Speaking the Truth in Love provides practical guidelines for clinicians, (working from a Christian perspective), to assist their clients with assertiveness and boundary issues. Some assertiveness books wrestle with the biblical perspective and encourage clients to be assertive but never get to the behavioral steps to take for success. This book lays out those steps while addressing the cognitive-thinking and self-talk changes, which must occur for clients who want to go from a passive lifestyle to a more assertive lifestyle.

This book is replete with practical exercises to help the clinician master assertive thinking and behavior. By working affirmation into assertiveness, the text helps clinicians be assertive without being aggressive. This book also attempts to reconcile assertiveness with biblical concepts such as submitting to one another, turning the other cheek, humility and serving one another.

Educational Objectives

• Have an understanding of five response styles—the passive style, the aggressive style, the passive-aggressive style, the manipulative style, and the assertive style, and how counselors can help their clients assess their own response style.
• Understand the two basic components of assertiveness—positive assertion (helping people develop and deepen friendships), and self-protective assertiveness (the skills more typically associated with assertiveness).
• Know, and be able to teach clients, the skills involved in developing and deepening relationships and friendships.
• Understand why typical assertive statements are viewed as aggressive by recipients, and how to make assertive statements that are perceived as assertive by the recipients.
• Know, and be able to teach clients, twelve assertive techniques that clients can use in a variety of situations to protect themselves from people who are aggressive, passive-aggressive, or manipulative.
• Know the non-verbal components of assertiveness, and how to teach these to clients.
• Understand how various biblical teachings relate to the concept of assertiveness.

Syllabus / Course Instructions

• This course is appropriate for CE for beginning, intermediate and advanced level clinicians and addiction professionals.
• The Course consists of reading the selected book, successfully completing an online posttest and filling out a course evaluation.
• The book is not included. It must be purchased separately. We have supplied a link to Amazon.com for your convenience. This book is also available in other formats such as Kindle, or as a download to your computer via Amazon
• Purchasing your course will give you access to both a printable copy of the test and an online version. Print the test to use as a companion as you read the book and answer the questions.
• You cannot exit the online test once you begin, so have your answers ready.

Additional Resources On This Site for CE

• The Gift of Therapy
  by Irvin Yalom: 10 CE Credits
• The Optimistic Child
  by Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman: 11 CE Credits
• Flourish: A New Understanding of Well-being
  by Martin E.P. Seligman: 13 CE Credits
• Learned Optimism
  by Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD: 9 CE Credits
• Boundaries: When to Say Yes and When to Say No
  by Henry Cloud and John Townsend: 12 CE Credits
• Treating Patients With Alcohol And Other Drug Problems: An Integrated Approach
  by Robert D. Margolis, PhD and Joan E. Zweben, PhD: 10 CE Credits
• Authentic Happiness
  by Martin E. P. Seligman: 10 CE Credits

Additional Resources Not On This Site

• A free Leader's Guide is available for teaching 15 90-minute assertiveness-training sessions (typically used in a counseling center setting). The Leader’s Guide can also be used to teach 15 50-minute sessions (as in a Sunday School class setting). The 15-session format is based on research showing that this was the ideal length of time needed to help clients change from a non-assertive to an assertive response style and consolidate that new style. The free Leader’s Guide can be requested from the author by emailing the request to Henry_Virkler@pba.edu or to HVirkler@aol.com
• American Psychological Association
• Association of Social Work Boards
• National Association of Certified Counselors
• National Association of Addiction Professionals

Bio: Henry Virkler, PhD

Henry Virkler is a Christian psychologist who has been teaching Christian counseling for the past thirty-five years. He taught for fifteen years at the Psychological Studies Institute (now Richmont Graduate University), then five years at Liberty University, and then for the last fifteen years at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Other books include Broken Promises: Understanding, Healing and Preventing Affairs, Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation (first and second editions), Choosing a New Pastor: The Complete Handbook, and A Christian's Guide to Critical Thinking. Dr. Virkler and his wife have two sons and reside in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He teaches in the counseling program at Palm Beach Atlantic University and received the Teacher of the Year award in 2011.