Product Description
Intended to help therapists and beginning students organize their approach to the initial phase of treatment, this book offers all the necessary tools for gathering information from the client and provides a framework for thinking about that information and formulating a thorough assessment. The author describes how to conduct the first interviews and includes sample forms and questionnaires.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 8 reviews)

Excellent source of information !!!

Excellent book, very informative about where to start and what to ask when in session with your client!!!
October 21, 2008

A must have for graduate students or mental health professionals

This book is a quick read that clearly outlines exactly what the title says, where to start and what to ask. Questions to assess for suicidality, homicidality and abuse are provided. Intake interviews and the specific nuances involved are written about as well as a comprehensive set of questions to ask during an intake interview. There is a set of developmental and medical questions that really help to cover all the milestones. Some of the questions are quite detailed, but you can easily pick and choose what you want to utilize or leave out. I used many of the questions when developing my own intake interview questionnaire. Working with children, adults, couples and families are addressed as well as questions to ask during an initial intake interview for them. Pitfalls to look out for are given. This is a highly applicable book for those in the mental health or social work field.
March 19, 2008

An excellent, practical, how-to book to prepare social work/psychology students for practicum

These days, in preparation for my internship in the fall, I'm trying to read books that will remind me how to work clinically. This one is excellent, and I deeply wish I had read it in my second or third year of graduate school. I had to learn a lot of this stuff on the job, through floundering and making mistakes, and my field experiences would have been worlds easier if someone had just told me these things. This is an extremely practical (NO theory) how-to book for social work/psychology students who are just starting out and want to know how to conduct initial interviews with various clients -- adults, children (and their parents), couples, families, etc. It also covers issues such as assessing for violent potential, suicidality, and child abuse/neglect. It's written in a very simple manner and the style and information is appropriate for students rather than professionals. However, it's serving as an excellent review for me. I also recommend it to supervisors as a good resource for providing guidance to their supervisees.
May 02, 2007

The Sahara

Don't be misled by the cunning title. This book is of use only to the most vapid and self-absorbed therapists or social workers.

I resented almost each of the 184 pages that I read in excruciating agony. Don't get me wrong, I was enthusiastic at first, then I started reading it. Her writing is less than inspiring. "Why?", a reader might ask, is an assessment important? Ms. Lukas is quick to respond that without an assessment, we wouldn't know what the problem is. It's insight like this that earns her a far, far down in the Amazon bestseller list.

I was watching this episode of "American Idol" last night, and saw this kid singing. I thought to myself, Wow!, this kid is good! I hope he wasn't abused! This is exactly the kind of caring that Ms. Lukas calls for in making assessments. I seem to have all the right attributes. Time for the next chapter, although it's going to be hard to top this one!

In her best moments, Ms. Lukas almost overcomes her powerful sense of self-importance to convey something useful, but never quite makes it happen. It's a shame that this book ends up as just another pointless slaughter of perfectly good trees. This wasted paper and wasted my time. Ms. Lukas again attempts to use her innovative "Powerpoint Bullet-point" style of writing to convey a sense of urgency, but comes up dry, like the Sahara on a hot California Friday afternoon in Summer, when there hasn't been any rain in a long, long time. I am reminded of the review on the back cover of the book, where Mr. Strean lauds the book as "highly readable." I would have to, like, totally agree with him. My initial analysis suggests that this book is composed of largely english vocabulary loosely organized into a framework of sentences and paragraphs. I didn't have the time to get much further than this, however, because it all seemed so schizophrenic. She hops from one half-finished thought to the next with the frequency of a cheap portable radio.

Why is there no zero star rating?
April 01, 2007

thanks!

This book was at a great price, shipped very quickly (within a week), and was in great condition! Thank you so much. I highly recommend this seller.
February 19, 2007

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