Main description:

This introductory text defines and describes disability, while providing practice implications for students in the fields of counseling and social work. Part I begins by asking what people with a disability (PWDs) want from counselors, and then covers disability definitions and categorizations, demographic shifts in disability, and various models of disability. Part II provides practice implications for counselors, such as acknowledging one's lack of disability knowledge, providing in-office accommodations for PWDs, respecting the disability and its effect on the client's life, viewing the client as an entire person, and listening effectively to the client's experiences of prejudice and discrimination. In addition to practice hints and first-person accounts, included throughout the book are the ways in which the DSM-5 relates to and differs from the International Classification of Disease (ICD) and the International Classification of Function (ICF), and information about the intersectionality of multiple minority statuses.

Contents:

I. Disability, Definitions, and Diagnoses 1. What do PWDs want from Counselors 2. Defining Disability 3. More PWDS Than Ever Before: A Demographic Shift not Widely Acknowledged 4. Models of Disability: Defining and Describing the Disability Experience II. Practice Implications for Counselors 5. Acknowledging Your Lack of Disability Knowledge 6. Providing In-Office Accommodations for PWDs 7. Learning to Respect the Disability and Its Effect on the Client's Life 8. Learning to View the Client as an Entire Person, Not Simply a Disability 9. Learning to Probe about Prejudice and Stigma Encountered by the Client with a Disability III. Conclusion 10. Conclusion