Nelson-Jones R (Ed.). (2012). A Book Review on Basic Counseling Skills: A Helper’s Manual (Third Edition)

Abstract

Richard Nelson-Jones was born in London in 1936. Having spent five years in California as a Second World War refugee, he returned in the 1960s to obtain a Masters and PhD from Stanford University. In 1970, he was appointed a lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Aston to establish a Diploma in Counseling in Educational Settings, which started enrolling students in 1971. During the 1970s, he was helped by having three Fulbright Professors from the United States, each for a year, who both taught students and improved his skills. During this period he broadened out from a predominantly client-centered orientation to becoming much more cognitive-behavioral. He also wrote numerous articles and the first edition of what is now The Theory and Practice of Counseling and Therapy, which was published in 1982. In addition, he chaired the British Psychological Society0s Working Party on Counseling and, in1982, became the first chairperson of the BPS Counseling Psychology Section. In 1984, he took up a position as counseling and later counseling psychology trainer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he became an Associate Professor. He continued writing research articles, articles on professional issues and books, which were published in London and Sydney. As when he worked at Aston University, he also counseled clients to keep up his skills. In 1997, he retired from RMIT and moved to Chiang Mai in Thailand. There, as well as doing some counseling and teaching, he has continued as an author of counseling and counseling psychology textbooks.