`The comprehensive series of essays... is a timely contribution.... This book is about being professional and effective... a valuable multimodal life inventory for use with clients is provided' - Counselling, The Journal of The British Association for Counselling

What information will help you assess the therapeutic needs of a client? Could you identify a suicidal client? How can you tell whether or not you are working with appropriate clients? Answering these and other questions, this book sheds light on a crucial, but often neglected, area of counselling. The authors provide clear guidelines, backed up by practice points, which clarify the assessment, monitoring and evaluation of clients.

The book adopts a broad approach, transcending specific counselling theories and covering the main issues involved at key stages in the client/counsellor relationship - from the initial contact, through monitoring of the therapeutic programme, to ending the counselling process. Areas examined include: assessing the best type of therapy for each client; identifying the client's therapeutic goals; history taking; referral; and evaluating goal achievement.

Gladeanna McMahon is presenter of the ITV programme Dial A Mum.