Critical incidents for psychology students in a refugee camp: Implications for counselling

Malawi is host to over one million refugees from the Mozambican war. Although there are no recognized positions for professional counsellors in Malawi, the need for counselling war affected refugees has been recognized. The experience of two psychology students who worked with war affected children is investigated, using the technique of Critical Incidents Analysis. Key characteristics of this work are identified as a means to creating a training curriculum to prepare students for future placement in refugee camps.     

Ethical dilemmas of Turkish counsellors: a critical incidents study

Ethical dilemmas from a national purposive sample of Turkish counsellors (N = 172) were collected using critical incidents technique. Content analysis was performed with open coding guided by the classification of American Counseling Association code of ethics. Incidents regarding confidentiality and privacy (56.4%), with 37.1% involving incidents of reporting child sex abuse, had the highest percentage of prevalence. Dilemmas involving conflicts with school principals ranked second (16.3%), while incidents regarding dual relationships and boundaries (14%) ranked third. Implications for the development of a research-based and culturally sensitive code of counselling ethics in Turkey are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.     

The career resources model: an integrative framework for career counsellors

Changes in the nature of work and organisations have led to an increased need for self-directed career management (SDCM). However, there is no consensus in the literature of what constitutes SDCM and many related concepts have been proposed. Integrating previous research across different conceptualisations of SDCM, the article proposes four critical career resources which are essential for career development in the modern context: human capital resources, social resources, psychological resources and identity resources. Implications of this framework for counselling practice are presented.     

Critical incidents: Life events for experienced family therapists

Summary The results of this investigation suggest that therapists' professional style and clinical use of self patterns are impacted by critical life events occurring in their personal life. Many subjects reflected on how changes in their family constellations (both family of origin and family of procreation) were important to their professional development. They frequently mentioned that marriage, children, divorce, and illness or death of a loved one impacted their personal and, then, their professional lives. The important life events of becoming a parent or losing a significant loved one was specifically mentioned as strongly influencing changes in one's professional direction and therapeutic style.Becoming a parent caused the interviewees to reevaluate their expectations of their own parents, their client families and themselves. Changes in career aspirations, interactional patterns, and the capacity to be consistent and calm were explored and understood differently. Many subjects described how this transition in their own life shifted their primary focus and altered many of their existing relationships. In particular, female therapists with younger children related how their sense of being female changed. They sought out other women for intimate contact more frequently, they understood their own mothers better, and they frequently were less judgmental of mothers in their client families.Along with creating their own families, death of a parent was keynoted as having a strong impact on the subjects' personal and professional lives. They described questioning (and frequently changing) the amount of time they spent working and the type of work they did. Many began to push for more emotionally intense relationships personally and therapeutically. Detailing how their therapeutic goals for a family now included connection-making rather than just problem solving, they described being much more willing to share their vulnerabilities and personal needs with clients.     

Psychological and relationship changes of couples undergoing an infertility investigation: Some implications for counsellors

The emotional and psychological aspects of the experience of infertility have been largely ignored by researchers. A study was accordingly undertaken of 43 infertile couples who were undergoing medical investigation of their fertility problems. Preliminary analysis of the data suggests that the infertility investigation was most stressful for the participants at the time of the initial medical interview, and that distress was greater for those who were themselves identified as having an organic fertility problem. A substantial number of the men and women involved indicated a need for the provision of psychological counselling services. The nature of the most appropriate forms of such help is explored.     

The priest as counsellor: An investigation of critical incidents in the pastoral work of catholic priests

Given the number of priests engaged in the apostolate and considering the interpersonal nature of most of their tasks it is remarkable that despite the number of books and articles written on the priesthood, it appears there has been no attempt to empirically examine and typify the interpersonal context of priestly practice. This paper presents the results of an investigation which was undertaken to identify and analyze what actually happens at the priest-priest and priest-layperson interace apropos interpersonal communication in the pastoral work of catholic priests. The paper provides a picture of critical incidents in interpersonal interactions. It presents a report of the central communication problems in priestly work using an ethnographic approach to sketch and analyze the range of factors which impinge on the interpersonal process. The results indicate that counselling skills form a key part of the day-to-day work of the priest.     

Referring patients to counsellors in primary care: Qualitative investigation of general practitioners’ perceptions

Despite growing evidence of the effectiveness of counselling in primary care, questions arise concerning the role of general practitioners in the referral process. This involves both liaison with counsellors and the management of people who do not wish to see counsellors. Respondents (n=23) in this qualitative study of general practitioners’ perceptions were clear about which patients should be referred to counsellors, based on guidelines. Additionally, these doctors perceived their role and skills as negotiating with their patients about referral to a counsellor, and managing patients who are either waiting to see a counsellor or who prefer not to see a counsellor. These doctors feel inadequately trained in managing this latter group, whose outcome they perceive as unclear. Despite this, respondents accept a role in ongoing support for their patients with consequent training issues for doctors and opportunities for liaison and mentoring by counsellors.     

Discourse analysis: Rich pickings for counsellors and therapists

Aim: It is only relatively recently that discourse analysis has begun to rise to prominence in the fields of counselling and psychotherapy. This paper briefly explains ways of understanding discourse analysis, discussing what the approach can offer counselling research and practice. Approach: An initial categorisation of recent discourse analysis studies is offered, to demonstrate diverse ways in which this type of research can address issues relevant to counselling practice. The five categories proposed range from the examination of language use in therapy to analyses that focus on the social structures, meanings and power relations related to therapy. Implications: The paper demonstrates that through the critical analysis of counselling sessions, research interviews, written texts and other materials, discourse analysis can provide insight into ways in which counselling operates as a social practice, and so help counsellors to contextualise their work within broader social structures and processes.     

Therapeutic change in couples' therapy: Critical change incidents perceived by therapists and clients

Contemporary Family Therapy - Clients' perceptions of change in therapy have been virtually ignored in research on therapeutic change. An initial study was conducted which examined client...     

Evidence based practice: A guide for counsellors and psychotherapists

There has been an increasing tendency for healthcare policy makers and managers to require that all forms of therapy are supported by rigorous research evidence. This paper, which has also been distributed as an Information Sheet to all members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), provides a practitioner‐oriented introduction to evidence‐based practice, with suggestions for further reading on this topic.     

Impact of traumatic incidents on family-of-origin functioning: An empirical study

This pilot study was an attempt to empirically validate some of the clinical observations made about traumatic incidents and families in the literature. The study hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in family functioning between those subjects that reported feeling traumatized and those subjects that did not report feeling traumatized, there would be a significant difference in anxiety between the identified trauma group and the identified non-trauma group, and there would be a significant difference in the breadth of support systems between the two groups. The results indicated that there were significant differences between groups of individuals who were identified as traumatized or non-traumatized. The differences included family functioning, individual feelings of anxiety, and report of familial support systems. The findings of this study were congruent with and supportive of much clinical literature on families and traumatic incidents.     

Patient preferences for psychological counsellors: Evidence of a similarity effect

This study sought to examine the individual difference variables that affect potential patient preferences for hypothetical psychological counsellors. A representative British sample of 257 adults indicated their preferences for eight psychological counsellors differentiated by sex, age, and training location. A five-way mixed analysis of variance (participant sex and age as within variables, and counsellor sex, age, ethnicity as between variables) indicated a significant main effect for only counsellors’ ethnicity. There were also sex and age interactions showing evidence of a matching hypothesis: participants preferred counsellors of their own sex and age. The implications of these findings are considered.     

Life story research: A relevant methodology for counsellors and psychotherapists

Aims: This paper introduces, describes and proposes life story research as an important, relevant and appropriate contribution to counselling and psychotherapy research. It shows how narrative knowledge is created and constructed through the stories people tell about their lived experiences and explores the concept of ‘narrative knowing’ (Bruner, 1986). Methods: Drawing on life story research with people who linked their history of problematic drug use with experiences of historic trauma/abuse, the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion related to the similarities/differences between therapy and research and what we might learn from each that informs the other. Implications for practice: The paper offers narrative ideas and practices as ways of researching matters of social and psychological importance. It suggests that therapists (and counselling researchers) could learn from what participants tell us about the therapeutic value of using life story methods which one participant described as helping him to face ‘out into the world, without unduly or specifically delving into, or focusing on [my] emotional state’. This learning may be particularly relevant for therapists working with traumatised clients.     

Effects of preexposure on stimulus discrimination: An investigation of the mechanisms responsible for human perceptual learning

The effect of preexposure on human perceptual learning was investigated in four experiments. In Experiments 1a and 1b, participants were preexposed to one pair of visual stimuli on an intermixed schedule (AX/BX) and one on a blocked schedule (CX_DX). The ability to discriminate between AX and BX and between CX and DX was then assessed by examining the extent to which key presses assigned to each member of a stimulus pair generalized to the other member (Experiment 1a) and by looking at the accuracy of same–different responses (Experiment 1b). Stimuli were more easily discriminated following intermixed than following blocked preexposure on both the generalization and same–different tasks. This suggests that two stimuli are more perceptually distinct after intermixed preexposure. Experiments 2a and 2b investigated the mechanisms responsible for perceptual learning using same–different tasks. The results support the suggestion that the enhanced discrimination observed after intermixed preexposure is due to increases in the salience of the unique elements.     

Comorbidity of anxiety-depression among Australian university students: implications for student counsellors

ABSTRACT

The incidence, factor structure and scale item differences in anxiety-depression comorbidity were investigated in a sample of Australian university students defined according to the presence of anxiety and/or depression. The incidence of anxiety-depression comorbidity was over 32%, about four times that for anxiety or depression alone. Participants with comorbidity had significantly higher Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) total and factor scores than those with anxiety or depression alone. The major differences between the comorbid and unitary disordered subgroups were for self-disintegration and autonomic arousal. Comorbidity of anxiety and depression is a more serious disorder than either anxiety or depression alone, and appears to exist in large proportions among university students. Assessment and treatment plans might benefit from inclusion of this comorbidity.