Counselling with Biofeedback: A Review

Biofeedback increasingly appears to be used as an aid to specified counselling goals. A typical counselling situation using galvanic skin reflex (skin biofeedback) is analysed. The ethical and practical challenges involved in biofeedback-aided counselling are considered.     

A personal view: Counselling and women

This personal view explores a number of gender issues relating to counselling and women clients. Attention is drawn to the lack of content of many training courses in the psychology, sociology and biology of women. Links are drawn between a woman's position in society and mental health. It is argued that counsellors need to be alert and sensitive to women's special needs and to avoid an emphasis on intra-psychic aspects at the expense of acknowledgment of societal pressures.     

Computer-Assisted Careers Counselling: A New Approach

This paper describes the outcome of a research and development project concerned to construct a computer aid for careers advisers and career decision-makers which differs in basic philosophy and design from others currentiy in the field. The resulting Careers Decision Aiding System (CDAS) is principally concerned with improving the quality of the decision-making strategy employed by clients by raising their awareness of the way in which their career choice is made, ratherthan with employing computer technology to attempt to match people to careers. The use of the CDAS by clients and careers advisers is illustrated by two case-studies.     

Counselling in general practice: A review

The development of counselling has brought enthusiastic attempts to pioneer its application to a diversity of fields. One obvious target has been primary-care and the general practitioner's surgery, where there has been an increase in demand for help with 'life-problems' and a growing reluctance to prescribe drugs of doubtful benefit. The need for both time and expertise to respond appropriately has made counsellors welcome additions to many surgery teams. However, different professions and volunteer groups compete for the role; each cites evidence of its own appropriateness, rarely acknowledging, and never assessing, the contributions of others. Hence this attempt to bring together the findings of these disparate groups to demonstrate their undoubted similarities and to assess the value of 'counselling' intervention in general practice.     

Counselling foreign students: A review of strategies

This article focuses on the unique counselling needs of foreign students as reflected from a review of the literature. As more and more students from developing countries opt to further their education in the West, knowledge about counselling foreign students is of increasing interest. Distinctive aspects of foreign student clients and the typical problems faced by them are described. The issues which need to be addressed and the competencies which need to be developed in order to effectively counsel foreign students are discussed. Finally, specific strategies for counselling foreign students are suggested in the context of general guidelines for cross-cultural counselling.     

Counselling adolescents of immigrant parents: A transcultural approach

Adolescence is a difficult time for most children, but even more complex for the adolescents coming from immigrant families. Immigrant is a vague, broad concept and is difficult to define. Not all immigrants experience financial, psychological and social adjustment in the same way. In this paper it refers to the ones who experience ‘cultural misunderstanding’ characterized by social isolation, social confusion and deep general uncertainty. The paper focuses on some of the general aspects of the lack of appropriate support that the offspring of immigrant parents experience. A brief outline is given to show the attempt made by the Intercultural Therapy Centre (NAFSIYAT) to provide a transcultural therapeutic milieu for the adolescents from immigrant parents.     

Counselling breast cancer patients: A specialist nurse service

The evaluation of a specialist nurse-counselling service is described. Forty newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, treated by mastectomy, were randomised to receive either routine care or routine care plus counselling by a nurse. Psychological morbidity was assessed at one week, 3 months and 12 months postoperatively to determine the efficacy of this service. Comparisons between the groups indicated that counselled patients were significantly less depressed at 3 months postoperatively and reported more beliefs in personal control over health. At 12 months postoperatively there were no significant differences between the groups. Although both groups continued to adjust throughout the year following surgery, this adjustment occurred more rapidly if patients were counselled. The results suggest that a nurse-counselling service can be of value in helping to reduce the amount of distress experienced as a result of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.     

Counselling psychology in primary health care: A review

This paper reviews the development of counselling psychology within the field of primary health care. Issues discussed include liaison between counselling psychologists and other professionals, evaluation of treatment in primary care, family therapy in general practice and general practitioners’ skills in counselling. The need for training and evaluation of counselling are discussed and suggestions are made for further research.     

The Functioning of British Counselling Hotlines: A Pilot Study

A role-player called ten counselling hotlines and presented them with a personal problem. According to the writer's assessment, the hotlines functioned at levels varying from good to less than minimally facilitative.     

Spirituality in Counselling: A View from the Other Side

Some clients will already be aware of a spiritual dimension when they come to counselling, and others may become aware during the course of it. Counsellors should be able to work with either situation, or should refer the client to a more suitable colleague. Spiritual awareness may develop gradually or be very sudden; the two ways could be likened to 'karma' and 'redemption', and each has particular virtues and difficulties. The author's own experience demonstrates some of the qualities of the sudden, or visionary, way. The interface between the psychological and spiritual dimensions is the natural and obvious next area for exploration and clarification, and counsellors have an important role in this work.     

The Use of Modelling in Career Counselling: A Case-Study

Through the presentation of a case-study, two issues are addressed: the application of modelling to career counselling and the generalisation of counselling effects. The case-history is presented of a client who was failing in nursing. Modelling was used to reduce the fear and to enable the client to implement her career plan. Particular attention is focused on the initiation of modelling, the use of a modelling hierarchy, the self-efficacy mechanism, the use of mental rehearsal, and the implications of reciprocal determinism for counselling. It is concluded that modelling may be an effective technique for career-development problems. Further, modelling may enable the effective transfer and generalisation of coping strategies.     

Rehabilitation Counselling: The Development of a New Course Specialism in British Counselling

The introduction of rehabilitation counselling to the UK in 1990-initially as a diploma and now as an MSc—is described. The worldwide development of rehabilitation counselling from its beginnings in America in the 1950s is outlined, highlighting key areas of debate. Evidence of the need for rehabilitation counselling in the UK is presented, and the current course is described with reference to its integrative counselling approach and specialist areas of enquiry. The future development of rehabilitation counselling in the UK is considered, emphasising the need for this specialism as we move towards more holistic models of care.     

Pastoral Counselling

The beginnings of the modern pastoral-care and counselling movement in the 1960s are reviewed, in particular, the attempt to integrate theology with the behavioural sciences, and the theories born of that integration with the practice of pastors and religious leaders. The developments of the last ten years are explored and the tensions of the movement analysed. Pastoral counsellors' contribution to counselling in general in the United Kingdom, and to pastoral ministry both here and overseas, is assessed.     

Counselling Under Apartheid: A Response to Dryden's Interview with Swart

In this reply to Dryden (1990), the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Society for Student Counselling in Southern Africa (SSCSA) discusses the Committee's awareness of local socio-political influences on student counselling, as well as ongoing initiatives to meet these influences. Such initiatives are firmly seen to be steps in the direction of providing a base for future development.