Building a Disability-Affirmative Mental Health Practice

"Rhoda Olkin is the leading authority on disability inclusion in psychology, and this is her most comprehensive offering yet. Disability competency doesn't end with working with clients; it must be infused in clinician training, research, and advocacy. That is why all psychologists—and those who train them—should read this book." - Kathleen Bogart, PhD, Professor, School of Psychological Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis

"This text provides an extremely approachable, accessible, and comprehensive introduction to working effectively with clients with disabilities and their families. Readers will gain a strong understanding of the psychosocial experiences of people with disabilities, and how those experiences can impact the therapeutic relationship and process. This text will help prepare a new generation of culturally competent disability therapists." - Emily Lund, PhD, CRC, Associate Professor, College of Education, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

"Building a Disability-Affirmative Mental Health Practice is an invaluable guide that every psychotherapist should have on their shelf. With clarity and depth, it illuminates how to create truly accessible, respectful, and empowering therapeutic spaces for clients with disabilities and chronic illness. This book is not only essential reading—it's a call to action for a more inclusive and just mental health field." - H'Sien Hayward, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist; Chair, American Psychological Association Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology

"This accessible, personal, and deeply engaging book offers the essential history and modern context needed to build a disability-affirming mental health
practice. Drawing on her lived experience as a disabled person since childhood and her expertise as a mental health professional, Olkin brings humor, unflinching honesty, and steadfast optimism to the challenges disabled people face today—leaving abled readers inspired to do better as allies and advocates. An easy read packed with pragmatic strategies and resources, this is a book you'll reach for time and again." - Anna L. Kratz, PhD, Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Editor-in-Chief of the journal Rehabilitation Psychology

"Rhoda Olkin is a gifted and person-centered practitioner, scholar, and advocate; her work affirms disability as a form of diversity, and is focused on and mindful of the needs of disabled clients and their families. This excellent book will ensure interested therapists develop the necessary clinical skills to promote the mental health, flourishing, and well-being of people with disabilities." - Dana S. Dunn, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Moravian University, Bethlehem, PA; author of On the Foundational Principles of Rehabilitation Psychology: Origins, Understanding, and Applications

"The author is a person with a disability herself and has experienced many instances of discrimination and marginalization. She emphasizes the disadvantages that many people with disabilities encounter because of the built environment and negative social attitudes. Being an ally of people with disabilities means using our privilege to help dismantle ableism, and counter structural ableism—to be actively alert to the barriers to full inclusion for individuals with disabilities, and to be mindful of our own privileges and of the challenges that individuals with disabilities face every day. This book will help mental health trainees gain an understanding of disability, and help push mental health training programs to increase the representation of clinicians with disabilities." - Fabricio E. Balcazar, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Human Development; College of Applied Health Sciences; University of Illinois at Chicago