This book offers students a solid grounding in the core knowledge and skills of communication needed for effective practice. It takes the key theories and explains them in a systematic and practice-related way, to help undergraduate and postgraduate students develop a critical understanding of the subject.

Juliet Koprowska was a Senior Lecturer Social Work at the University of York until 2018, and then an Honorary Fellow. She is Chair of GAPS (promoting psychodynamic, systemic and relationship-based approaches to social work). She is a registered social worker and a Licensed Systems-Centered® Practitioner. Her most recent research is into talk in social work.

Chapter 1: Communication skills: don¿t they just come naturally?
Chapter 2: What do we know about effective communication?
Chapter 3: The human face of social work: understanding emotion and non-verbal communication
Chapter 4: Getting started
Chapter 5: Making progress and managing endings
Chapter 6: Communicating with families
Chapter 7: Communicating with children
Chapter 8: Working with people with additional communication needs: communicative minorities
Chapter 9: Working with groups
Chapter 10: Working with involuntary clients
Chapter 11: Safety and risk: working with hostility and deception
Chapter 12: The demands and rewards of interpersonal work