It's refreshing to see a lifespan text written by helping professionals for helping professionals. This is the exact textbook I have been searching for since I began teaching this course 15 years ago. I know my students will gain a lot of insight from the case studies and podcasts. This is an essential text for my class and I am grateful for all the supplemental instructional resources.
Jennifer R. Curry, PhD, NCC
Shirley B. Barton Endowed Professor
College of Human Sciences and Education
Louisiana State University
Provides fundamental knowledge while challenging readers to question, evaluate, and consider contextual factors when applying developmental theories
This unique and refreshing text imbues lifespan development theories, concepts, and research with unaccustomed energy and life--while meeting the rigorous academic standards required for accreditation in the helping professions. Going beyond mere memorization, the book illuminates the contextual and cultural dimensions of human development by underscoring current and relevant research; considering the racial, social, and economic factors that impact human development; offering the perspectives of a broad spectrum of esteemed helping professionals; and incorporating case studies, podcasts, vivid graphics, and interactive activities.
Highlighting the ways in which developmental theories are applicable to contemporary life, the text uses case studies to demonstrate how clinicians can use their knowledge of development to support client growth, the expertise of multidisciplinary health professionals to highlight different developmental theories and approaches, and analyzes foundational theories against a backdrop of current research that factors in contextual and cultural dimensions. These include a focus on racial and social inequality, social media, children with special needs, persons with disabilities, poverty, and development in time of pandemic. Chapters are organized by lifespan development phases and begin with a case study emphasizing cultural and contextual considerations followed by relevant theories and models to conceptualize the particular phase. Supportive teaching tools include Instructor's Manual, PowerPoints, and Test Bank.
Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers.
Key Features:
- Delivers engaging approach to lifespan development while maintaining strict academic standards
- Illuminates the contextual and cultural dimensions of human development by underscoring contemporary research
- Offers the perspectives of multidisciplinary experts who highlight varied theories and approaches
- Written by authors of different ages, cultural backgrounds, and professional identities to ensure diverse, culturally responsive perspectives
- Provides podcasts for most chapters from experts focusing on cultural and contextual dimensions of specific theories
- Uses student reflection boxes to focus on specific and current factors impacting development
- Includes abundant graphics, interactive activities, and links to outside resources to reinforce learning
About the Authors
Kelly Coker, PhD, MBA, LCMHC, NCC, BC-TMH, is a cis-gender white female in midlife. She is a professor and associate chair of the counseling program at Palo Alto University. She is also a fierce and loyal wife, mother, sister, daughter, and aunt. Kelly has been a counselor educator for more years than she can count, and as part of this work has published and presented a lot. She loves nothing more than training emerging counselors how to be their best selves, how to work with humility and compassion, and how to always strive to meet their clients where they are.
Kristi B. Cannon, PhD, LPC, NCC, is a cis-gender, white female straddling the lines of early and middle adulthood-feeling a foot firmly planted in each camp and the associated lack of balance this causes nearly every day. She is a counselor educator, licensed professional counselor, and current Director of Counseling Programs at Southern New Hampshire University.
Savitri V. Dixon-Saxon, PhD, LCMHC, is a cis-gender female and African American single mother, daughter, sister, and friend (her most important intersecting identities). Her roles as the mother to an emerging adult and daughter to parents in late adulthood have fueled her passion for this book. Through workshops, speaking engagements, and articles, Savitri has provided her expertise on a variety of topics related to diversity, grief, positive body-image, single-parenthood, and intergenerational workplace dynamics.
Karen M. Roller, PhD, MFT, is a cis-het, white, temporarily able-bodied tomboy whose body increasingly reminds her she is now in midlife. Born into the middle class and raised Catholic, she aims to retain the service orientation of that tradition's true Teachers while she spends her adult pennies traveling the inhabited world unlearning the colonial aspects of it and learning how the rest of the world embodies connection with the Divine; this makes her a yogic Sufi with an environmental conservation bent. She is an associate professor of counseling at Palo Alto University, and clinical coordinator at Family Connections, a parent-involvement preschool serving low-resource migrant families in the San Francisco Bay Area.
