Serving the Amish

"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 for 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."

"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."

"Serving the Amish is a model for learning how to relate intelligently and sensitively to other cultures. Both professionals—including health care providers, police officers, and social workers—and the Amish community will be better able to effectively cope with the realities of their interaction because of this fine work."

"A psychologist with long experience in Northern Indiana’s Old Order communities, James A. Cates writes knowledgeably, respectfully, and frankly about working with Amish adults, teenagers, and families. This work, the first of its kind, is a must-have for health care and other professionals who encounter the Amish."