Counseling Persons with Parkinson’s Disease

What is it like to live with a chronic illness? How can counselors support those living with one? Allan Hugh Cole Jr. offers answers to these two questions and so many more in Counseling Persons with Parkinson’s Disease. In ten succinct chapters, Cole offers a glimpse into life with Parkinson’s and presents an insightful approach to counseling someone living with a chronic illness. Cole was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2016, and–though it hardly happened overnight–he has since discovered a new passion and drive for life. A teacher of social workers and counselors for many years, Cole has unique insight into chronic illness and the care required to help someone diagnosed with one. He delves into the importance of accepting a chronic illness and how this can create an opportunity for personal transformation, newfound meaning, and rejuvenated purpose.

In addition to emphasizing the importance of self-reflection, he also offers evidence-based approaches to counseling. Cole’s approaches to counseling draw on task-centered social work practice. Throughout the book, he engages with five purposeful actions tied to principles of constructivism, Aristotelian thought, American pragmatism, and theories of interpretation (hermeneutics). At once informative, realistic, humorous, and hopeful, this is a thoughtful guide for clinicians who give counsel, educators who teach counseling, people supporting someone else, and anyone living with a chronic illness.