Counseling in a Complex World: Advancing Relational Well-Being

In a globalized world, people's attempts at living a good life interfere with one another in complex ways. In particular, tension and conflict are inevitable. This confronts counselors/therapists with the ethical question of how to take into account (global) interdependence and relational complexity. In this article, I explore what moral visions—assumptions of what a person is and should be—help counselors shift their focus from individual to relational well-being. First, I examine the moral vision of narrative therapy, as an alternative to more traditional, individualistic moral visions. Then, I construct a moral vision of relational being, based on the relational being perspective of Kenneth Gergen. This vision represents an ethical stance that may, using work by philosopher Judith Butler, be understood as an ethic of recognition and nonviolence. Finally, implications of the moral vision of relational being for counseling/therapeutic practice are explored.     

Sexual Dual Relationships in Counseling: Confronting the Issues

Sexual intimacy between counselors and clients is a frequently claimed type of violation against licensed professional counselors. This article examines the issue of sexual dual relationships in terms of prevalence, harm inflicted on clients, counselor awareness, predictability, and parameters for concern. Implications for counseling practice, education of prospective clients, legislation, research, and counselor training are also discussed. It is suggested that despite the complexity and controversy surrounding the topic of sexual dual relationships, the challenge to counselors to confront and to explore these issues is critical to the profession and cannot be ignored.     

Counseling and Culture: Some Issues

Counseling educators are alerted to three issues central to the relationship between counseling and culture: the etic-emit distinction, the sociology of knowledge, and modernity.     

Oedipal Issues in Counseling Psychology

The current status of counseling psychology is analyzed from the perspective of a Freudian, drive-structure theory. It is argued that counseling psychology has committed the classical response to the Oedipal conflict in its treatment of counselor education by identifying with the aggressor (i.e., psychiatry and clinical psychology). A more unified relationship between counseling psychology and counselor education is recommended.     

Lesbian-Related Issues in Counseling Supervision

No abstract available for this article.     

Assessing and Constructing a Meaningful System: Systemic Perspective in a College Counseling Center

The author describes an application of family systems therapy to treatment in a college counseling center. This approach organizes treatment around the “meaningful system” rather than the family system and includes nonfamily significant others in treatment. Using the Brief Therapy model of the Mental Research Institute, the author addresses special considerations in providing systemic treatment in a college counseling center, assessment and construction of a meaningful system, and specific working procedures. Two case illustrations are provided.     

BRCA1 Testing: Genetic Counseling Protocol Development and Counseling Issues

This article discusses the genetic counseling protocols which were developed and counseling issues that have arisen in the first 2 years of evaluating a large kindred with a BRCA1 mutation. The rationale for the development of the genetic counseling protocols and specific genetic counseling visual aids are presented and discussed. The protocols and counseling aids can serve as models for other programs offering cancer susceptibility testing. The observations of study counselors about study subject concerns and responses to genetic testing at the time of the pretest and posttest counseling sessions are presented.     

Counseling Minors: Ethical and Legal Issues

This article discusses the ethical and legal dilemmas facing counselors who work with minors in the school system. From an ethical perspective, minors should be able to expect confidentiality; however, parents and guardians have certain legal rights that limit the rights of minors. The author uses a hypothetical case to address these concerns and offers intervention strategies used for empowering minor clients in counseling.     

The Counseling Process as Defined by Relationship Types: A Test of Helms's Interactional Model

Helms (1984) presented a model to explain the influence of Black and White racial identity development on counseling interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine her hypothesis that specific combinations of racial identity attitudes contribute to qualitatively different counseling process and outcome or relationship types.     

All the World Is Not a Stage: Emerging Contextualist Themes in Counseling and Development

Classical stage-based theories of human development, drawn from organismic worldviews, possess many shortcomings when extended to counseling applications. In attempting to reduce development to linear, hierarchical sequences, these theories fail to account for the interactional nature of change processes and implicitly pathologize developmental diversity. Responding to these shortcomings, counselors are turning to contextualist models of development that emphasize process over outcome. In this article I review key assumptions of contextualism, as embodied in social role theory and the life-span developmental tradition, highlighting relevant theory and research. I propose that two vital forces within current counseling—constructivism and interactional counseling—are animated by contextualist notions of development. Specific implications of contextualism for future counseling research and practice are outlined.     

网络心理咨询的实施及面临的问题

网络心理咨询作为一种新兴的咨询模式在近些年获得了快速的发展。一方面为心理咨询的发展带来了新的契机,另一方面也还面临着一些急需解决的问题。文中对网络心理咨询的相关定义、特点进行了简要的介绍,并分析了目前所面临的问题。