Citation:
Yager, G. (2009). Conversations with Jeremiah on the Magic of Counseling. Akron, OH: Invincible Press.

Author:
Geoffrey Yager

Genre:
Professional

CACREP Core Area:
Professional orientation and ethical practice, Helping relationships

CACREP Specialty Area:
School counseling, Clinical mental health counseling, Counselor education and supervision

Subject Headings:
Multicultural/cross-cultural issues,Relationships,Wellness

Review:
Conversations with Jeremiah on the Magic of Counseling describes the weekly meetings of two young graduate counseling students with a "mysterious mentor” over the course of an academic year.

The mentor answers content questions with illustrative stories to the occasional bewilderment but always to the delight of his two protégées. This book is unique in its organization, presentation, and style. It is not a "typical textbook” nor is it a trade book. It is uniquely and purposefully conversational and casual in style. It does not easily fit into a category.

Since many students find traditional texts, even counseling texts, too formal, the driving force behind this manuscript was an effort to address highly important counseling concepts through an engaging "story format.” It is hoped that this unorthodox approach to a counseling text is just what is needed to maintain the interest and excitement of the students in counseling and therapy skills courses. In exploring these counseling-related stories, a reader creates vivid images, characters, and events for each tale, and the specifics elements of each are based on our own experiences, beliefs, and understandings.

The completed story is an event in our own minds: a unique and personal product. This individually-developed creation will inevitably be retained long after any alternative method of information delivery (e.g., a lecture or a written essay). The use of a story tends to allow the lessons to "sneak by” the listener’s defenses, flying under the typical evaluative "radar” and obtaining access to learning channels in the listener that go well beyond rational and logical review.

This text contains a set of 30 stories addressing the crucial components of a counseling relationship. The individual stories (and lectures) are weaved together by an overarching story involving Jeremiah, the storyteller, and his two students, Emma and Michael. This connecting tale provides an opportunity to emphasize and reinforce particularly important principles. The two students, in essence, ask the questions that would be generated by any student.


The topics covered are those most commonly voiced by students during early experience with actual clients. Although designed for students, experienced counselors in all settings (e.g., schools, mental health, rehabilitation, employment, and forensics) will find that this book provides an excellent opportunity to revisit the basic, human elements that led them to become invested in counseling and in the client-counselor relationship.

Since the core elements of the relationship don’t change over time, the reminders of core skills imbedded in this book will continue to be fresh even with seasoned practitioners.

What is Jeremiah’s conceptual or theoretical framework? He doesn’t directly identify a specific theoretical approach, but it becomes clear in reading his thoughts throughout the book that he is a relationship-oriented counselor with a tendency to conceptualize using a cognitive-behavioral understanding. There is nothing in what Jeremiah advocates for counseling practice that would draw immediate criticism and disagreement from therapists with widely divergent theoretical orientations.

Originally posted on 11/1/2009 at csi-net.org