Table Of Content“An amazing resource for anyone and everyone that works with children,
youth, and families in or out of school settings! The book tackles head-on the
realities, challenges, disasters, and crisis situations of our times using an infor-
mative, hands-on, and practical approach. Whether you are a school principal,
district or state administrator, school counselor, teacher, psychologist, therapist,
or social worker, this will be your go-to book. Chapters include both broad
approaches and specific steps and procedures for preventing, preparing for,
and intervening in the aftermath of a crisis or disaster such as school violence,
a natural disaster, or an incident of cyber bullying. In addition, each chapter
also includes extremely helpful sections on multicultural considerations, specific
challenges and their solutions, and sources for additional information.”
Dale Fryxell, PhD, Dean, School of Education and
Behavioral Sciences, Professor of Psychology, Chaminade
Uniiversity of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
“A world in crisis, disasters everywhere. Whether natural disasters or the result
of human inability to live in peace and harmony, children and families around
the world are faced with innumerable challenges to their mental health and
optimal living conditions. School-based family counselling offers, with this
compilation of 27 chapters from around the globe, a valuable resource for SBFC
practitioners enabling resilience amongst those most affected by various kinds
of crises and disasters. Focusing on both prevention and intervention, this book
aims to assist schools, children, families, and communities to emerge with hope
and courage to deal with disastrous situations wherever they are.”
Gertina J. van Schalkwyk, PhD, Emerita Professor of
Psychology, University of Macau, Macau, China
“With a list of international experts from a variety of disciplines, this book is
very timely. Timely because so many children across the world are living in
situations of man-made and natural disaster. Even more children are afflicted
by mental health problems which will interfere with their ability to enjoy child-
hood and to function as mature adults who can contribute to their societies.
This book provides scholarly data on useful interventions and prevention
strategies within families, in the classroom and in the broader community.”
Professor Kim Oates, AO, MD, DSc, MHP,
FRACP, FRCP, FAFPHM, Emeritus Professor, Discipline of
Child and Adolescent health, The University of Sydney, Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia
“This is a timely collection, coming as it does as we begin to contemplate the
challenges that lay ahead of us in repairing the trauma left by a global pan-
demic. The book offers insights for practitioners in responding to this disas-
ter as well as other and future crises. The book provides an introduction to
readers unfamiliar with school-based family counselling, while offering spe-
cialist readers new insights direct from the field. It will satisfy readers seeking
practical tips, as well as those seeking to advance theoretical and conceptual
understandings. Notably, this book brings together a diverse group of interna-
tional scholars who are leaders in their fields, at a time when global thinking
and responses to disaster and crisis is much needed.”
John Scott, PhD, Head, School of Justice, Faculty of
Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, Queensland
University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
“In the midst of global warming, political polarization, environmental and
economic crisis, domestic and school violence…, supporting families with
school age children is most important. This is a great book on School-Based
Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster Global Perspectives with 30 distin-
guished contributors on 27 chapters from all over the world. A really timely
book that can empower school counsellors and families.”
Professor Cecilia L.W. Chan, PhD, RSW,
FHKPCA, FHKASW, FAOSW, J.P. Professor
Emeritus, Department of Social Work and Social
Administration, Founding Director and Associate Director,
Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong (SAR)
“School Based Family Counselling for Crisis and Disaster is an extremely
important book to support parents, children and teachers to cope with a
range of disasters which occur in many societies with regular frequency. I was
particularly impressed by the culturally sensitive chapters on immigrant and
refugee children and parents and the promotion of resilience and pragmatic
techniques to alleviate stress and mental health issues such as panic attacks
and trauma. As such, it will be a valuable resource for all schools promoting
teacher parent engagement, family solidarity, and the promotion of trauma
sensitive interventions for students. This book can benefit school professionals
on an international global basis as there is a global perspective and practical
suggestions for school-based support.”
Stephen Adams-Langley, D Psych, MA,
UKCP REG., MBACP (Snr. Accred), ADDIPExPsych,
UKRC REG., Senior Clinical Consultant, Place2Be,
London, United Kingdom
“Young people globally are experiencing unprecedented rates of change
although many are still fortunate to enjoy a constancy of support from their
families and schools. This book, written by practitioners and academics from
across the world, is dedicated to supporting those families and schools when
attempting to nurture and keep young people safe at moments of greatest risk.
I commend this timely contribution most warmly.”
Tom Billington, PhD, Emeritus Professor of E ducational
and Child Psychology, the School of Education, University of
Sheffield, United Kingdom
“Authors from every continent address global issues and articulate reality
checks on what is happening today – from COVID global pandemic to miti-
gating destructive effects of disasters and crises on children, families, schools –
and their communities. The extensive chapters written by international
scholar-practitioners delve into necessary survival skills and guide us through
crises and disaster intervention and prevention.”
Walter H. Gmelch, PhD, Professor, Department
of Leadership Studies, School of Education, University
of San Francisco
“This book is being published at the right time. It covers the important areas,
which is family counseling in the school setting and counselling related to cri-
sis and disaster. Counseling the family members in school settings during cri-
ses, can prevent further escalation of mental health issues, increase resilience,
and can reduce the treatment gap. The book covers important chapters that
address different areas and settings that are written by eminent researchers
and practitioners from across the globe. It gives a wide coverage of different
domains, which will be highly beneficial not only for students, academicians,
researchers, and practitioners in the area of mental health; but also for teach-
ers, school counsellors and school administrators.”
Dr. B. N. Roopesh, MPhil, PhD, Additional Professor,
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit; Adjunct Faculty:
Dept of Psychosocial Support in Disaster
Management, Dept of Clinical Psychology, National Institute
of Mental Health and Neurosciece, Bengaluru, India
“An invaluable must have resource book for educators, teachers, principals,
school administrators and policymakers; as well as mental health clinicians.
Written by experienced school-based family professionals from several coun-
tries, they underscore the importance of working with the two most powerful
systems in a child/student’s life; school and family, when mitigating crises and
disasters in schools and communities.
The unique how to approach of this book provides the reader with a clear
description of procedures, of how various research-based interventions and
strategies are used when mediating an actual crisis or disaster in schools. As
a clinical/educational child psychologist who worked with children and fam-
ilies for many years, I have found it uplifting to read this most useful, cre-
ative, and ready-made resource, that can be used immediately by so many
professionals.”
Teresita A. José, PhD, Life member: Psychologists
Association of Alberta, Canada
“This book is easy to understand, informative, and helpful for any psycholo-
gist, counsellor or family therapist who works with clients who have experi-
enced a major disaster and crisis. Each one of twenty seven chapters is of real
benefit. I highly recommend it to mental health workers, principals, parents,
and teachers from kindergarten to high school.”
Quan Chaolu, Professor, Department of Psychology,
Shandong Normal University, China
“School-Based Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster: Global Perspec-
tives, is global-oriented and particularly benefits Asian families dealing with
crisis and disaster for two reasons. First, family and school are both highly pre-
cious in Asian culture. Combining these two areas is a double- advantageous
way to comfort Asian families. Second, Asians consider family as a private
domain. The school-based family counseling approach will cultivate emo-
tional wellness in the family with a subtle and respectful professionalism. This
book is strongly recommended for mental health professionals and educators
who work with Asian families.”
Ming-Kuo Hung, EdD, Chaoyang University
of Technology, Taiwan
“This book, written by many Disastershock Global Response Team (DGRT)
members, with a global perspective, addresses how to deal with the stress of
major crises and disasters through school-based family counseling (SBFC). It
contains chapters such as the chronic disaster described in the case of South
Africa; responding to cyberbullying in school children; and preventing school
violence through school engagement, to name a few. This book is another gen-
erous effort resulting from this wonderful momentum generated by the Disas-
tershock Global Volunteer Team. School-Based Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster:
Global Perspectives is a mandatory practical book to make the most of in the post-
covid era where the new pandemic is related to mental health problems.”
Damián Gallegos-Lemos, MD, Family Physician
and Family Therapist, Senior Specialist ICT & Health,
Health Intelligence (Electronical Medical Record) at Spanish
Ministry of Health, Madrid, Spain
“There is little doubt that the book in this fast-developing area will become
a seminal addition to the field of the Psychology of Education, specifically in
School-based family counseling. This relevant book takes an in-depth look at
how school personnel can prepare school communities (students, families, and
school staff) to cope with the stress of major crises and disasters. This book
will be consulted around the world, not only by academics, but also by teach-
ers, students of education, and curriculum developers who are looking for
practical and inspiring ideas about instruction in our age of global challenges.
I am sure of the book’s future success, both in distribution, reaching broad
audiences, and being regularly used for reference and study.”
Dr. Mirta Susana Ison, Professor, Department of
Psychology, Aconcagua University, Senior Researcher,
National Scientific and Technical Research Council
(CONICET), Argentina
“This is a most timely resource in the context of relentless crises and d isasters
worldwide. Drawing together leading experts from around the globe, this
book provides strength-focused practical approaches (based on the cutting-
edge School-Based Family Counselling model) to prevention, intervention,
and recovery from the impact of severe adversity on young people. The great
appeal of this book is the recognition of the capacity for resilience and the
vital role that schools can play in harnessing the protective factors at the child,
family, and school level. This is a wide-ranging resource that will benefit
policy makers, school personnel, and caregivers all over the world.”
Ian Shochet, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology,
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
“While the School-Based Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster book is
written by top researchers from across the world- it has been intentionally
designed as a practical ‘how to’ manual for school-based practitioners inter-
ested in fostering the success of their students. With a focus on purposeful
partnerships across systems such as families and schools - the book provides
robust yet accessible overviews, examples and interventions for a host of dif-
ferent challenges. The ultimate goal is to provide tools to prevent potential
disruption and devastation to a child’s life when they are faced with a catastro-
phe. This is exactly the kind of resource that makes a difference and I wish
I had access to it as a new school-based counselor when I was beginning my
own career!”
Joelle Powers, PhD, MSW, Associate Dean, Interim
Director, School of Social Work, College of Health Sciences,
Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, United States
“When crisis and disaster occur, vulnerable populations - especially children
- are placed in difficult situations. We are more aware of such situations with
the COVID-19 pandemic. At such times, a school-based family counseling
(SBFC) approach can help children in difficult situations find psychological
comfort and relief. This book presents a wealth of examples and concrete
measures to address how to integrate family and school mental health inter-
ventions through SBFC. Therefore, this book should be read not only by
SBFC practitioners such as school counselors, social workers, and psycholo-
gists, but also by teachers and parents. It provides many suggestions for how
to support children mentally in times of crisis and disaster.”
Yuto Kitamura, PhD, Professor, Graduate School of
Education, The University of Tokyo
“This book describes the pivotal role schools and families can play in reducing
the destructive effects of disaster and crisis on children, families, and schools.
Written by experts in the field in an easy-to-use manner, this book contextu-
alizes disasters ranging from Covid 19 global pandemic to the refugee crisis
that is a result of Russia-Ukraine war. Fourteen of the chapter authors were
actively involved in providing psychological services in different countries to
children, families, and schools affected by both disasters. School-based family
counseling (SBFC) is described as an interdisciplinary mental health meta-
model that can be used to strengthen children, families, and school personnel
in times of crisis and disaster. Counselors, social workers, mental health pro-
fessionals, as well as parents, will value this book’s evidence-based practices
for K-12.”
Huda Ayyash-Abdo, PhD, Associate Professor of
Psychology, Department of Social Sciences, Lebanese American
University, Beirut, Lebanon
School-Based Family
Counseling for Crisis
and Disaster
School-Based Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster is a practical handbook
with a school-based family counseling and interdisciplinary mental health
practitioner focus that can be used to mitigate crises and disasters that affect
school children.
Anchored in the school-based family counseling (SBFC) tradition of inte-
grating family and school mental health interventions, this book introduces
interventions according to the five core SBFC metamodel areas: school inter-
vention, school prevention, family intervention, family prevention, and com-
munity intervention. The book has an explicit “how to” approach and covers
prevention strategies that build student, school, and family resilience for
handling stress and interventions that can be provided during and immedi-
ately after a disaster or crisis has occurred. The chapter authors of this edited
volume are all experienced professors and/or practitioners in counseling, psy-
chology, social work, marriage and family therapy, teaching, and educational
administration.
All mental health professionals, especially school-based professionals, will
find this book an indispensable resource for crisis planning and developing a
trauma-sensitive school.
Brian A. Gerrard, PhD, is a Chief Academic Officer of the Western
Institute for Social Research, Berkeley, California, and the Chair of the
Institute for School-Based Family Counseling.
Emily J. Hernandez, EdD, LMFT, is an Associate Professor and the
Program Coordinator of the School-Based Family Counseling Program at
California State University, Los Angeles.
Prof. Sibnath Deb, PhD, DSc, is the Director of the Rajiv Gandhi National
Institute of Youth Development, Government of India. Currently, he is also
an Adjunct Professor of the School of Justice, Queensland University of
Technology (QUT), Australia.
School-Based Family
Counseling for Crisis
and Disaster
Global Perspectives
Edited by
Brian A. Gerrard,
Emily J. Hernandez,
and Sibnath Deb
