Therapeutic Communication: Developing Professional Skills

The Second Edition of Herschel Knapp's Therapeutic Communication: Developing Professional Skills provides beginners and seasoned professionals with the skills to navigate the facts and feelings endemic to professional therapeutic communication. With a comprehensive perspective, Dr. Knapp clearly and effectively explains differences between casual and therapeutic relationships, focusing on key elements such as the therapeutic process, social and emotional factors, and professionalism. Organized into discrete sections to highlight individual skills, each chapter follows a unified format, encouraging readers to apply their knowledge frequently.

"Students often struggle with core concepts related to therapy. This book takes those struggles and clears up any doubts about the basics and guides them toward becoming experts in their field."

"Whether you're a therapist or a high school counselor, the skills outlined and described in [this book] are paramount to the success of any helping relationship."

"I was inspired by Dr. Knapp's ability to capture the emotions, techniques, and skills necessary to have a successful helping relationship in an easy to follow manner . . . the text takes the reader from the beginning to the end of a counseling relationship seamlessly . . . Students will find the straightforward nature of the book a staple of their professional library. This is the type of text you keep close at hand throughout your professional career."

Herschel Knapp, PhD, MSSW has more than 20 years of experience as a health science researcher; he has provided project management for innovative implementations designed to improve the quality of patient care throughout the Veterans Health Administration via multisite, health science implementations. In addition to full-time work at the VA, he teaches masters-level courses at the University of Southern California; he has also taught at the University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Knapp has served as the lead statistician on a longitudinal cancer research project and managed the program evaluation metrics for a multisite, non-profit children s center. His clinical work includes emergency/trauma therapy in hospital settings. The author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed health science journals, he is also the author of Introductory Statistics Using SPSS (SAGE, 2013), Therapeutic Communication: Developing Professional Skills, Second Edition (SAGE, 2014) and Introduction to Social Work Practice: A Practical Workbook (SAGE, 2010). Dr. Knapp is currently involved in developing and implementing innovative telehealth systems, utilizing videoconferencing technology to facilitate optimal healthcare service delivery to remote patients, and to coordinate specialty consultations among healthcare providers including interventions to diagnose and treat people with HIV and hepatitis, with special outreach to the homeless.Knapp, Herschel: - Herschel Knapp, PhD, MSSW, has more than 25 years of experience as a health care professional in a variety of domains. In addition to his clinical work as a psychotherapist, primarily in hospital settings, he has provided project management for innovative implementations designed to improve the quality of patient care via multisite, health science implementations. He teaches master's-level courses at the University of Southern California; he has also taught at the University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Knapp has served as the lead statistician on a longitudinal cancer research project and managed the program evaluation metrics for a multisite, nonprofit children's center. His clinical work includes emergency/trauma therapy in hospital settings. Dr. Knapp has developed and implemented innovative telehealth systems, utilizing videoconferencing technology to facilitate optimal health care service delivery to remote patients and to coordinate specialty consultations among health care providers, including interventions to diagnose and treat people with HIV and hepatitis, with special outreach to the homeless. He is currently leading a nurse research mentorship program and providing research and analytic services to promote excellence within a health care system. The author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed health science journals, he is also the author of other textbooks, including Introductory Statistics Using SPSS (2nd ed., 2017), Practical Statistics for Nursing Using SPSS (2017), Therapeutic Communication: Developing Professional Skills (2nd ed., 2014), and Introduction to Social Work Practice: A Practical Workbook (2010).