Serving the Amish: A Cultural Guide for Professionals, by James A. Cates, provides the reader with a window into the world of the Amish... The author provides a wealth of information for all mental health clinicians who may serve in professional roles with member of Amish communities. This book is very successful in achieving its goal of sharing essential information ... Read morefor preparing clinicians working in Amish communities. But this book is much more than that. It also provides valuable information for mental health clinicians who work with clients of all diverse backgrounds in that many of the lessons shared are relevant to how we prepare ourselves for, and conduct ourselves with, member of a wide range of diverse groups... Whether or not one might interact with the Amish in the future, I strongly recommend this well written and engaging book to all mental health professionals and trainees.
Jeffrey E. Barnett PsycCRITIQUES James A. Cates's Serving the Amish: A Cultural Guide for Professionals delivers a useful tool for practitioners interacting with Amish communities as well as a notable contribution to the field of Amish and Anabaptist studies... Rarely do we see cultural guides that reflect such depth of experience in the community, length of treatment that allows for sufficient detail, and writing that conveys clear respect for the breadth of scholarly literature on a given group. Serving the Amish raises the bar for a form of cultural competency writing that may be embraced by social scientists and practitioners alike. The Mennonite Quarterly Review Show Less