 personal narratives demonstrating the "normalcy" of individuals with different types of disabling conditions Includes stories of people living with blindness, hearing impairments, spinal chord injuries, muscular dystrophy, mental illness, and other disabilities Delivers counseling strategies geared toward specific disabilities, with "do’s" and "don'ts" Discusses ongoing treatment issues and ethical dilemmas for rehabilitation counselors

Intellectual Disability and Psychotherapy: The Theories, Practice and Influence of Valerie Sinason charts the transformative impact of the noted psychotherapist’s work with children and adults with intellectual disabilities upon both a generation of clinicians and the treatment and services delivered by them. Examining how contemporary Disability Therapists have discovered, used and adapted such pioneering concepts as the Handicapped Smile and Secondary Handicap as a Defence Against Trauma in their clinical work, the book includes contributions from renowned practitioners and clinicians from around the world. It shines a light on how Sinason’s work opened doors for working with people who were previously thought of as unreachable. Intellectual Disability and Psychotherapy will be an essential resource to anyone working with children or adults with disabilities, as well as psychotherapists interested in exploring Valerie Sinason’s work.