Art of Helping Others

Heather Smith has worked in youth projects, a special school, a residential centre working with families where a child has a very serious or terminal illness, and in a housing scheme for younger people. Currently she is a lead tutor in a London further education college. She works both with students experiencing difficulties with studying and participation in college activities, and the staff who teach and support them. Mark Smith has worked as a careers officer, youth and community worker and project worker. He is now the Rank Research Fellow and Tutor at the YMCA George Williams College. Amongst his publications are Developing Youth Work, Local Education and Informal Education.

• Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Living Life Well. 2. Knowing and Being Ourselves. 3. Being Wise. 4. Relating to Others. 5. Working To Make Change Possible. 6. Deepening Our Practice. 7. Getting From Here to There. Bibliography. Subject Index. Author Index.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. It soon became apparent to me that it is built on a wealth of experience and expertise and offers some important insights. Promoting well-being, whether specifically workplace well-being or social well-being more broadly, involves helping people. The authors of this clearly written and well-crafted book are very alert to this and offer the reader some important lessons in how to be a 'helper'. An important text that should be read by anyone involved in helping, whether as a member of the helping professions (social work,nuring,counselling and so on) or, as a manager, supervisor, leader or human resource professional in any setting.