David Howe

The book describes the experiences that people have had when tracing their birth parents, as well as offering practical advice on how to go about searching and what to expect emotionally. Each section has an advice box which summarizes key points, notes issues to pay particular attention to, or offers draft letters that readers can adapt for their own needs. The appendix contains useful addresses and weblinks, and includes checklists for searching and for the reunion. Chapters include reunion with birth fathers and birth siblings, as well as with birth mothers, the relationship with the adoptive family and dealing with reunions that break down.

Are pain and injury managed appropriately in the environment of professional sport?Is sports medicine a tool to empower or to disempower athletes?David Howe considers these and other pertinent concerns and questions whether, in the world of modern sport, it is the participants themselves or the sport's administrators who exert more control over athletes' well being. Exploring the historical transformation of sports medicine and the relationships between medicine, body and culture, Sport, Professionalism and Pain bridges a perceived space in the literature between medical anthropology, medical sociology and sport studies.

Are pain and injury managed appropriately in the environment of professional sport?Is sports medicine a tool to empower or to disempower athletes?David Howe considers these and other pertinent concerns and questions whether, in the world of modern sport, it is the participants themselves or the sport's administrators who exert more control over athletes' well being. Exploring the historical transformation of sports medicine and the relationships between medicine, body and culture, Sport, Professionalism and Pain bridges a perceived space in the literature between medical anthropology, medical sociology and sport studies.

This ground-breaking text offers a comprehensive and penetrating account of how social developmental perspectives and attachment theory can illuminate practice in the field of child protection and family support. Drawing extensively throughout on fascinating case-study material, the text moves from an introduction to the key theories to a detailed outline of the main methods and processes. It offers a carefully developed and systematically tested practice and assessment model for professionals in this challenging and complex area and, as such, will be an invaluable resource for students and professionals alike.

With recent changes in the variety of children needing adoption, issues about adoption have become more complex. As older and more disturbed children are being placed for adoption, the demands these children make on post-adoption workers and parents are considerable. This text takes a broad sweep of the major research and theoretical perspectives on adoption by reviewing the work of several disciplines within psychology, sociology and social work. The book gives readers a broad understanding on the development of children before, during and after they are adopted.

The quality of early social relationships has a deep bearing on our psychological and social development; adversity in childhood can lead to adult relationships that may be difficult and distressing. This book addresses the needs of social workers in understanding and assessing the nature and origins of such disturbed social relationships. Taking a comprehensive and wide-ranging look at the theories emerging in and around attachment theory, it provides a sophisticated but accessible base from which social workers can make sensitive assessments and develop humane practices.

`This book explores what clients have to say about their experience of the psychotherapeutic process. David Howe observes that, regardless of the therapist's theoretical orientation, clients say similar things about their experience of being helped (and not being helped). It is the non-specifics of genuineness, a secure trusting atmosphere, empathy and warmth that offer the vehicle for encouraging a dialogue of personal intimate material, and of "making sense" and understanding when we are in pain, puzzled or worried.... This is an easy and gentle read.... For those interested in Attachment Theory, this would be a useful addition to their bookshelf' - Clinical Psychology Forum There is a growing interest in what clients have to say about their experiences of counselling and psychotherapy. In a powerful analysis of this subject, David Howe identifies a number of clear and potent messages. He explores such questions as why clients say the things they say and why the therapeutic alliance holds out such promise, and, using the client's experience as a platform, seeks to create a general theory of counselling and psychotherapy. The author draws on a number of new and exciting ideas emerging in developmental psychology, sociology and the brain sciences to discuss the process by which the human infant becomes an individual as well as a competent social being. From the basis that the social and psychological structures which generate the client's experience underlie all psychotherapeutic encounters, the book then explores how the self forms and then re-forms in social relationships, including those established during counselling and psychotherapy. In conclusion, the reader is invited to consider a number of thought-provoking claims about the universal qualities that characterize good and bad practice in all schools of counselling, therapy and the helping process.

Social workers need to recognize the critical role that theory plays both in the way they make sense of what is going on and in the way they order their work. Such recognition clarifies practice for both the worker and the client. David Howe's classic text provides a framework to help social workers develop an understanding of the theories which inescapably underpin their thoughts and actions. This edition contains a new preface by the author, written in 2008, in which he examines the continuing value of his framework, concluding that it remains an effective tool for making sense of the profession's most current ideas. The book covers a range of theoretical approaches, demonstrating through examples that different theories necessarily lead to very different practices. It offers a stimulating guide to social work theory which is proven to help social workers both to understand their practices and to practise in a disciplined and imaginative way.