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Social isolation can have a negative impact on well-being, yet important strengths can emerge in adversity. Our aim was to explore how pre-university students in Singapore responded to the social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a thematic analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews with six pre-university students (three males and three females). Singaporean pre-university students found a "lack of face-to-face contact" (Theme 1) with friends challenging. However, they utilised "acceptance" (Theme 2), and "adaptability and resilience" (Theme 3) to cope with the changes associated with the COVID-19 restrictions. Educators, counsellors, parents and researchers may better support pre-university students' well-being by discussing how to enhance the students' strengths, rather than solely attempting to alleviate negative mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although parents of triplets experience substantial mental distress, research about this increasing population has primarily focused on physical health risks of triplets and mothers, failing to capture the subjective wellbeing of parents. Accordingly, this study aimed to understand first-hand experience of parents of triplets, using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews participated by eight parents (four couples: Age M = 48.63, SD = 10.61 years). Six themes were identified: (1) Negative and (2) Positive experiences of raising triplets prenatally and postnatally, (3) Social, psychological, and material support, (4) Experiences and challenges specific to mothers and (5) fathers, and (6) Advice for future parents. These themes suggest that being reassured and accepting support from others are particularly essential in reducing stress and anxiety. Self-compassion interventions were recommended to support the wellbeing of parents of triplets. Our findings will help parents of triplets, their social circles, and healthcare workers to develop effective approaches to reduce the mental health difficulties that this under-researched population experiences. Highlights: Parents of triplets experience increased anxiety and stress related to triplets' and mothers' health and financial concerns. Parents' positive experiences included a sense of having a big family and of feeling magical to encounter the unusual phenomena. Mothers' challenges were internal (health-related), while fathers' were external (stability of job and finances). Being reassured and accepting support from others are particularly essential for reducing stress and anxiety in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the application of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) has been reported worldwide, its scientific investigation is limited. Career consulting is one of the fields where NLP has been increasingly applied in Japan. This study explored why career consultants undertake NLP training, and what they find most useful to their practice. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with six career consultants, who had attended NLP certification training, revealed that they wanted to learn action-oriented NLP-based coaching skills in addition to their active-listening-based counselling skills. NLP provided frameworks to lead their clients’ thoughts efficiently, deepened their understanding of the human mind, and developed their attitude to understand others and themselves. The NLP skills found most useful were reframing and the Disney strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]