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The article presents comments on research papers related to psychology. The article on grief counseling by D. G. Larson and W. T. Hoyt explores the research evidence of the negative characterization of grief counseling. But the findings are reported to be based on a student's unpublished dissertation. Two articles on couple therapy by authors S. D. Davis and F. P. Piercy explore the role of both common factors and specific therapeutic model interventions in couple therapy. It cites a framework to interpret and describe the development of change occurs across specific treatments. These papers require therapists to supplement development on helpful common factors with knowledge of some specific models of therapy.

As the crisis of global pandemic continues to unfold and alter the everyday workings of public life, early trends in the impact on mental healthcare treatment at a safety-net hospital illuminate implications for clinical work in the public sector under unprecedented conditions and beyond. While there are many important areas to consider and research to come, the current paper will explore the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on attendance of psychotherapy sessions. The authors point to early evidence from their caseloads in an outpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy training program showing a statistically significant decrease in missed appointments upon switching, in crisis, to a telehealth model. In this paper we explore possible reasons for this decrease in missed appointments, including psychological reasons (such as increased need for connection) and logistical reasons (such as eliminating barriers to attendance). Finally, we point to considerations and implications for practice during and after the crisis of the pandemic has subsided, and consider ways in which the changing approach may, in effect, increase access and remove barriers to care that pre-date our current crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To introduce this special section about practice-based research and counselling psychology, I first provide a brief overview of the discourses and methods of practice-based research in counselling psychology and psychotherapy fields. I then discuss each of the three papers appearing in this special section, before concluding with some further reflections on the questions and issues raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes three linked reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic, a mix of pragmatic change and reflection that can be seen as action research. Our case studies, stories, come from the UK, Spain and Ecuador and describe three different but overlapping actions all focused on making available or using online questionnaires and drawing on counselling, psychology and psychotherapy ideas and practices and technological solutions to help address the COVID-19 crisis and the lockdown. We believe these experiences have implications for our professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors describe how patients and therapists may, paradoxically, perceive a greater sense of closeness as a result of the physical distance inherent in conducting psychotherapy over synchronous video telehealth. Case material is used to illustrate ways in which tele-psychotherapy facilitated engagement, strengthened the alliance, and created unique therapeutic opportunities that may not be possible when therapy is conducted in person. This paper aims to challenge preconceived notions about the ability to develop a strong therapeutic relationship with patients and implement lasting change through tele-psychotherapy. Implications for future clinical work are discussed, with particular consideration of the recent COVID-19 outbreak's influence on psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis has required many therapists to switch to video conferencing psychotherapy (VCP). Knowledge about the importance of epistemic trust and its determinants has been accumulating over the last few years, with important implications for psychotherapy and specific significance for the transition to VCP. The present paper provides a brief background on the concept of epistemic trust, research on the determinants of its development and the integrative framework it provides for some traditional concepts in psychotherapy, such as the therapeutic alliance. In particular, research on ostensive cuing, which requires significant modification in a remote delivery context, has important implications in the transition to VCP. We will advance some suggestions while illustrating the ideas with clinical case studies. This knowledge may be of value to psychotherapists, who are required to make substantial changes in the nature of the encounter with their patients, and may help them identify benefits and hindrances that might arise from this transition, as well as pointing out techniques that may encourage effective adaptation to the change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic created an unprecedented physical and mental health crisis on an international scale. Clients and therapists alike navigated the fears and uncertainty surrounding the virus, often in an environment of social isolation. The following paper presents a brief overview of the unique stressors and psychosocial factors impacting therapeutic work in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, including fears of the virus and social transmission, relational stressors due to isolation, grieving in isolation, fear of death, financial challenges, and the transition to telehealth. In addition, this paper aims to provide specific interventions and helpful approaches for psychotherapists navigating the novel challenges and demands to their clinical work through an AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) perceptive. This includes finding an entry point for accessing the pain: undoing aloneness; moving through the pain: dyadic affect regulation; and paying close attention to vitality within suffering: searching for transformance. Recommendations for the health and care of the clinician are also discussed, such as attuning to self-needs, anticipating and detecting dysregulation, staying with the good, meaning-making, identifying and responding to burnout, and the importance of receiving personal therapy and clinical supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the Special Symposium Issue on the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences and on the Assimilation Model. The main context of these studies is the process research trend in psychotherapy. Process research keeps a direct connection with outcome research and it tries to explore (in many different ways) how patients and therapists are involved and related in therapy and what kind of therapeutic activities, operations or variables are influencing the therapeutic change. In this process context qualitative studies are contributing greatly to give a more detailed explanation of the process of change. The Assimilation Scale and the Model developed by Stiles and his group are embbeded in this qualitative stance. So, in this introduction some of the main concepts and theoretical foundations of the Assimilation Model will be addressed as well the main conclusions of the papers edited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus outbreak created diverse challenges for mental health services in general and to psychotherapy in particular. One of the most prominent of these is the move from delivering psychotherapy in face to face sessions to telephone or internet-based platforms. While this is a challenge to all psychotherapies, this paper examines specific considerations that should be taken into account when doing recovery-oriented integrative psychotherapy with persons with schizophrenia. Based on our clinical experiences conducting trials of psychotherapy with people with schizophrenia in Israel and in the United States, we describe several changes that took place as we were providing psychotherapy at the outbreak of the pandemic. These include general changes in the platform of psychotherapy and in the focus of sessions at both process and content levels. These changes represent both barriers and opportunities for the recovery process. Following a description of these changes we discuss and outline adaptations that are needed for sustaining patient's sense of their own agency and of the intersubjective nature of the session. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Portugal is one of the European countries that implemented early protective measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Portugal declared a state of emergency on 18 March, and a set of regional and national preventive public health measures was progressively implemented. Studies on the psychological impact of pandemics show evidence of the negative impact on mental health. Of particular concern are individuals with previous fragility (e.g. personal, family or occupational) and those undergoing life transitions. In this paper, we present a telephone-based psychological crisis intervention that was implemented to provide brief, appropriate, and timely psychological help. This intervention follows standard models of crisis intervention and is structured in five phases and five different intervention modules to take into account the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of specific risk groups. With these support services, we hope to help our community better cope with the immediate impact of the pandemic and to contribute to preventing serious mental health problems in the medium and long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcending the dark side of life and overcoming negative emotions may lead a person to mature happiness, characterized by inner peace and harmony. Such happiness can be found even in times of suffering through the pursuit of meaning and spirituality. This paper argues that nature happiness involves the spiritual aspects of being human, such as deep appreciation of life, finding joy through suffering, and being in tune with oneself and others (Clements, Hocoy, Hoffman, & Kaklauskas, 2016). Transpersonal Psychology in counseling focuses on cultivating spiritual and transcendent experiences. Through examination of the spectrum of being human, including spiritual yearning and aspirations, deeper meaning can be uncovered leading to personal and spiritual growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on several research papers which have investigated evidence-based practice and researcher allegiance in the field of counselling psychology. In the article the author offers opinions on the research articles, on evidence-based practice and on researcher allegiance in the field of psychology.

This paper examines the notion that marginalized clients through their socio-cultural and geo-political histories are positioned “outside” the masculine cultural metaphors and conventional theoretical epistemologies of counselling, psychology and psychotherapy. In other words, these minoritized clients are “outside the sentence” of the texts and contexts of therapy. The discursive practice of therapeutic reconstitution and restoration produces a particular set of vocabularies and sentences that facilitate transformation and psychic equilibrium consistent with the process of individuation and self actualization. However, for marginalized groups, such as black and other visible minority, women, deaf, gay and lesbian clients the hegemonic masculine narratives of counselling psychology and psychotherapy only make it possible for these clients to be “outside the sentence”, not just grammatically and metaphorically of the therapeutic project, but in the external reality of how the practice is clinically governed. In other words, the social and cultural marginalization outside the clinic room is in a dialectical relationship with the therapy dyad. For the minoritized client being “outside the sentence” produces the effect of being “inside” another process, i.e., the history of subjugation, domination, diaspora, and displacement. This paper explores this issue and argues that the only way for counselling, psychology and psychotherapy to bring the diversity client “within the sentence” of therapy is to assign and re-inscribe the history, memory and pain of “the Other” voices to the “inside” of the therapeutic space, to interrupt and disrupt the hegemonic masculine narratives, thus transforming “non-sentences” into sentences and paragraphs, and eventually into essays of the discursive subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores core adaptive emotions, both negative and positive, and investigates their respective roles in the transformation of emotional suffering into flourishing. We do so through the lens of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), a mind/body, emotion-focused, healing-oriented model of psychotherapy that has articulated a four state phenomenology of the transformational process. Through such a transformational process, energy-consuming negative emotions are transformed into energy-enriching positive emotions, thus describing an arc that organically links the negative emotions of emotional suffering with the positive emotions of flourishing. AEDP achieves this through (i) amplifying the vitality affects that identify positive neuroplasticity through therapist transformance detection; (ii) experientially processing to completion the "gut-wrenching" emotions of trauma, and then, (iii) "turbocharging" the innate affects of healing to expand transformation through metatherapeutic processing, a technique for working with positive emotions to maximize their therapeutic impact. We conclude with thoughts on how metatherapeutic processing might be used by therapists of different orientations to systematically bring flourishing into psychotherapy sessions and on how AEDP's descriptive phenomenology of affective states can function as a trans-theoretical vehicle of communication to further the exploration of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying change processes in psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is stated that people's need to live a good life is the key task of the whole nation in China. This paper proposed a pathway to human's good life in the Chinese culture context. The access to the goal should be in the human's spirituality. According to Existential Positive Psychology originated in the west and Yangming Theory of Mind in the east, individuals may find or create their meaning in life (meaning therapy) by flexibly adopting PURE strategies (a process of Purpose, Understanding, Responsible action, and Enjoyment or Evaluation), ABCDE strategies (a process of Acceptance, Belief, Commitment, Discovery, and Evaluation or Enjoyment) and another integrative strategies. The meaning-centered therapy includes cognitive approaches, narrative approaches, and acceptance & commitment therapy, etc. Also, it mainly bases on meaning management theory and the dual-systems model. Finally, with the ability of self-transcendence or people's spirituality, along with conscience and responsibility, people are responsible for everything in their life consciously and transcend self and circumstance to achieve good life at last. And the implications for Chinese community's mental health service are discussed in the background of current social reality of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A commentary on the Special Issue papers on the Scientist-Practitioner Model is presented. Based on the authors' recollections, a senior scholar uses a contextual approach to describe the historical and social sources of the evolution of the S-P model. It is recommended that the S-P perspective not be restricted to a philosophy of training nor a particular kind of scientific methodology, but include a historical and social understanding of the unfolding instantiations of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to establish the beginnings of a conceptual and theoretical framework for psychotherapists and counsellors to 'work with' racial identity psychologically and psychological identity racially in cross-cultural clients. Using the video presentation - of a black client in therapy with Carl Rogers (in the 1970s) - Right to be Desperateand Hurt and Angeras a case vignette, the paper argues that racial/psychological self understanding is possible in therapy. The therapy sessions are critiqued in terms of race and multi-cultural psychotherapy and counselling. Since the video was widely used in the 1990s and is currently used in counselling and multi-cultural therapy training, it was felt that an examination and analysis of some of its contents would offer clinical possibilities in terms of race, culture and ethnicity. Through the analysis of significant excerpts the paper attempts to show that the conflicts, confusions and tensions that arise between a white therapist and a black client can be used creatively to engender trust, openness and cross-racial therapeutic possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the psychotherapeutic literature that addresses the ways in which political material is engaged with by psychotherapists. The paper explores this in both the traditional and contemporary psychotherapeutic approaches. The paper concludes with a recognition of some of the challenges psychotherapy faces in developing politically sensitive approaches which draw upon the lessons learned across therapeutic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2This paper discusses limitations of Western psychological practice and the calls for integrating traditional healing practices into counselling and psychotherapy. It also explores challenges to and opportunities in integrated psychological practice systems which revolve around issues related to different paradigmatic perspectives about health and ill-health, practice issues and negative characterization of traditional healing and traditional healers, research into traditional healing and uses of herbal medicines. The paper concludes with discussions on educational and training opportunities, for traditional healers, counsellors and psychotherapists, for addressing challenges to integration and ensuring effective services delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of time, people have been using a range of healing practices to resolve health and mental health concerns. Among these are the traditional healing practices which appear to be growing among immigrant communities in the West, for example, Yoga, Ayurveda, Astrology, Voodoo, Santeria; and, the newer forms, viz., Maat, Morita therapy, Naikan therapy, and many others. These indigenous healing methods seem to address some of the many shortcomings of conventional health care and are practiced in conjunction with, and at times in the place of, modern Western forms. It seems that including two different health care modalities is possible since competing and contradictory cures can be held alongside each other without creating conflict in the client. This paper discusses traditional and cultural healers and healing in non-Western countries and those practices that are engaged with in the diaspora. The paper also considers the use of traditional healing alongside Western counselling and psychotherapy-dual interventions. Finally, the paper explores several strategies that counsellors could undertake when working with ethnic minority clients, particularly those clients who also enter into dual relationships with traditional healers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The whole approach of counselling researchers to ethics may be assumed to have been improving in recent years, especially with the BACP research guidelines (Bond, 2004), with its focus on trustworthiness and on the researcher engaging with ethical issues. In this paper we share our concerns about the background to ethical decision making for researchers today followed by our specific concerns for counselling researchers namely: why do counselling research at all?; research that hurts participants; the impact of research on the therapeutic process; restrictive notions around what is data; the politics of funding and informed consent revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emotional disclosure paradigm (EDP) associates better health with repeated disclosure of emotional experiences. However, disclosure does not bring health benefits for all, and neither does the EDP adequately specify embodied mechanisms or neural pathways whereby benefits might be produced. This paper addresses these issues by offering more sophisticated notions of emotional inhibition and cognitive reappraisal. It then outlines aspects of the somatic marker hypothesis which supports a more comprehensive conceptualization of the processes that may enable both the positive and negative health effects of disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long-standing debate over whether evaluation is an art or a science (Barker et al.: Research Methods in Clinical and Counselling Psychology, Chichester, John Wiley & Sons, 1994). The "science" camp argues for scientific rigour in methodology, whilst the "art" camp maintains that evaluation should be tailored to the specific circumstances under evaluation. The compromise proposed by Barker, Pistrang, & Elliot (1994) suggests that evaluation should be as systematic as possible within the practical and organizational constraints inherent in service settings. The aim of this paper is to present a review of the literature on evaluation and workplace counselling. The paper initially reviews the literature in the counselling/psychotherapy field, and then explores studies on employee assistance programmes. The themes that are explored are the relationship between research and practices; the interactions with stakeholders in the field; the use of control groups and the economic side of counselling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teasdale, Segal and Williams (2003) present the combination of mindfulness and cognitive-behavioural therapy as “one of the most exciting and potentially productive avenues for future exploration.” (p. 160). In the same paper they also recommend moving beyond the current general-purpose, non-case-specific applications of mindfulness (p. 157). By integrating mindfulness interventions more closely with cognitive behavioural theories, clinicians should be in a better position to administer tailor-made mindfulness-based interventions in response to specific case formulations. This paper examines important similarities and differences between mindfulness and Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), in view of integrating the two practices closely within a one-on-one counselling environment. The latter half of the paper then presents recommendations of how such integration might be achieved in practice. This is illustrated with examples of three new interventions that combine mindfulness with three specific types of cognitive dysfunction as per REBT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Person-centred therapy was developed by Carl Rogers [   Journal of Consulting Psychology 21 , 97–103 (1957); On becoming a person , Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1961)] and focuses on the importance of the therapeutic relationship for effective therapy. Rogers identified three necessary and sufficient conditions that are related to a positive outcome in therapy. These are: acceptance of the client, accurate empathy and congruence on the therapist's part. The present paper considers the definitions of the three core conditions and examines ways in which interventions, developed by cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), can be informed by these conditions, as identified by Rogers and his followers. We argue that CBT, while using different interventions than those traditionally used by person-centred therapists, can be practiced as a highly empathic, person-centred form of therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the factors that have contributed to the development of my understanding of integrating theory, research and practice. I will attempt to demonstrate how factors such as relevant psychotherapeutic models, psychological research, use of supervision, personal therapy and multicultural issues have impacted upon my ongoing practice as an integrative practitioner. My growing capacity to think reflectively will be illustrated by the use of clinical examples from my work as a trainee counselling psychologist. Furthermore, I will also explore how the development of reflective thinking has assisted in my ability to grow as an integrative practitioner. However, this paper will not suggest that I have become a fully integrated therapist or that my style of practice is fixed and thus not open to future development; it rather aims to demonstrate the ways in which the foundations towards this aim have been set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that counselling and psychotherapy within a multi-cultural setting raise several unresolved issues that are specific to the process of counselling and therapy, such as the language(s) spoken, meanings shared, verbal and non-verbal misunderstandings, the uses and misuses of metaphors, differential expectations, and conflicting values systems of the client and therapist. At a general level, the values underlying multiculturalism are in danger of being compromised by the very process of globalization. Despite some of the economic, scientific, and technological advantages in globalization, it carries within it in-built dangers of homogenization. The paper argues that this is likely to lead to an erosion of cultural identities and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the state-of-the-art developments in psychotherapy. In this paper, 2694 books and book chapters taken from PsycLIT were analysed. Although partial results showed some interesting path. In this respect, the author emphasized several themes and made several predictions. Two predictions that author emphasized are: values of any kind and ethical issues will be increasingly important. In this respect, minorities and specific population problems will be of great concern and will receive a considerable amount of publications. Secondly, there is and will be an important recognition of multiple ways to addressing problems and treating the same kind of disorders, either from an integrative or eclectic perspective, or assuming a combined one. Psychotherapy has reached every side of society and culture. Nowadays, psychology should develop labels and theorize about an incredible amount of stressful, problematic things, such as, post-holiday depression, addictions to sex, the Internet or video games.

This paper aims to examine the notion of uniqueness as one aspect of the self that is taken for granted in psychotherapy. This paper attempts to address the question 'how do we know that we are unique individuals?' and in so doing, points out some difficulties. One plausible, but not problem-free answer is the notion of privileged access. Some of the problems will be briefly outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue is devoted to understanding the experiences of professionals who both conduct therapy research and provide psychotherapy. To introduce this special issue, I first provide a brief overview of the potential significance of this topic, including my personal interest in this type of career, and the genesis of this special issue. Next, I address the prevalence of this kind of career among psychologists. I then discuss each of the six papers presented in this special issue, including salient themes connecting these authors’ works. Finally, informed by this scholarship and the research of others, I present a model for helping to conceptualize the various ways of being a clinician–researcher and conclude with a list of key points of learning, including recommendations for future inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assimilation model describes the process of change assuming that the self is enriched when there is a dialogue between nondominant voices or problematic experiences and the dominant voices. This dialogue is best seen in the Insight stage. The aim of this paper is to study the Insight stage during the assimilation process in relation to the main therapeutic activities performed by the therapist. All the Insights from the assimilation process of a patient, María, were analysed. In assimilation terms, María could be described through the nondominant voices of “dizziness,” “tiredness,” and “inability to cope with daily demands,” and through the dominant voices of “control,” “overcome and solve,” and “why something is happening.” María showed a successful assimilation of her problematic experiences. The therapeutic context was the Linguistic Therapy of Evaluation (LTE), a kind of cognitive therapy based on the theory of General Semantics. María was considered a good outcome case in the LTE sample. Results showed that there were some general therapeutic activities related to these Insights. A high percentage of activities pointed to one of the main issues of LTE: the development of an extensional orientation. At the same time, some of these activities were related to María’s voices. Results are discussed in relation to the relevance of the development of an extensional orientation for the assimilation process; how voices are recognized or challenged in therapy, and to the importance of considering relationship issues during the assimilation process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The evidence debate in psychotherapy pays little attention to developing an evidence base for training practices. Understanding effective training requires an examination of what makes training work. This article examines the role of case studies in psychotherapy training. This has not been articulated explicitly or researched systematically in spite of its cardinal importance. An analysis of the role of case studies in psychotherapy training is presented. Reading, watching, or hearing about cases can offer novice psychotherapists access to a closed world; access to psychological theory in action; access to whole courses of therapy; access to different approaches; access to significant moments; access to the therapeutic relationship; access to a wide range of client types; access to working in different contexts; and the opportunity of identifying with therapists and clients. Writing or presenting cases offer students the opportunity of: learning to integrate information into a relevant whole; being in the ‘hot seat’; learning to give appropriate feedback; assessing the validity of interpretations, inferences, and interventions; adapting methods to suit the client; and learning to collaborate with other professionals. The paper presents directions for future research into psychotherapy training, specifically proposing an international survey of training practices at psychotherapy training institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author explains that he wish to share some of the thoughts that have been generated during the course of co-editing this special edition of "Counselling Psychology Quarterly." He says that it has been a satisfying as well a challenging task to bring together a collection of papers which reflect the variety and diversity of settings in which marital and sexual aspects of clinical, theoretical and empirical thinking are present. He suggests that training in the recognition and assessment of sexual problems should not be confined to clinicians.

This paper explores how the culture of the researcher can influence the interpretation of data collected using interview transcripts from a study into psychotherapy and spirituality. In the original study 18 psychotherapists and counsellors who were also members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) were interviewed about how their faith impacts on their therapeutic practice. The researcher was white, male, British, a humanistic therapist and a Quaker. Five out of the 18 interview transcripts were randomly selected and were given to seven researchers, from a variety of religious backgrounds who also analysed the interviews and commented on their experience of doing the analysis. Their reactions to the data were subjected to a heuristic thematic analysis drawn from Moustakas' heuristics. The main themes that emerged were: researchers' religious and spiritual reactions to the data; researchers' reactions as therapists; and researchers' reactions to the interviews and interview process. The implications for the standpoint of the researcher in qualitative research are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relative helpfulness of counselling/psychotherapy to individuals experiencing specific learning difficulties, as a means of reducing barriers to learning by allowing the individual to return to learning from experience. Highlighting earlier studies which indicate the positive impact of psychological therapy on educational attainment and inhibiting factors such as stress, this research investigates the experience of counselling from the perspective of the person with specific learning disabilities. Using Empirical Phenomenological Research, the study explores their understandings of the circumstances and factors by which therapy is found to be helpful or unhelpful, seeking to contribute to debate on whether psychological interventions that are 'specialist' in orientation are potentially more helpful than 'generalist' therapeutic approaches. The findings point both to the potential value of psychological therapies for persons with special educational needs as a complement to other interventions and also to the importance of considering the experiences of the client in addition to diagnostic assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institutional regulation of counselling conversations does not always provide optimal conditions for counselling. Many teachers experience that some “normal” conversations develop into conversations which are of a counselling nature. Conversations which resemble counselling can be optimal counselling opportunities. In this paper we describe and develop these counselling conversations, which we call Informal Situated Counselling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a discussion of the meaning of the personal integrated inner body, mind, emotions and spirit dialogue from an Aboriginal perspective and the importance of placing this in a collective positioning of mental health and psychological treatment. The Aboriginal/Native American concept of the Medicine Wheel and the presence of balance and free will that are associated with it, burning tobacco, the power of story and the sweat lodge are used to ground and situate this discussion and demonstrate how traditional healing and the inner dialogue are linked. A discussion is offered as to the integration of traditional healing practices in counselling and psychotherapy and also how traditional healing is a culture and community based form of traditional counselling and psychotherapy. How the engagement of the inner dialogue of the body, mind, emotions and spirit helps to heal individuals, families and communities is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing trend in the West to seek alternative, complementary and traditional healing not only as a reaction to Western biomedicine but also to the mindset of “talking heads” in psychotherapy. Traditional healing aims to restore harmony and balance within the individual through a symbiosis of the body, mind and spirit. Through this process traditional healing offers a holistic conceptualization of wellness and wellbeing, both within the individual, and between the individual and his or her environment. Comparative studies on alternative healing practices indicate that many patients/clients often see a mental health professional and a traditional healer concurrently. This paper considers the use of traditional healing alongside Western counselling psychology as a process of dual interventions for clients who engage traditional healing practices alongside psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much is written about the "talking therapies", talking itself seems to be assumed to be only the medium through which therapies, language based or physical (for example in the giving of a prescription), are delivered. However, it has been suggested that talking can function as a secure base (Bowlby, 1988. In this paper the hypothesis is elaborated that talking itself, when functioning as a secure base, is therapeutic and produces change. I will develop this suggestion, describing what a secure base is and how a conversation between two people might function as a secure base. Finally I will propose that this conceptualization of talking might suggest a resolution of the controversy of the Dodo verdict-whether or not different psychotherapies are equally effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an earlier paper (Carey, T. A. (2005). Can patients specify treatment parameters? A preliminary investigation. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 12, 326-335) an approach to treatment delivery was examined in which the duration and frequency of the appointments was scheduled by patients. Results of this approach were encouraging but the generalizability of the results was constrained because only one clinician trialed the approach and no standardized assessment measures were used. In the present study there are two clinicians involved and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) was used. The approach was introduced at one GP practice and monitored over a six-month period. Results suggest that this approach might be an effective way of promoting patient access to, and involvement in, service delivery as well as reducing waiting times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence is a common complaint encountered by counselling psychologists and other mental health professionals. Common psychological treatment practices separate perpetrators and victims into individual intervention modalities. However, there is some research that has been emerging that suggests in some cases a couples treatment approach may be a useful adjunct to existing treatments. The present paper examines research and considerations in making the decision to employ a conjoint approach to treating domestic violence issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the Special Issue on counselling psychologists as scientist-practitioners. The primary goal of the Special Issue is to examine the evolving nature and current status of the scientist-practitioner (S-P) model in counselling psychology from the perspectives of four early career counselling psychologists who illustrate the implementation of the S-P identity in their particular work settings. A concluding commentary by a senior counselling psychologist describes the evolution of the model throughout his career and highlights the role of context in defining scientist-practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one in a series of papers examining the application of scientist-practitioner training in different contexts, an early-career master's-level counsellor educator describes how his training has positively influenced his professional work. Specifically addressed are his work setting, his own individual training experiences, how his training affects what he does, and challenges he faces. Observations on the status of the scientist-practitioner model in his context are shared, with the broad applicability of the model highlighted as a major strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Career counselling aims to help clients become more effective agents in solving problems in their vocational aspects of life. To achieve this goal, theorists and practitioners are called upon to form useful helping approaches that can help clients in a more efficient and effective manner. This article proposes an alternative model toward this end by considering and adopting principles and techniques from the solution-focused therapy in career counselling practice. After a very brief introduction of the basic features of the solution-focused counselling, the paper reviews some key theoretical principles of the solution-focused therapy, and connects these principles to career counselling context. It then illustrates several solution-focused counselling techniques that are particularly applicable to career counselling intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Self Confrontation Method has garnered significant attention as both a method of assessment and change in counseling. In this paper, the authors provide a review of the utility of the Self Confrontation Method as a practical tool for counselors. Toward this end, the conceptual and empirical foundations of the Self Confrontation Method are first examined followed by a focus on its practical application to counseling. Consistent with narrative and constructivist approaches to counseling, the Self Confrontation Method represents a viable procedure for contextualizing client problems, assessing the unique organization of client self-schemas and emotional patterning, and facilitating progressive client change and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conception of the self as arising in narrative and sustained and transformed in dialogue carries novel implications for understanding the nature of client difficulties and resources and how change might be fostered in the counselling context. In this paper I comment on these implications, and extend their practical import by reviewing several specific tools for both reflecting upon and enacting narrative and dialogical processes that maintain and transform problem patterns. In particular, I present and illustrate a “Chapters of our Lives” technique whose aim is to articulate and potentially deconstruct client constructions of their experience across time, as well as a form of “externalized problem interviewing” that helps clients perform, and ultimately resist, the influence of the symptom or difficulty on them. These and numerous other methods more briefly described can help augment the toolbox of techniques available to counselling psychologists approaching their work from a broadly postmodern perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power is a problem for all approaches to psychotherapy. However any therapy based on principles of dialogue face a specific but inevitable task: it must construct the other as a dialogical being, but it must do so in a dialogical and non-imposing way. In other words, an account of the power-dialogue dynamic is needed. In this paper certain features of power that may be intrinsic to therapeutic applications of the dialogical self are identified. It is argued that therapist and client are institutionalized “primary positions” that significantly, though often invisibly, regulate the circulation of power in the interpersonal dialogue, and thereby influence the production and shape of “secondary positions” in the client's dialogical self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is general agreement that race, culture and ethnicity are critical variables in counselling and psychotherapy, very little is known about how they are psychologically constructed. Race, for example, in its current usage is far too broad and indefinite to be clinically useful. However, race and racism does enter the therapy room, and if left unexplored or disavowed can, in a pervasive way, dislocate and alienate clients and create much anxiety in therapists. Although there appears to be no consensus theoretically, scientifically or clinically on its meaning, race is still an important issue to explore in therapy. Yet, to engage with race and racism in therapy is theoretically and practically difficult, and could be made impossible by some counselling approaches. This paper examines how race can be explored in the therapy room. For clients who are afraid of talking about race and racism gender appears to be a safe place to communicate unwanted and split off feelings. Race then becomes more acceptable because the discourse of gender provides it with a particular set of vocabularies, epistemologies and linguistic resonance that can provide a good enough holding environment, offering both client and therapist with an opportunity to explore through the gendering of race other complex interpersonal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assimilation model considers personality as a community of voices, each representing the traces of past experiences. Problematic voices are kept separate by painful emotion, but they may be gradually assimilated into the community in successful psychotherapy. People with dissociative identity disorder may be considered as having multiple subcommunities of voices. For Kristen, a nineteen-year-old therapy client diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, the process of assimilation proceeded in at least two ways. Assimilation appeared to occur via negotiation among Kristen's various subcommunities (alters). It also occurred simultaneously through dialogue between the discrepant voices within each of the subcommunities. In this paper, Kristen's and her primary alter's changing experiences of anger over a 36 month period of therapy were identified, tracked and discussed using the assimilation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a qualitative micro-analysis of the assimilation process in 18 events drawn from six patients treated in the linguistic therapy of evaluation. Each event began with a problematic situation introduced by the patient and ended with a marker showing either non-resolution or resolution of the problematic situation. These events all represented a common therapeutic task: The orders of abstraction technique, one of the main techniques of the linguistic therapy of evaluation. The non-resolved and resolved events tended to represent different levels on the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES). The non-resolved events tended to be associated with low APES levels, whereas the resolved events tended to include higher APES levels. The process of assimilation showed a sawtoothed pattern characteristic of directive therapies. To illustrate the process of assimilation, qualitative data—passages, excerpted from one patient, Silvia—are shown. The results are discussed in terms of the assimilation model and the balance metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]