Termination of information evaluation in auditing

A screening decision is about whether a candidate fails to meet a decision maker's criteria and must be rejected, or whether it meets the criteria and can be accepted. Image theory contends that screening decisions are based on a simple, noncompensatory process that focuses solely upon the candidate's negative attributes. This contention has received empirical support in a job screening context in which students role-played a hypothetical person seeking a job. But how robust is image theory's prediction? The present work was done in the context of professional auditors screening prospective clients. The client screening context is a particularly interesting setting to test the implications of image theory. If auditors reject clients with negative attributes, as predicted by image theory, this will indicate that some clients are being denied access to a socially useful service. Further, auditors can accept prospective clients with negative attributes and simply adjust the audit plan and fees to compensate for the client's riskiness. Thus, it is not clear that the preliminary findings obtained in a job screening context will generalize to the audit context. On the other hand, results consistent with the image theory prediction would suggest a robust theory. Even in the client screening context, where auditors used their own criteria to screen prospective clients, we found overwhelming support for image theory's view of screening. The results indicate the potential payoffs of image theory as a robust framework to address audit and other substantive problems. Implications of a noncompensatory, negative oriented, client screening strategy are discussed.     

An empowerment model of memory training

The authors outline an empowerment model of memory rehabilitation. Unlike conventional cognitive rehabilitation methods, clients' plan and control the treatment process from the earliest stages of therapy. The client identifies functional goals and the therapy is geared to achieve those goals. The empowerment model also emphasizes domain-specific compensatory training. Memory strategies and prosthetic devices are chosen so as to maximize transfer of training in the workplace, training programme, or in the client's activities of daily living. Group therapy involves clients teaching their newly learned skills to other clients. The authors present research findings to document the efficacy of the empowerment model, describe its limitations, and discuss how the model can be implemented effectively.     

Client Gender and Sex Role: Predictors of Counselors' Impressions and Expectations

Researchers of this study questioned: Are clients (male or female) with self-reported “masculine” versus “feminine” role orientations viewed more favorably by counselors? Which is more predictive of the counselor's impressions: the client's gender or his or her sex role orientation? Results suggested that highly masculine and highly feminine clients (regardless of gender) are perceived as more socially skilled and likely to experience a positive therapeutic outcome. Gender did not uniquely predict counselors' impressions. Highly feminine women clients, however, were viewed as more socially skilled than were highly feminine men. On average, clients were viewed as friendly and submissive.     

Faith‐Based Social Services: Saving the Body or the Soul? A Research Note

Faith‐based organizations might be ideal social service providers, claiming to transform clients’ lives with holistic support while meeting immediate needs. While organizations have such goals, their success is impacted by constituencies with differing goals for the organization. Clients with goals not commensurate with an organization's may compromise its ability to attain its goals. Three questions are examined here: What are the goals of faith‐based service providers? When asked what they think about the services, do clients share the organizational goals? Are organizations likely to meet either set of goals? Homeless persons patronizing faith‐based soup kitchens were interviewed; service activities of organizations were observed. Clients’ goals focused on survival in their current situation. Organizations’ goals ranged from meeting clients’ immediate needs to transforming clients through spiritual restoration. Congregations studied met clients’ immediate needs. However, clients’ accommodational goals were potentially problematic for organizations with spiritual goals.     

Philosophical Counselling, Truth and Self-Interpretation

Philosophical counselling, Ran Lahav and others claim, helps clients deepen their philosophical self-understanding. The counsellor's role is the minimalist one of providing the client with the philosophical tools needed for reflective self-evaluation. Respect for the client's autonomy entails refraining from intervening with substantive moral criticism, theories, and methods; the client's ways of working out fundamental questions like ‘Who am I and what do I really want?’cannot be assessed by the counsellor in terms of their truth-value, but only in terms of whether they reflect the client's autonomous choice to express him/herself in a certain way. I argue that this view, which is informed by an anti-realist account of self and life-history, undermines the distinction between self-knowledge and self-deception. Once interpretive and criteriological free rein is given to the client, and once personal, pragmatic and aesthetic considerations take precedence over truth-value, then the way is left open to clients to generate the most morally convenient self-interpretation to suit their current needs. I defend the view that truth matters in philosophical counselling; more specifically, that there is a basic distinction between true and false forms of self-understanding. To do this, I offer a broadly realist account of self and reflective self-evaluation. If this is right, then philosophical counsellors shoulder a significant burden of responsibility in helping their clients achieve an accurate, defensible, action-guiding and truth-oriented self-understanding.     

Cultural barriers in the counseling relationship

Cultural barriers in the counseling relationship are the counselor's and client's reciprocal racial attitudes, counselor's ignorance of client's background, language barrier of poor people in general, client's lack of familiarity with counseling, the Negro's reservation about self-disclosure, and the sex and race taboo. The article suggests in-service and preservice training designed to help counselors examine their attitudes toward the culturally different and expose them directly to the culture of their clients.     

Issues and Insights: Working With God: Managing Conservative Christian Beliefs That May Interfere With Counseling

Counselors who work with conservative Christians may ask how to respect a client's values when “God” seems to be saying something contrary to what the counselor believes is in the client's best interests. In a managed care era of decreasing choice about one's counselor, referral of such clients to a conservative Christian counselor is not always an option. “Working with God” when counseling conservative Christian clients requires counselors to understand conservative Christian beliefs. This article portrays conservative Christianity as a culture and articulates conservative Christian beliefs that may challenge the counseling process, suggesting options within the framework of these beliefs.     

Facilitating the client's experience of relational depth in counselling and psychotherapy: A thematic review

Aim

There is increasing interest in relational depth and its relevance and benefits for clients receiving therapy in a number of different therapeutic orientations. This research set out to draw together the available evidence from a wide range of therapies about clients' experiences of relational depth. The aim was to identify approaches that create the conditions where relational depth is more likely to be facilitated. The research focused on clients' views, given the increasing emphasis on their experiences in therapy.

Methodology

A systematic search of papers published in English between January 1996 and September 2022 was conducted using EBSCO Host, Google Scholar and citation chaining. Twenty-seven papers met the inclusion criteria, and a thematic analysis was conducted on these papers.

Findings

Six themes were identified: (1) establishing dialogue with the client's inner world, (2) working with attachment in therapy, (3) responding sensitively to the client's beliefs and values, (4) deepening the client's understanding of the therapist, (5) addressing ruptures in therapy and (6) the client's role in meeting at relational depth.

Conclusion

Facilitating the client's experience of relational depth can support and enhance many aspects of therapeutic practice and in itself may contribute to healing. Therapists who offer warmth and genuine engagement are more able to build confidence and trust, as long as these conditions are received by their clients. It is the clients who ultimately decide whether or not to share their deepest feelings.     

The Client Action Plan Within Employment Counseling

The action plan development model introduced in this article describes the process recommended to assist clients who receive employment counseling through Canada Employment Centres or other agencies funded by the Human Resources Development Department. This specific decision-making process is established in the context of employment counseling assessment interviews illustrating how potential objectives are explored, prioritized, and translated into concrete and feasible activities that form a client's action plan.     

One of the troubles with outcome measures: Lost in translation

This paper presents the concerns of a client diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder about completing outcome measures. He was asked to complete CORE‐10 each time he attended a therapy session with the first author. This paper takes an epistemological position of co‐production, and written in response to the client's concerns, but this is limited by the client's wish and capacity to be involved in the writing up of this article. Implications of his experiences are drawn out for both clients with this diagnosis and more generally for all clients. Recommendations are made to recognise the limitations of measures and how to use outcome measures with more validity.     

First impressions online: The inclusion of transgender and gender nonconforming identities and services in mental healthcare providers' online materials in the USA

Background: When accessing mental healthcare services, transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals face systemic barriers to gender-affirmative care. Initial points of contact, like intake forms, may show limited consideration for the heterogeneity of TGNC identities and can lead to negative consequences prior to face-to-face interaction with providers. Aims: The first aim was to mimic a likely pathway a TGNC individual may follow to seek mental healthcare services in the USA and to describe the extent to which they may encounter enacted stigma or affirmative messages that may impede or facilitate access to care. The second aim was to determine if a positive State legal climate for TGNC people was associated with more affirmative provider materials. Methods: Content analysis was used to examine a national sample of websites and intake forms of mental healthcare providers who advertise online as working with TGNC clients. Intake forms were coded for usage of affirmative language in gender/sex questions and including questions for a client's pronouns and preferred name. Websites were coded for mentioning a variety of services or resources for TGNC clients. Results: While provider websites were found through Google searches for a “gender therapist,” only 56.6% of websites stated a provider specialty to work with TGNC clients and 32.1% of websites had no mention of services or resources for TGNC people. Additionally, a significantly larger proportion of intake forms from States with legal protections for TGNC people used affirmative language in gender/sex questions and asked for a client's pronouns than intake forms from States without legal protections. Discussion: Barriers to affirmative healthcare for TGNC people within patient and provider interactions have been identified in previous research and these data show TGNC individuals may face enacted stigma even in their search for a provider, particularly those TGNC people living in States without legal protections.     

MORALITY AND THE LAW: BOWERS AND THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY

This article examines the right of privacy with emphasis on the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick, as this case illustrates issues that arise in the context of government interference with citizen’s actions and with the broader context of morality and the law. I argue specifically that the Supreme Court erred in its ruling on the Bowers case by failing to recognize that the moral value of autonomy in this case outweighs the right of a state to establish statutes based on the perceived moral attitudes of its constituencies. I argue generally that moral principles can inform decisions about the ordering of the right of privacy and the moral claims that aim to limit the right.     

Law and grace in Saint Augustine: a fresh perspective on mindfulness and spirituality in behaviour therapy

The secular, acceptance-based philosophy of third wave behaviour therapy has easily absorbed the notion of mindfulness that originated in Eastern spirituality, entailing a secularised approach to transcendence. The present article seeks to connect mindfulness with existing efforts to integrate the Western client's spirituality into psychotherapy. For that purpose, we show how Christian grace theology and mindfulness theory overlap in the way they construe transcendence and self. Both approaches enhance openness to experience and deemphasise verbal control as a tool for personal progress. It is argued that awareness of this overlap can make it easier for the therapist to understand and appreciate the client's religious perspective. It can also help turn a client's spirituality into a relevant personal strength for therapy. Finally, explaining the overlap can enhance the credibility of mindfulness interventions with traditional Christian clients and make these interventions relevant to their spiritual concerns.     

Working with movement as a metaphor: Understanding the therapeutic impact of physical exercise from a gestalt perspective

Although the therapeutic impact of exercise on depression has been well documented, studies usually evaluate long-term fitness programmes and relate improved psychological well-being to changes in metabolism and physique. That exercise may stimulate affective and cognitive awareness and exploration is rarely acknowledged. This case study explores the contribution that client-chosen physical activity made to the counselling process. From a gestalt perspective, the experience of physical exercise seemed to heighten the client's present awareness, promoted the recognition and integration of conflicting facets of the self and provided a deep metaphor, both expressing and satisfying the client's needs for movement and activity (rather than passivity). The case example is unusual in illustrating how physical sporting exercise may be used as a vehicle for affective and cognitive expression.     

THE USE OF ADVOCACY AND CONFRONTATION COUNSELING THE DISADVANTAGED

Middle-class counselors and disadvantaged clients appear to be alienated due to a basic difference in values. This alienation can be overcome by the counselor assuming the role of “social advocate.” Several examples are given to illustrate how social advocacy might be utilized. As the counseling relationship develops, and the client's trust and confidence strengthen, the counselor can begin to assert himself and confront the client concerning the unsolvable problems he presents as reasons for his unemployment and failure. Some differences exist as to counseling needs on the basis of sex and ethnic background. The confrontation program described would seem to be more effective with disadvantaged men than with disadvantaged women.     

The Gap Between Research and Practice on the Question of Counseling Effectiveness

This article looks at outcome research from a practitioner's point of view and suggests that a serious problem may be caused by research that assumes the technique being studied is experienced by the clients. An argument is made for a research model that emphasizes the client's experience of the effect of the technique.     

Why are the three‐letter codes of a sheriff and a barber identical? understanding and interpreting occupational environments

This article provides career counselors and clients with useful information on understanding occupational environments. Specifically, the focus is on how to handle a situation in which a client's 3‐letter code is identical to 2 clearly divergent occupations.     

A Cross-Contextual Construction of Clients' Therapeutic Practice

This study demonstrates how gathering data from a different context can significantly change how an object of study may be viewed. Data from a qualitative diary study of psychotherapeutic practice were used to construct a cross-contextual view of psychotherapy. Data about clients’ everyday lives as well as psychotherapy sessions were analyzed. Examples of how extra-therapeutic factors are significant to client change are presented. Six types of extra-therapeutic information sources that clients use to develop their personal stances while in therapy were identified. The case of one client's abundant use of extra-therapeutic sources of information offers a different construction of how psychotherapy works, emphasizing client activities outside sessions. The implications of the study for psychotherapy research are addressed.     

“Not with me you don't”: A story of narrative practice and dissociative disorder

This paper discusses issues relating to therapeutic practice based upon the narrative metaphor. A case of someone suffering the effects of Dissociative Identity disorder is used to illustrate the difficulties that clients can experience with the “expert” knowledge conception of therapy. The value of the “respectful” and “non-expert” emphasis of Narrative Practice emerges even when the therapist believes that he or she lacks expertise in the client's apparent “condition.” Three themes emanating from the case form the basis for the discussion: the client's experience of being recruited into accepting the diagnostic label of Dissociative Identity Disorder; the effects of being forced to accept a contract to eliminate self-abusive behaviour; and the therapist's dealing with a gun in the therapy room.