Treating Those with Mental Disorders: A Comprehensive Approach to Diagnosis, Case Conceptualization, and Treatment, 3rd edition

Published by Pearson (January 13, 2026) © 2027
  • Victoria E. Kress
  • Matthew J. Paylo

Title overview

Guidance on selecting and applying treatments for mental disorders

Treating Those with Mental Disorders offers students and new counselors specific treatment planning, implementation, and intervention strategies, in addition to background information on clinical issues and DSM-5-TR diagnoses and interventions. Real-life examples illustrate how critical counseling concepts and approaches are applied in actual practice.

The 3rd Edition updates all chapters to reflect the new content and research in the DSM-5-TR. It incorporates the most current research literature in all updated treatment discussions; explores the changing landscape of the mental health counseling field; adds discussion of the use of AI as related to diagnosing and treating; and much more.

Hallmark features of this title

  • Discussions of mental disorders as defined by the DSM-5-TR with real-world strategies:
    • Includes counseling considerations, treatment planning practices, prognoses approaches, and the practical realities of treatment planning
    • Gives pre- and in-service counselors the foundation they need to prepare for the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE) and begin helping their clients
  • I CAN START conceptualization and treatment planning framework includes practical principles with specific treatment goals and objectives, to help guide novice counselors through selecting and implementing evidence-based treatments into clinical practice.
  • Clinical Case Studies are examined using the I CAN START model. Clinical Toolboxes (written or video recorded) highlight information to help readers explore chapter content more deeply.
  • Creative Toolbox activities in each chapter illustrate how the evidence-based treatment principles discussed can be applied via innovative means using various experiential and expressive arts activities.

New and updated features of this title

  • Additional applications and examples for students to practice application of the I CAN START treatment planning model are provided in each chapter. An additional clinical toolbox activity has been added to the “I” (Individual) aspect of the I CAN START model (i.e., writing your unique section I).
  • Updated chapter on treatment planning systems, culture, and ethics (Ch. 2) captures the changing landscape of the mental health counseling field, and adds a section on counselors’ use of AI as related to diagnosing and treating.
  • Additional assessment measures have been added to chapters to aid in diagnosing and treatment planning.
  • Expanded discussion of topics includes client risk factors and risk assessment; more criteria and assessments for anxiety disorders along with relapse prevention; broader coverage of various obsessive-compulsive disorders to equalize the focus on each; and more.
  • New/revised content includes ketamine’s role in depression treatment; updated information on emerging trends in addiction and addiction treatment; new DSM-TR criteria tables on the schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders and on feeding and eating disorders; updated diagnostic and descriptive information for all sleep, sex-related, and gender dysphoria disorders; and more.

Key features

Features of Pearson+ eTextbook for the 3rd Edition

  • Video Examples in each chapter illustrate principles or concepts aligned pedagogically with the chapter.
  • LMS-Compatible Assessment Bank: All assessment types (quizzes, application exercises, and chapter tests) are included in LMS-compatible banks for the Blackboard, Canvas, D2L, and Moodle learning management systems. These packaged files offer instructors maximum flexibility for importing, assigning, and grading. Assessment types:
    • Chapter Review Quizzes are available for instructors to assign through their Learning Management System. Each quiz contains higher-order multiple choice questions that measure understanding of chapter content. Each multiple-choice question includes feedback for the correct answer and for each distractor to help guide students’ learning.
    • Application Exercises give students the opportunities to apply what they have learned in the text. They are usually short-answer format and can be based on Pearson eTextbook Video Examples, written cases, or scenarios modeled by pedagogical text features. A model response written by the authors is provided to help guide learning.
    • Chapter Tests: Suggested test items are provided for each chapter and include questions in multiple-choice format.

Table of contents

  1. Developing Effective Treatment Plans
  2. Real World Treatment Planning: Systems, Culture, and Ethics
  3. Safety-Related Clinical Issues and Treatment Planning
  4. Depressive, Bipolar, and Related Disorders
  5. Anxiety Disorders
  6. Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
  7. Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders
  8. Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders
  9. Personality Disorders
  10. Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders
  11. Feeding and Eating Disorders
  12. Disruptive, Impulse-Control, Conduct, and Elimination Disorders
  13. Neurodevelopmental and Neurocognitive Disorders
  14. Dissociative Disorders and Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders
  15. Sleep-Wake Disorders, Sexual Dysfunctions, Paraphilic Disorders, and Gender Dysphoria

Author bios

About our authors

Victoria E. Kress, Ph.D./LPCC-S (OH), NCC, CCMHC, is a distinguished professor, counseling clinic director, and the director of the clinical mental health and addictions counseling programs at Youngstown State University. She has extensive experience advocating for the counseling profession and those served, and she previously worked as the Director of Advocacy for the National Board of Certified Counselors. She has nearly 3 decades of clinical experience working with youth and adults in various settings, which include community mental health centers, hospitals, residential treatment facilities, private practices, and college counseling centers. She has published over 140 refereed articles and book chapters, and she has co-authored 6 books on counseling youth and adults. She has been identified as a top producer/published author in counseling journals. She previously served as an editor of the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) Practice Briefs and the Journal of Mental Health Counseling, and as an editorial board member for the Journal of Counseling and Development and a number of other counseling journals.

Kress has lectured throughout the United States and internationally on various topics related to counselor practice. She served 2 terms as a governor-appointed member of the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board, and served as the chair of the board’s Ethics Committee. She also served as the ethics liaison for Ohio’s state regulatory board, and she serves as a consultant/expert witness for counselor ethics cases. She has been the recipient of over 50 professional and community service awards, most of which were for her advocacy, leadership, scholarship, community service, and mentorship initiatives. She has also received awards for her work with people who have intellectual disabilities, for empowering girls in her community, for her sexual assault prevention efforts, and for her child abuse advocacy work. CACREP honored her with the Martin Ritchie Award for Excellence in Advocacy. She also received many ACA awards, including the ACA Fellow Award, an award for being a Humanitarian and Caring Person, the Distinguished Mentor Award, the Counselor Educator Advocacy Award, and the Government Relations Award. She has been the recipient of the following Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) awards: the Counseling Vision and Innovation Award, the Outstanding Mentor Award, the Robert Stripling Award for Excellence in Standards, and the Leadership Award. She has also received several university awards (such as the Giant Award, Distinguished Scholar, Distinguished Public Servant, Distinguished Teaching Award) as well as various Ohio Counseling Association awards including their Counselor of the Year Award, the Research and Writing Award, the Legislative Advocacy Award, and their Leadership Award.

She has served in over 100 professional service roles, chairing and serving on various committees and task forces for ACA as well as its divisions (e.g., AHC, ACES, ACC, AARC), AMHCA, CSI, NBCC, and OCA, just to name a few. She is a past president of the Association for Humanistic Counseling, Chi Sigma Iota International, the Ohio Counseling Association, and the North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision; she is a past ACA region chair; and she is a member of ACA’s Governing Council.  She has also worked and volunteered in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, and Rwanda promoting mental health awareness and training, along with the professionalization of counseling.

Matthew John Paylo, Ph.D./LPCC-S (OH), LPC (GA), is the director of counseling programs and professor at Concordia University Irvine.  He has over 15 years of experience in counselor education and 20 years of clinical experience in various settings, including community mental health centers, prisons, hospitals, adolescent residential treatment facilities, and college counseling centers. He is passionate about implementing evidence-based interventions within therapeutic relationships that highlight empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness. He has presented and published extensively in the areas of diagnosing and treating mental and emotional disorders. He co-authored 2 books on assessing, diagnosing, and treating mental and emotional disorders.  In addition, he has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on trauma, evidence-based treatments, offender treatments, adolescent counseling, social justice counseling, and the implementation of the DSM.

He has also received several teaching and research awards, including the Distinguished Professor of Teaching at Youngstown State University and the Research and Writing Award from the Ohio Counseling Association (OCA). In addition, Matthew completed 2 terms as a governor-appointed member of the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board, serving as board chair and ethics board chair.

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