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The landscape regarding the public's use and mental health professionals' recommendation of emotional support animals has recently undergone significant changes. This study analyzes current practices for emotional support animal (ESA) recommendations among mental health professionals and aims to explore best practices for compliance with ethical and legal standards when using emotional support animals in treatment. The researchers surveyed 106 mental health professionals using a Likert-style questionnaire to determine their beliefs, practices, and attitudes regarding ESAs. Participants included LPCs/LMHCs, LMFTs, social workers, psychologists, and student interns. Results showed that most participants believed in the healing power of human-animal interactions and were well versed in legal requirements regarding ESAs. Results also indicated that many mental health professionals recommend ESAs without appropriate continuing education or coursework. Results also showed discrepancies between practitioners' purported knowledge about ESAs and actual procedures regarding ESA recommendations. These findings yield important information for clinicians, counselor educators, and clinical supervisors who are likely to face inquiries about ESAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Child Interpersonal Relationships and Attitudes Assessment (CIRAA) is an instrument which was designed to measure progress in child therapy (Holliman & Ray, 2013). The CIRAA has undergone psychometric evaluation with exploratory factor analysis (Holliman & Ray, 2013) as well as confirmatory factor analysis (Chung, 2013). The current study analyzes the original data from the CIRAA using Rasch analysis methods to determine the ability of the CIRAA to distinguish different levels of behavioral strengths among children as well as determine differential functioning of the instrument among gender and cultural groups. The results indicate an instrument which is well suited for a variety of cultural groups and one that can measure individuals with a range of characteristics in the domains of self-control, interpersonal skills, coping skills, and locus of evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fourteen individuals participated in Imago relationship therapy (IRT) group training and intervention. The sessions were carried out at a public institution of higher education in the southwest and facilitated by a certified Imago therapist. The study followed an experimental–control group design. Findings indicate that while accurate empathy responding remained low, as well as constant, across time in the control group, participation in the IRT sessions strongly increased one's ability to accurately empathize with their partner/spouse. This study provides strong evidence for a theoretical goal of IRT, namely that it improves accurate empathic responding for individuals who have received the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to fill a need in the field of neardeath studies by developing an instrument to measure healthcare professionals' knowledge and attitudes about near-death experiences (NDEs) tha t would demonstrate acceptable psychometric properties. In consultation with a focus group of six NDE experts, we developed the 50-item Knowledge and Attitudes About Near-Death Experiences Scale (KANDES), including the 24-item KANDES-Attitude subscale (KANDES-A) and the 26-item KANDES-Knowledge subscale (KANDES-K). A total of 256 adult participants completed the KANDES (49.6% counseling students, 47.3% practicing counseling professionals, 3.9% unspecified). Of these, the overwhelming majority of participants were female (80.5%); 18.8% were aged 18-26 years, 38.7% were 26-35, 38.7% were over 35, and 4.2% did not specify; and ethnicities were 79.2% Caucasian, 8.2% Latino, 7.4% African American, and 5.2% unspecified. For the KANDES-A, exploratory factor analysis indicated four factors and yielded a factor solution tha t explained 54.87% of the variance, an acceptable amount of variance to substantiate construct validity. Regarding reliability, Cronbach's alpha and Pearson's r for test-retest yielded acceptable results for the KANDES-A and its four factors and for the KANDES-K and its three domains: NDE Content, NDE Aftereffects, and Experiencer Characteristics. Interitem correlations further demonstrated acceptable reliability for the four factors and three domains. The KANDES now provides NDE researchers with an instrument to assess both existing knowledge and attitudes about NDEs and the effectiveness of interventions to improve those characteristics among healthcare and other professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiculturalism social-justice has begun to take center stage in counseling and professional counselors are beginning to look at new methods of helping clients of different cultural backgrounds (Sue et al., 1992). The Orthodox Jewish population constitutes over 13 million people across the world (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014), and yet this population remains an invisible minority among professional counselors (Schnall, 2006). To address this gap, the authors of this article provide professional counselors unfamiliar with the Jewish community guidance on special knowledge and skills needed to provide quality therapeutic services, in keeping with the expectation of multicultural competency. Professional counselors working with this population need specialized knowledge sets about the traditions of Judaism such as rules of modesty, religious practices and holidays, and home and family life. Additionally, knowledge of the current epidemiological trends facing the Jewish Orthodox community is necessary for efficient intervention and prevention efforts, especially in the context of different approaches to Judaism. Finally, professional counselors must know how to engage Jewish religious leaders, the Jewish community as a whole, the Jewish family system, and the Jewish individual client in ways that respect their unique traditions and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]