This fresh new text will help future mental health professionals develop the competence they need in technical and conceptual skills, while learning to successfully integrate the two groups of skills. This book effectively meshes teaching of the traditional technical skills (e.g., open questions, reflection of feeling, reinforcement, modification of cognitions) with the long-neglected conceptual skills (e.g., case formulation, mental status examination, diagnosis, goal setting, treatment planning). Readers will learn to conceptualize their work and to gain a deeper understanding of their clients as well as to select and apply effective interventions. Both general skills such as building a collaborative and therapeutic alliance demonstrating multicultural competence and specific skills such as developing a genogram and conducting an intake interview are presented in this text.

Material is arranged by skill type (technical or conceptual) and according to the emphasis of the treatment approaches that make greatest use of those skills. Both skills and corresponding treatment approaches are clearly organized according to the four pillars of the BETA framework (background, emotions, thoughts, actions) developed by the author.