A to Z of Mental Illness: The Counsellors’ and Other Professionals’ Guide to Psychotherapy

Simon Carr in the Foreword draws attention to ‘… a vast unmet need for “talking therapies” among those people who are psychologically frail and require helping interventions, timeously delivered, in order to enable them to lead healthy lives… [and what is] unquestionably important is that practitioners, who may encounter psychiatrically distressed clients in their practice, are aware of how appropriate it may be for them to take on such clients and perhaps more importantly, have the skills to refer the client to a more specialist and knowledgeable therapist.’

William Stewart writes from a lifetime as a mental health professional, teacher and author and the rationale for writing this book is to put before counsellors and other practitioners who are involved in helping relationships a book that alerts them what to look for when a person might appear to need specialist psychiatric help or when they themselves might need help and advice.

Professionals trained in mental health are well equipped to counsel clients with a wide range of problems; for them this book will act as an aide memoire. For other professionals the book will provide a body of knowledge that will augment what they already know about mental health.

People who are involved in any caring role have a duty of care and part of that duty is to engage in continuing professional development (CPD); this book represents one strand of this process.

The six main sources of the book are:

  1. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM IV), American Psychiatric Association (2000).
  2. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10), World Health Organization (1992).
  3. Kaplan, Harold I., and Benjamin Sadock, Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 9th Revised edition (2009).
  4. Shahrokh, Narriman and Robert E. Hales (Eds.). American Psychiatric Glossary, American Psychiatric Press Inc.; 8th Revised edition (2003).
  5. Spitzer, Robert L., et al. (1994) DSM IV Case Book. American Psychiatric Press, Inc.
  6. Stewart, William, (2013 5th edition) An A-Z of Counselling Theory and Practice, Cengage Learning.

The book is written in a readable style, where, as far as is possible, jargon has been removed and psychiatric terms explained. It is presented in an A-Z format, backed up with reference to authors and articles online, and illustrated with numerous case studies and Further Reading.

Available as a Kindle ebook from Amazon