School Counseling and Social Work Homework Planner (W/ Download)

I love this book. When used with the manual, it is a perfect combination for using EBI for your counseling cases. Easy tu use.

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First, it should be noted that this homework planner is meant to accompany a treatment planner. That being said, it offers enough guidance at the beginning of each chapter that those who are experienced in therapeutic work with children or social work should be able to take advantage of the exercises without the treatment planner.There were several points in this that I was impressed by. The introductions very helpfully included the goals, the diagnoses and problems that the exercises may assist with, and the age ranges that seem most appropriate for the activities. The contents also appear to be well-designed to help kids try to explore and understand a wide range of feelings and concretize them such that they can be more effectively managed in therapy. I can easily see how such exercises would help the therapist learn valuable things about a client as well as discover directions to take in the therapy sessions.There are a few small points which I think could be better. Mainly, in the sections which require pictures being drawn or pasted in as part of the homework, there is not enough space for a child to comfortably draw. A narrow 4-inch band across a page is not enough for a kid to draw his or her entire family. I understand that the writers probably didn't want to put one sentence on the page and leave the rest blank, but these are "ready to copy" and I think it would have been a better choice. The therapist will have to tell the child to use a different piece of paper or risk some frustration on the child's part.Also, there are some activities which seem to be mixed in terms of the targeted ages and the demands of the activity. For example, there is a grief exercise which invites the child to "draw a picture of grief mountain" by connecting dots, but there are words around the "mountain" that include "disbelief", "investing", "significant", and "numbness". I believe kids can understand these words, but those who do are probably past the stage of drawing a picture with dots. The given range for this exercise is grades 4-12 and I think a high school kid might be insulted by such a childish exercise being included in their therapy "homework".Obviously, no homework planner can hit every mark and clearly the writers expect that the counselor will modify these little issues on the fly. Most of the exercises are pretty level consistent and neither short or not too long, though a few look like they'd be the equivalent of an essay test and be tiresome for kids or increase the chances that they wouldn't do them because it's too much effort. All in all though, I think this is a good collection to help those dealing with children, particularly those in the mid- to late-elementary school year up until the end of high school.

The CD-Rom that comes with the book is very helpful and worked easily on my computer. You just pop it in, agree to the rights agreement, and then you click on each subject as needed. The pages open in word and can be modified to your liking.The book is large and easy to make copies of on copy machine if you prefer to use it that way and not print from the CD-rom.Content is organized well for quick searching to find the subject you're searching for. I suggest reading it through at least once to be familiar with the content and style. Thought provoking questions that pertain to treatment are written out for you - very handy.**Author suggest doing pages together in therapy if child has aversion to idea of "homework." Pages can also be done in clients time and brought back in. The assignments go along with traditional therapy and are to be used by a therapist. A few of the assignments go with the author's Treatment Planner, but most are explained enough at the beginning of each assignment to be fine for a practicing therapist to use. Perhaps one starting their practice that doesn't have as many resources yet, or perhaps for a therapist looking for new tools to use with their clients.Subjects Include:1. Academic Motivation/Study and Organizational Skills2. Anger Management/Aggression3. Anxiety Reduction4. Assessment for Mental Health Services5. Attachment/Bonding Deficits6. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder7. Attention Seeking Behavior8. Blended Family9. Bullying Perpetrator10. Career Planning11. Conflict Management12. Depression13. Disruptive Classroom Behaviors14. Diversity and Tolerance Training15. Divorce16. Grief and Loss17. Learning Difficulties18. Oppositional Defiant Disorder19. Parenting Skills/ Discipline20. Physical and Sexual Abuse21. Physical Disabilities and Challenges22. Poverty and Economic Factors23. Responsible Behavior Training24. School Refusal/Phobia25. School Violent Perpetrator26. Self-Esteem Building27. Sexual Responsibility28. Sibling Rivalry29. Social Maladjustment (Conduct Disorder)30. Social Skills/ Peer Relationships31. Substance Use and Abuse32. Suicide Ideation/ Attempt33. Teen PregnancyAs you can see - it's very thorough. A complete and useful guide of "Homework" that gets the conversation started and into the minds of therapy clients.

IThe ISBN 1118410386 (School Counseling and School Social Work Homework Planner, 2nd ed.) is a black and white textbook that teaches school counsels and social workers homework planning to facilitate therapy with children, and it is written in plain English. Its 339 pages of a larger than the standard size are clearly divided into 33 sections containing 75 exercises - 2 or 3 per section. Each exercise is headed by counselor's overview divided into goals, additional problems, and suggestions. All 75 exercise are also in digital form in the Microsoft Word format for PC and Mac on the enclosed CD-ROM disk that allows customization and printing for distribution. The counselor's overviews alone give the book the properties of a handbook as well as of a reference. So, after the initial reading it can be used for just browsing of only each section problem and its remedy overviews. Approx. 75 pages of the book are shown by the Amazon.com's "LOOK INSIDE!" function. What cannot be seen is that the book the book is very well printed on decent semi-glossy paper, and the not too flimsy soft covers are somewhat adequate considering the price.