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This paper examines the intersection between the erotic, embodiment, and empowerment. It explores how the erotic and oppression live in the body by reviewing the literature and research from the fields of psychology, somatic psychology, as well as the theories of poets and activists. Sensory awareness of the erotic can transform oppression. A body-based lens for resisting, transforming, and developing resiliency in the face of oppression is critical for cultivating sensory awareness. Using Caldwell's (1996) Moving Cycle, this paper explores ideation for how the erotic can be accessed, connected with, moved, and transformed using a somatic model for healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recognition of the importance of relationship and working alliance for effective social work supervision, psycho-social factors serve to influence the relational dynamics, impacting on functions such as case discussions and decisions and practitioner welfare and learning. Attachment theory provides an insightful lens for understanding these pivotal aspects of social work supervision and how supervisors may adapt their approach. This paper synthesises the literature linking attachment theory to supervision in social work and the allied discipline of psychotherapy, which is relevant to this lens. Consideration is given to the implications of the different adult attachment patterns of supervisors and supervisees, for their working alliance, the supervision process and social work practice more generally. Further thought is given to the notion of supervision within organisations as a secure base and the impact this may have for supervision practice and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the emotional life of the infant in the incubator and develops a new psychological theory which is called the ‘incubator psyche’. Theory building is advanced from three main discourses: (1) psychoanalysis, (2) neo-natal nursing and (3) psychology. A case study of Corey, a 7-year-old boy, who had been delivered prematurely, with a hole in his heart, and spent the first 6 weeks of post-natal life in an incubator, is presented to illustrate how aspects of an incubator psyche might be clinically manifest. The concept of an incubator psyche is advanced with reference to a particular kind of second-skin formation (Bick, 1968, The experience of the skin in early object relations,The International Journal of Psychoanalysis,49, 484–486). It is proposed that the incubator psyche characterises a client's mental functioning exercised as an environmental sensibility that could be understood in terms of the total transference situation (Klein, 1952, The origins of transference,International Journal of Psychoanalysis,33, 433–438; Joseph, 1985, Transference: The total situation,International Journal of Psychoanalysis,66, 447–454). Implications for practice are considered advocating particular attention to the setting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bridging psychoanalysis and literature, the present paper links literary depiction of traumatic terror with our own learning from psychoanalytic experience. It identifies psychodynamic understanding at two levels: (1) at the descriptive level of traumatic experience; and (2) at the specific level of working-through. Beginning with traumatic descriptions in ancient Western accounts, represented in the Biblical book of Lamentations and by Sophocles, the paper focuses on the dynamic work of affective and cognitive emergence, highlighting a sequence of repetitive traumatic reminiscences drawn from Samuel Beckett's literary productions across a 33-year period from “The end” to “Company.” In so doing, it illustrates both the literary and therapeutic efficacy in emotional conveyance of personal narrative in achieving the necessary cohesion after traumatic experience to more effectively go on. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

In this paper we reflect upon inner silence as a path to embrace eudemonia in relation to Dialogical Self Theory. We suggest that the awareness of the dynamics of different I-positions can empower the person to feel more freedom over their thoughts, feelings and actions. Thus, inner silence can promote the capacity to activate meta-positions or de-positioning, which are shifts of attentional foci in the stream of consciousness. The practice of inner silence can also promote the experience of genuine dialogues, by encouraging the flow and flexibility of the self, and by strengthening the connection with the experience of values. We also suggest a number of implications for counselling associated with self-exploration and self-transcendence, such as meditation, contemplation and prayer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A psychological model of classic psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy informed by contemporary scientific data is presented in this paper. It is suggested that classic psychedelic-occasioned mystical experience is characterized by profound awe, a discrete emotion experienced in the presence of a vast stimulus requiring accommodation of mental structures. Awe, in turn, promotes the small self, a construct that, in the extreme, is analogous to those of unitive experience and ego dissolution. The small self is conceptualized as key to understanding the downstream effects of mystical experience occasioned in the context of classic psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. With this novel theoretical framework in mind, a number of clinical implications and recommendations are provided so as to advance this incipient field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative research paper discusses the importance of experiential learning in the creative writing process, the cognitive processing of difficult emotions that can result from writing creatively in both the first and third person, and the implications of this in therapeutic settings. It looks at the ways experiential learning can come not just first-hand from life experience, but also through interviewing others about their experiences, and the ways Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis can then be used to interpret the material and act as a stepping stone between fact and fiction. The study is based on the writer's 20-year databank of journalistic interviews, which represents hundreds of single case studies, and also on her experience of writing four published novels. It examines the significance of the overlap between creativity, psychology, and journalism, and the therapeutic implications of that overlap for journalists, authors, and psychologists and their patients. [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]

Background This paper describes the evaluation of a group program designed specifically to meet the anger management needs of a group of individuals with various levels of intellectual disability and/or complex communication needs. Method Twenty‐nine individuals were randomly assigned to an intervention group or a waiting‐list comparison group. The intervention comprised a 12‐week anger management program, based on Novaco's (1975) cognitive‐behavioural conceptualisation of anger, which incorporates adapted content and pictographic materials developed for clients with a range of disabilities. Results On completion of the program, clients from the intervention group had made significant improvements in their self‐reported anger levels, compared with clients from the comparison group, and relative to their own pre‐intervention scores. Treatment effects were maintained at 4‐month follow‐up. In contrast, there was an absence of measured improvements in quality of life. Conclusions The results provide evidence for the program's effectiveness as an intervention for anger problems for individuals with a range of disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Meta-analyses assessing the efficacy of expressive writing (EW) interventions have produced mixed results. The current study aimed to assess the efficacy of an EW intervention in the reduction of anxiety symptoms in first-year college students. In an effort to understand more about moderating variables that influence EW outcomes, the current study also assessed the role of linguistic features in symptom reduction. Ninety participants were assigned to complete either an EW intervention or a non-emotional writing intervention. Participants completed 3 consecutive days of writing and two follow-up visits. Anxiety was measured at each study visit with the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and linguistic features were assessed with the LIWC software program. Results indicated that all participants demonstrated significant decreases in anxiety over time. Participants in the EW group who demonstrated the greatest decreases in anxiety utilized more first-person singular pronouns and fewer affect words. Results are explained in the context of two prominent theories regarding the therapeutic mechanisms of EW: cognitive processing theory and exposure theory. Exposure theory received more support than cognitive processing theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological literature in the field of internal dialogical activity assumes that internal temporal dialogues perform several important functions, namely: support, redefining the past, balancing, distancing, advising, making decisions, acquiring wisdom and managing the future. The article is an attempt to verify this proposal through qualitative analyses of temporal dialogues conducted by three persons, who participate in the wider research project on functions of internal temporal dialogues (N = 200). Dialogical Temporal Chair Technique was used. Presented qualitative analyses of internal temporal dialogues seem to confirm most of the functions listed in the theoretical proposition. The results are also discussed with reference to well-being and happiness as well as the theory of the dialogical self (the role of metaposition) and time perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychoanalytic social work scholars lament the marginalization of psychodynamic theory in contemporary social work academia. Modern conflict theory applied to social work theories of pathogenesis and cure can serve as a means to explore this marginalization. Unconscious fantasy is important for understanding the resistance to psychodynamic theory in social work education. I offer some psychoanalytically informed strategies that might begin to restore psychodynamic theory in mainstream social work academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental death and HIV are associated with poor mental health for orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to evaluate a theory-based intervention for orphaned children on treatment in Tanzania, in terms of feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes. A pilot RCT with nested focus group (FGD) allocated 48 children to usual care or residential "Memory Work Therapy". Children completed outcome measures at T0 (baseline), T1 (2 weeks following intervention) and T2 (9 weeks from T0). Forty percent of eligible children assented. T1 intervention effects were found on all total measures: Brief Symptom Inventory d = 0.99, p < .001; Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale d = 0.65, p = .001; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire d = 0.64, p = .002; Self-efficacy questionnaire for children both "social" and "emotional" subscales, d = 0.54, p = .008 and d = 0.63, p = .002, respectively. At T2, significant effects remained for all measures and SES effect increased from medium to large (T1 = 0.65, T2 = 1.33). FGD data found children valued a calm environment that met their basic needs, enabling them to reflect, highlight support resources, and strengthen ability to recognize personal skills. The intervention has strong feasibility and acceptability, with no attrition or missing data. Memory Work Therapy has high potential effect size and should be tested in a fully powered trial. Clinical trials.gov NCT02180750. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do clients consider their own contribution and that of their therapist in the last phase of therapy when they are moving toward the end? Thirty-seven clients who had received therapy from highly experienced clinicians were interviewed. Since the time for ending had not been decided at the onset, clients in both short- and long-term therapies were included. Thematic case-by-case analyses were carried out. Clients actively engaged in looking back and looking ahead, as means of reflecting on their capability to handle issues on their own. The majority of clients were satisfied with what they perceived as a reciprocal engagement that enabled them to come to terms with emotionally charged issues in life and in therapy. For some clients unresolved issues remained: wondering whether a therapist with another approach could have helped more; feeling pushed away by the therapist; having to take the lead in ending therapy; the fear of being an “unworthy” client; or wanting to end without the therapist’s approval. Coming to terms with the ending of therapy was highly personally meaningful and loaded with affective tensions, in ways that were not always shared with their therapist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), or the tendency to appraise physical symptoms as intolerable or dangerous, may maintain the cycle between co-occurring anxiety and substance use disorders. This study examined preliminary efficacy of a brief intervention targeting AS for individuals with heterogeneous substance use disorders. Forty-one patients with high AS entering an addictions day program were randomized to treatment as usual (TAU) or to TAU plus a nine-hour AS-focused intervention that consisted of interoceptive exposures, psychoeducation about the cycle of problematic substance use and anxiety, and a single session of cognitive challenging (e.g., reviewing common cognitive distortions and decatastrophizing anxiety symptoms). Mixed-effects intent-to-treat models suggested that participants in the AS condition showed greater decreases in AS at post-treatment, but this effect was lost at follow-up three months later. Intervention conditions did not differ in change in percent days abstinent or self-reported anxiety, with both conditions showing significant improvement at post-treatment. Results suggest that the nine-hour AS-focused intervention led to a short-term benefit over TAU alone, but this benefit was not sustained at three months’ follow-up. Future AS interventions may need to target specific subconstructs of AS for selected populations, or target emotional distress tolerance more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores how the biodynamic bodymind ontology impacts clinical reasoning and the epistemology of peristalsis. Peristalsis's autonomic mediation offers a possible link with emotion, with some experts arguing that different emotional states have individual neurophysiological patterns based on the levels of autonomic activation.

The aim of the study was to review current psychological and psychotherapeutic approaches for people with MND used by therapists in Ireland and to gain an insight into approaches used elsewhere. We used a qualitative study collecting data from eight therapists in Ireland and two therapists in the UK and Italy using semi-structured interviews and analysed the results using principles of grounded theory. Therapists’ approaches included supporting the person in the ‘here and now’ by providing a ‘fine focus’ on what they can still do, re-affirming the person in their ability to have an active role in their life and supporting the person in exploring their emotions. The desired outcome was to provide the person with space to talk, express feelings and be able to self-direct. In conclusion, there is no consensus about a specific approach, due to the complexity of the disease and the variety of presentations. Different approaches may be required during disease progression. The findings indicate that therapists would benefit from having experience of MND, the limitations in mobility, communication and cognitive processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emotions experienced by a supervisor—including even his private, 'subjective' fantasy experiences and his personal feelings about the supervisee—often provide valuable clarification of processes currently characterizing the relationship between the supervisee and the patient. In addition, these processes are often the very ones which have been causing difficulty in the therapeutic relationship and, because heretofore unrecognized by the supervisee, have not been consciously, verbally reported by him to the supervisor. This thesis is undoubtedly well known to many persons engaged in supervision, and in everyday use by them in this work; but my own experience indicates that it is far from universally recognized, and it has not been presented in the literature, to the best of my knowledge. It would be at least equally valid to express the principle in the following fashion: the processes at work currently in the relationship between patient and therapist are often reflected in the relationship between therapist and supervisor. But it makes for simplicity of presentation to present this material from the viewpoint of the supervisor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older paradigms in addiction research equated abstinence with recovery. Current literature focuses on systems and relationships to support long-term recovery. This article investigates literature on long-term recovery, the gap in resentment deactivation, and utilizing body psychotherapy to boost clinical treatment of long-term recovery. A theoretical foundation is presented for the model, Anatomy of a Resentment, in which the structure of resentments is examined using cognitive and somatic techniques. The prototype is offered as a clinical tool to bridge cessation of use with long-term recovery and reignite adult development, scaffolding increased quality of life for individuals in long-term recovery from addictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that person-centered therapy is a “fuzzy set” with a variety of members that bear a family resemblance to one another. I suggest that some members of this fuzzy set are approaches that integrate various activities and procedures into their practice along with traditional empathic understanding responses. Based on quotations from Carl Rogers I demonstrate that these approaches deserve to be included as members of the family and that if one follows what Rogers said there is no warrant for the idea that classical nondirective practice is the only “true” person-centered therapy. I argue that one can practice person-centered therapy in an integrative way by including techniques and procedures from other approaches, by meeting at relational depth, and by focusing on experiencing and emotions. I conclude by arguing that it is important that we be open to alternative ways of actualizing person-centered principles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ongoing evolution of reproductive medicine has revealed the complexity of emotional reactions of couples seeking to fulfil their desire for a child. The position of counselling is evaluated from three perspectives: the couple, medical staff and the individual counsellor. This leads to three proposed levels of counselling, as an integrated component of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This autoethnographic narrative seeks to engage the reader through a personal account of a traumatic event that happened in the Cabrini Green neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, in 1980. Twenty-six years later, the author reflects on how strength is revealed during trauma and the role it plays in positive adversarial growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience may mean different things to different researchers and practitioners in psychology and public health: A process, an outcome, a dynamic steady state in the face of adversity, and defiance of risk/vulnerability are among the variety of understandings of the concept that are extant. This article summarizes the results of a systematic review of the literature on definitions and measurements of resilience. It is evident that resilience is more than the absence of “posttraumatic stress disorder,” just as health (and indeed mental health) is more than the absence of disease (or mental/behavioral disorder). A multidimensional construct, resilience a requires a multimethod and multilevel study design that combines both qualitative and quantitative techniques to be examined satisfactorily. Seven selected studies are discussed in detail, highlighting examples that offer a fuller understanding of resilience in its sociocultural and ecological context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

in psychoanalysis, we attempt to engage with one another in ways that enhance understanding. We tend to valorize the verbal domains, yet much of the information we seek may be relatively inaccessible to conscious awareness, obscured by trauma or by the early age at which the information was encoded. These types of information are stored within the body as sensory memories, in which it is through the patterns of the communications that meanings are derived. Affect, most particularly, is known through its patterns of prosody and intensity. Greater appreciation of the patterned forms that underlie emotional memory can help us to better locate ourselves within this infinitely complex and fertile realm of nonverbal understandings, and to learn to communicate these understandings in constructive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psychotherapy Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)