Howard Kirschenbaum

A splendid introduction to the life and work of the pioneering psychotherapist, Carl Rogers.

Grades and grading are an accepted part of modern education. But why? Why do we accept a system that is more focused on ranking students than on learning? Why do we accept the negative effects of standard grading approaches, including turning students off from learning, increasing stress, creating winners and losers, and perpetuating racial and economic inequality? Why do we accept these things when there are better alternatives?Wad-Ja-Get? is a unique discussion of grading and its effects on students. The book was written by three education professors who have had first-hand contact with the problems of grading in all its forms. Written in the form of a novel, the topic is explored through the eyes of students, teachers, and parents in one high school embroiled in a controversy around grading. Possible alternatives to the grading system are examined in detail and the research on grading is summarized in an appendix. This 50th anniversary edition of the book includes a new introduction by Professor Barry Fishman, updating the research and setting the original book in the context of today’s educational and societal challenges. Wad-Ja-Get? remains timely five decades after its original publication, and will be inspiring to students, parents, educators, and policymakers.

Are you getting what you want out of life? Do you know where you draw the line when it comes to sex, money, cheating on your income tax ... or accepting an indecent proposal? Becoming aware of your values is the key to making wise choices in all aspects of your life, from picking a partner to buying a house. Created by Dr. Sidney Simon, coauthor of the bestselling Getting Unstuck, and two other leading professionals, this workbook has already had an impact on hundreds of thousands of lives. Its scores of intriguing, interactive exercises were designed to uncover the hidden beliefs that reveal what matters most to you, how you deal with life-changing conflicts, which career choices will make you happiest, what leisure time activities provide you with the most pleasure, where you honestly stand on controversial issues, what day-to-day events are likely to make you angry ... excited ... anxious ... confident, how best to motivate yourself, and what beliefs can cause conflict in your family or love relationship.

Available for the first time in paperback, this 2007 second edition of Howard Kirschenbaum's biography of Carl Rogers extends to over 700 pages and includes a more detailed personal and professional history, an evaluation of the Wisconsin years and a full account of the last decade of Rogers' life. The years that followed the publication of the first edition of Carl Rogers' biography in 1979 turned out to be one of the most important periods of his career. Until now this work has not been widely known. Now, more than a quarter of a century after the first edition, Kirschenbaum has added deeper understanding of Rogers' contributions to psychology, the helping professions and society. On a personal level, access to recently revealed private papers tells us much more about Carl Rogers the man than was known to many of his closest associates. Brought to us by a masterly biographer whose own understanding of Carl Rogers, psychotherapy, education, and the human condition has matured over the intervening years. This much-anticipated second edition reflects a wiser and more balanced perspective of his subject. Now fully referenced, this is the life and work of Carl Rogers - no more, no less.

This work meets a long-standing need in the helping professions by being the first and only comprehensive book devoted to these priority-defining and goal-setting values clarification strategies for counseling and psychotherapy by providing a clear description of what values clarification is and is not. The book demonstrates, with great precision and hundreds of clinical examples, how counselors and psychotherapists in many fields can ask good clarifying questions, and employ dozens of strategies with individuals, couples, families, and groups. Values clarification is perhaps best known for the many values clarification strategies that can be used with individuals and groups to explore a myriad of counseling topics. Values clarification is compared and contrasted to other approaches to counseling and psychotherapy, including person-centered, cognitive-behavioral, reality therapy-choice theory, existential, individual psychology, solution-focused, narrative, motivational interviewing, acceptance and commitment therapy, appreciative inquiry, life coaching, and positive psychology. Helping clients determine their priorities, set goals, make decisions, and take action to improve their lives are common tasks for virtually all helping professionals when engaging with clients. This is the process known as "values clarification" (or "Values Clarification"). While counselors and psychotherapists widely practice values clarification-some knowingly, others unaware-they typically do so with a limited understanding of its theory, methods and various applications. The book illustrates extensively how strategies can be carried out in individual counseling and psychotherapy, group counseling and psychotherapy, and psychoeducational work, whatever the subject or topic. The examples throughout the text are often grouped around more specific applications for marriage and family counseling, career counseling, substance abuse and recovery counseling, geriatric counseling, grief counseling, pastoral counseling, financial counseling, school counseling, rehabilitation counseling, counselor/clinical education and supervision, health counseling and personal growth.