Vonda Long's fresh approach to the counseling process focuses on the important and essential communication skills necessary for all potential counselors. Her emphasis on personal growth makes the book engaging and helps students understand themselves as they practice and learn how to become thoughtful and empathic helpers. The book is organized into an operational, structural framework for the helping process that incorporates outcome and process goals, philosophy of growth, communication, and facilitative skills. The author does not purport hers be the only possible framework, only a suggested framework that has been used successfully. The framework is based on the 3 R's: Rights, Respect, and Responsibility.