Counseling Women Across the Life Span: Empowerment, Advocacy, and Intervention

by Jill Schwarz PhD, NCC

Overview

"Dr. Jill Schwarz' Counseling Women Across the Lifespan is tailor made for gender-specific counseling courses. This text is highly accessible and comprehensive, and includes specific learning objectives, state-of-the-art research, and questions for student reflection and discussion. Importantly, each chapter is a Call to Action for all counselors to be advocates for change in a world that desperately needs empowering approaches for counseling girls and woman." - Mark Woodford

"Within the pages of Counseling Women Across the Lifespan lay the seeds of professional and personal transformation. The text provides a comprehensive review of the issues that today's women face, while providing practical ideas for intervention and advocacy. With thought-provoking reflection questions at the end of each chapter, testimonials from graduate students who have been transformed as a result of this work, and actionable steps that you can take on behalf of women's rights, you cannot be but changed after engaging with this compelling text." - Corinne Zupko

This book, the first comprehensive text to focus specifically on counseling women and girls, provides a sweeping overview of female life span development and issues and offers a unique integration of prevention, advocacy, and interventions. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in diverse fields, it provides information, resources, and practical suggestions that counselors can use to help empower individual women and girls to live as their authentic selves, and to engage as effective collaborators in addressing societal inequities. With a strong focus on empowerment and adherence to a social justice framework, the book highlights the value of mental health practitioners employing strengths-based approaches and advocating for systemic change.

Based on a foundation of understanding females' diverse holistic development, the text explores the major theoretical approaches relevant to counseling and psychotherapy with women and girls. It then discusses the key issues faced by females at different developmental stages and describes appropriate counseling strategies for each, focusing on prevention as well as intervention. Specific concerns and strategies for women in different contexts, such as education, physical health and body image concerns, and violence, are emphasized. Unique to the text is coverage of how men specifically can serve as allies and advocates in creating healthier and safer societies for women and girls. Replete with supporting features such as learning objectives, self-reflection prompts, personal narratives, discussion questions, abundant resources, and strategies for how professionals can serve as advocates and change agents, this book is an ideal core text for courses on counseling women or gender issues in counseling, social work, psychology, marriage and family therapy, and women's studies programs, as well as a useful resource for mental health practitioners.

Key Features:

• Uniquely covers life span development and counseling issues, needs, and application for females across the life span
• Emphasizes advocacy, prevention, and practical intervention strategies
• Examines the contextual elements that affect the female experience, including the oppressive structures in which they live
• Addresses global perspectives, diverse women, a social justice framework, and empowerment
• Includes learning objectives, first-person accounts, "Calls to Action" and self-reflection and discussion questions
• A sample course calendar and syllabus are available to instructors to aid in course development

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826129178
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/15/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	260
File size:	969 KB

About the Author

Jill Schwarz, PhD, is a core faculty member in the Department of Counselor Education at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in their CACREP-accredited Counseling Master’s Program.

Table of Contents

Contents

Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgments

SECTION I: FOUNDATION

1: Counseling Women and Girls: Introduction to Empowerment Feminist Therapy

Jill E. Schwarz

2: Gender Socialization

Cheryl L. Fulton

3: Intersectionality: Understanding Power, Privilege, and the Intersecting Identities of Women

Alina S. Wong

4: Women and Relationships: Introduction to Relational-Cultural Theory

Alyson M. Pompeo-Fargnoli

SECTION II: LIFE SPAN

5: Gender Identity Development

Megan E. Delaney

6: Childhood

Sarah I. Springer

7: Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Jennifer E. Randall, Christine J. Schimmel, and Eva Barnewitz

8: Middle and Older Adulthood

Lucy Charlene Parker and Suzanne Degges-White

SECTION III: IMPACT

9: Violence Against Women and Girls

Rebecca Vazquez and Atsuko Seto

10: Educational and Work Environments

Amy D. Zavadil

11: Females and Their Bodies

Dana Heller Levitt and Connie S. Ducaine

12: Men as Allies

Christopher Kilmartin

Index

Editorial Reviews

Dr. Jill Schwarz' Counseling Women Across the Lifespan is tailor made for gender-specific counseling courses. This text is highly accessible and comprehensive, and includes specific learning objectives, state-of-the-art research, and questions for student reflection and discussion. Importantly, each chapter is a Call to Action for all counselors to be advocates for change in a world that desperately needs empowering approaches for counseling girls and woman.

Dr. Mark Woodford

Counseling Women Across the Life Span: Empowerment, Advocacy, and Intervention is very timely and fills a much-needed gap in the literature. One of the unique features of this book is that it is multidisciplinary and can be useful to anyone studying gender in the social sciences, as well as practical applications for counselors. This book can also stand alone as a self-help empowerment book for woman and men-allies to empower women of all ages. I applaud Dr. Schwarz for the organization and scaffolding to provide a distinct lens that is sure to advocate for all women!

Dr. Kara P. Ieva

Counseling Girls and Women Across the Lifespan is an ideal text for any course in counseling girls and women. It fully examines the societal, environmental and developmental factors impacting girls and women during each stage of life and offers concrete and effective counseling strategies and resources. Instructor's and students alike will value this text due to its readability, connection to the latest research in the field, suggestions for personal reflection and advocacy and thorough coverage of many effective counseling interventions.

Dr. Marion Cavallaro

As a clinical social worker who has worked many years in outpatient mental health and most extensively in the field of violence against women, I am pleased to share my reaction to "Counseling Women and Girls Across the Life Span". Many excellent publications contain modalities, strategies and techniques in counseling theory. What this book does very effectively is to juxtaposition counseling theory with the socialization and power imbalance inherent in the lives of women and girls in our society. Of important note is the final chapter that discusses our male allies. Dispelling the myth that men are the enemies of feminist theory is critical in bringing theorists and clinicians together in this work that is so important and has such potential to impact sustaining change. I found Counseling Girls Across the Life Span to be a very well developed and organized book that can provide an important tool for all of us who work with women and girls in our practice and understand how important it is to consider every nuance that impacts on our clients lives.

Patricia M. Hart

Within the pages of Counseling Women Across the Lifespan lay the seeds of professional and personal transformation. The text provides a comprehensive review of the issues that today's women face, while providing practical ideas for intervention and advocacy. With thought-provoking reflection questions at the end of each chapter, testimonials from graduate students who have been transformed as a result of this work, and actionable steps that you can take on behalf of women's rights, you cannot be but changed after engaging with this compelling text.

Corinne Zupko

Jill Schwarz' book, Counseling Women Across the Life Span: Empowerment, Advocacy, and Intervention, will be an excellent addition to any gender library, or a course in gender. It is a solid and innovation text

Dr. Cathering B Rolandn Counseling Association

Jill Schwarz' book, Counseling Women Across the Life Span: Empowerment, Advocacy, and Intervention, will be an excellent addition to any gender library, or a course in gender. It is a solid and innovation text

American Counseling Association - Dr. Cathering B Roland

As a clinical social worker who has worked many years in outpatient mental health and most extensively in the field of violence against women, I am pleased to share my reaction to "Counseling Women and Girls Across the Life Span". Many excellent publications contain modalities, strategies and techniques in counseling theory. What this book does very effectively is to juxtaposition counseling theory with the socialization and power imbalance inherent in the lives of women and girls in our society. Of important note is the final chapter that discusses our male allies. Dispelling the myth that men are the enemies of feminist theory is critical in bringing theorists and clinicians together in this work that is so important and has such potential to impact sustaining change. I found Counseling Girls Across the Life Span to be a very well developed and organized book that can provide an important tool for all of us who work with women and girls in our practice and understand how important it is to consider every nuance that impacts on our clients lives.--Patricia M. Hart, M.S.W., LCSW, Executive Director of Womanspace, Inc.

Jill Schwarz' book, Counseling Women Across the Life Span: Empowerment, Advocacy, and Intervention, will be an excellent addition to any gender library, or a course in gender. It is a solid and innovation text--Dr. Cathering B Roland, Ed.D, LPC, NCC, President, American Counseling Association (2016-2017) "American Counseling Association"

Counseling Girls and Women Across the Lifespan is an ideal text for any course in counseling girls and women. It fully examines the societal, environmental and developmental factors impacting girls and women during each stage of life and offers concrete and effective counseling strategies and resources. Instructors and students alike will value this text due to its readability, connection to the latest research in the field, suggestions for personal reflection and advocacy and thorough coverage of many effective counseling interventions.--Dr. Marion Cavallaro, Ph.D. LPC, The College of New Jersey

Counseling Women Across the Life Span: Empowerment, Advocacy, and Intervention is very timely and fills a much-needed gap in the literature. One of the unique features of this book is that it is multidisciplinary and can be useful to anyone studying gender in the social sciences, as well as practical applications for counselors. This book can also stand alone as a self-help empowerment book for woman and men-allies to empower women of all ages. I applaud Dr. Schwarz for the organization and scaffolding to provide a distinct lens that is sure to advocate for all women!--Dr. Kara P. Ieva, Ph.D, NCC, NCSC

Dr. Jill Schwarz' Counseling Women Across the Lifespan is tailor made for gender-specific counseling courses. This text is highly accessible and comprehensive, and includes specific learning objectives, state-of-the-art research, and questions for student reflection and discussion. Importantly, each chapter is a Call to Action for all counselors to be advocates for change in a world that desperately needs empowering approaches for counseling girls and woman.--Dr. Mark Woodford, PhD, LPC, MAC

Within the pages of Counseling Women Across the Lifespan lay the seeds of professional and personal transformation. The text provides a comprehensive review of the issues that today's women face, while providing practical ideas for intervention and advocacy. With thought-provoking reflection questions at the end of each chapter, testimonials from graduate students who have been transformed as a result of this work, and actionable steps that you can take on behalf of women's rights, you cannot be but changed after engaging with this compelling text.--Corinne Zupko, EdS, LPC, NCC

From the Publisher