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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 innovative text.

-- Catherine B. Roland, Ed.D, LPC, NCC, President, American Counseling Association (2016-2017)

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

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. There she teaches clinical skills courses to students who are pursuing certification and licensure in marriage and family therapy, clinical mental health, and school counseling. In addition to teaching on campus, Dr. Schwarz has taught graduate courses internationally in Asia and Europe and is the co-coordinator of a CACREP-accredited international school counseling program offered in Portugal. She has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate classes at several universities, including Rowan University and Montclair State University, where she received her PhD in Counselor Education. At TCNJ, Dr. Schwarz created a Counseling Women and Girls course, which she has been teaching for the past decade. In addition to being a National Certified Counselor, Dr. Schwarz is a NJ State certified School Counselor, Director of School Counseling Services, and Elementary Educator. She has extensive experience as a professional school counselor during which time she established and implemented an adolescent girls' empowerment and leadership program. Dr. Schwarz is a research consultant and program evaluator for a counseling agency that provides services to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence and was recently invited to serve on the advisory council for a county organization serving women and children. In addition, she has also served as an invited speaker for professional development workshops related to counseling women and girls. Dr. Schwarz's scholarly pursuits have included publications in peer-reviewed journals and edited textbooks as well as international, national, and regional presentations focused on gender issues in counseling and counselor preparation and practice.