Prayer and the Soul: Dialogues that Heal

Prayer is more than a bowed head and folded hands. It is the deep longing that is expressed by mute bodies and by our souls, the center of being that connects us to God. Chaplains engage in dialogues that heal, as they risk the encounter with another—soul to soul—discerning the heart of another's concern to find the healing required.     

Externalism and Memory: Jane Heal

Tye claims that an externalist should say that memory content invoking natural kind concepts floats free of the setting where the memory is laid down and is at later times determined by the context in which the memory is revived. His argument assumes the existence of 'slow switching' of the meaning of natural kind terms when a person is transported from Earth to Twin Earth. But proper understanding of natural kind terms suggests that slow switching (contrary to what is often presupposed) is likely never to be completed. Hence the situation of a person unknowingly transported to Twin Earth is not that his memories switch content but rather than he gets two natural kinds confused.     

Sisters of the Heart: How Women's Friendships Heal

In this article we focus on the healing aspects of women's intimate friendships with other women. In particular, we discuss the role of female neurohromone oxytocin “the love hormone” in the promotion of health and wellbeing among women. We assert that the intimate women friendship construct can enhance psychotherapy's healing and empowering functions. In this context, we examine how women's friendships can inform feminist psychotherapy. Moreover, we discuss the feminist therapeutic relationship as an intimate bond, and compare it with women's friendships. We conclude with the introduction of the special issue on “Sisters of the Heart: Women Psychotherapist Reflections on Female Friendships.”     

Heal the Hurt Child by Hertha Riese

Abstract

The mental health needs of the long–term nursing home resident receive little attention. It is especially difficult for the more cognitively intact resident to obtain psychological help. An integrated group psychotherapy model that incorporates developmental, cognitive–behavioral, and psychodynamic approaches is described, based on the author’s clinical experience in developing and co–leading four groups in three long–term care facilities over a period of ten years. The technical and countertransference challenges of working with this unique population and in this format are described, along with clinical material to illustrate common themes. The success of the groups in improving the morale, sense of community, and quality of life for group members is demonstrated.     

Helping the ex-addict

The mass media have given anyone who is remotely interested a general picture of what it is like to be a heroin user. Very few people, however, have any idea of what it is like to try to stop being an addict. Even addicts and ex-addicts provide a confused and frequently inaccurate picture. This article discusses the types of problems counselors encounter when they deal with those who want to stop using heroin and focuses on those issues about which most people seem unaware.     

Helper plus trainer: a two-phase program for the counselor

Helping is what it's all about. But if we recognize that one way to help is to train someone else to do a part of what we can do, we can assist that many more people with our limited resources. Thus, to be professionally adequate through all dimensions of the Cube requires the capacity to “train” as well as to “help.” Delworth and Moore have had extensive experience in both modes and have trained literally hundreds of paraprofessionals on a wide range of tasks. Their expertness shows through particularly in their recognition that training is not complete until the trainee has mastered the barrier of systems entry. Too many well-meaning and adequately skilled counselors have had their noses flattened because they did not have the “key” to the system. Too many well-meaning and adequately skilled counselors have remained in their offices because they lacked the ability to “multiply” their efforts through others. Here is a schematic to facilitate change in both kinds of counselors.     

Helping Yourself before Helping Others: How Sense of Control Promotes Charitable Behaviors

This research elucidates the conditions under which distress appeals can evoke the instinct to help without turning recipients away from uncomfortable situations. Five experiments demonstrated with behavioral evidence that evoking a sense of control by irrelevant causes prior to appeal exposure can increase the likelihood of registering as a volunteer (Studies 1 and 3) and the tendency to donate (Studies 2, 4, and 5) in a subsequent unrelated situation. The authors found that this effect was not evident in the absence of distress and for participants with enhanced distress tolerance. The results further showed that enhanced control increased distress tolerance, which mediated the observed effect on charitable acts but had no impact on self‐efficacy in contributing as a helper. The findings have both theoretical and managerial implications for promoting charitable behaviors.     

Helping Behaviors and the Perception of Helping Intentions Among Chinese Students

Abstract

A questionnaire survey explored the kinds of helping behaviors given and received by Chinese college students and the kinds of explanations offered for these behaviors. Helping behaviors reported by the Chinese students paralleled those of U.S. college students in McGuire (1994); the behaviors were sorted, according to her typology, into casual, substantial personal, emotional, and emergency helping. Four categories of perceived intentions behind helping behaviors were identified: altruistic, normative, relationship, and exchange.     

Empathy and Helping: Considering the Consequences of Intervention

This study tested the prediction derived from the empathy-altruism hypothesis that more empathically concerned persons would be more sensitive to the long-term consequences of their intervention for recipients. Subjects (N = 84), instructed either to observe the situation or to imagine another's feelings, were exposed to a person in immediate distress who requested assistance (hints) to complete an anagram task. Half the subjects were informed that giving too many hints could have long-term detrimental effects (potential detrimental-effect condition); half were given no information about future consequences (no-detrimental-effect condition). Consistent with the predictions, although the anticipated effect of intervention made no difference in the number of hints given by subjects in the observe-set condition, imagine-set subjects gave fewer hints when they were informed of potentially detrimental effects of intervention. These results suggest that empathy enhances sensitivity to the needs of others, including considering the potential consequences that one's intervention may have for the recipient.     

The Big Picture of Advocacy: Counselor,Heal Society and Thyself

This article, motivational in purpose, encourages counselors to be engaged in the growing movement for social justice advocacy in counseling. Analyses of a macrolevel framework of advocacy extend to microlevel operations of recruitment, sociopolitical education, diversity management, and self‐care of counselor‐advocates. Case studies and exemplars illustrate views expressed.