COUNSELLING PEOPLE WITH COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS

Counselling People with Communication Problems provides a practical and accessible step-by-step guide for those working with people who experience disorders of speech, language, voice and fluency. The author, Peggy Dalton, herself both a speech and language therapist, and a counsellor, emphasizes how counselling has come to play an increasing part in practitioners' approaches to communication problems. She evaluates the forms of counselling that are currently practised alongside direct treatment of the disorders themselves, and addresses issues of training opportunities and the responsibilities of counsellors, asking for greater training opportunities and a wider provision of counselling in this field. The book also explores the effects of communication problems on the person's sense of self, relationships and perceptions of the world. Peggy Dalton stresses the need for a greater understanding of the experiences of people whose lives may be severely limited by their communication problems, and shows how important it is to find ways of discovering the personal meaning of experience when it is unable to be expressed in words. Providing a sensitive and jargon-free approach to counselling people with speech impairments - and also looking at the needs of those closest to them - this book will be of great help to both counsellors and speech therapists.