No Safe Place

Summary

This article addresses ethical issues associated with the concept of professional and scientific responsibility as related to Principle C, “Integrity” of the APA's 2002 Ethics Code. Differences between aspirational and enforceable ethical standards are noted and contextualized in APA's and other professional society's ethics codes. Three case examples are presented and discussed.     

Transit Space: No Place is Nowhere

This article deals with representations of one specific city, Århus, Denmark, especially its central district. The analysis is based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in Skåde Bakker and Fedet, two well-off neighborhoods. The overall purpose of the project is to study perceptions of space and the interaction of cultural, social, and spatial organizations, as seen from the point of view of people living in Skåde Bakker and Fedet. The focus is on the city dwellers’ representations of the central district of Århus with specific reference to the concept of transit space. When applied to various Århusian locations, this might highlight unforeseen meanings and paradoxes.     

Ethical Issues in Private Practice

Abstract

A psychoanalytic experience with Herb Strean is described as facilitating the author's personal evolution of competencies required for a successful marriage. Rather than focusing on the familiar difficulties that often beset marriage, eight core competencies (capacity for commitment, emotional maturity, tolerance for imperfections, unconscious wisdom, mature dependence, capacity for oedipal success, capacity to face existential realities, and capacity for humor and playfulness) are delineated. Many people develop these competencies from fortunate internalizations of effectively loving parental couples. Others are able to do this via supplemental mentoring experiences. The author's mentoring was received during the course of two psychoanalyses with Herb Strean.     

Private Practice with a Social Conscience

Abstract

A clinician describes her involvement in a non-profit organization that provides low-cost psychotherapy using the volunteer services of clinical social workers in private practice.     

No Place for a Woman: Evidence for Gender Bias in Evaluations of Presidential Candidates

In the 110th Congress, 16% of United State Senators are women. In contrast, the role of President of the United States of America has always been occupied by a man. As such, being a man is the one common attribute to all successful presidential candidates, rendering “male” a necessary qualification for the role. The gender-incongruency hypothesis predicts that gender bias is less likely in domains such as the Senate where women are relatively more prevalent. However, in the case of the presidency, the potential exists for gender bias against women presidential candidates. Using an experimental, single-candidate, design we tested the hypotheses that young voters would similarly evaluate a man and woman candidate for Senate (Study 1) but negatively evaluate a presidential candidate's resume ascribed to a woman, compared to the same resume ascribed to a man (Study 2). Results confirmed the gender-incongruency hypothesis and suggest that although bias may be less evident in evaluations of some Senate candidates, gender bias remains a significant obstacle for women presidential candidates.     

God-language in Public and Private Prayer: A Place for Integrating Gender,Sexuality and Faith

Abstract

Drawing on feminist liturgical critiques of prayer, Audre Lorde's notion of the erotic and Carter Heyward's relational theology, amongst other feminist, Womanist, Black and queer sources, this article proposes that prayer via gendered and erotic images of God and Christ may be a site for the integration of gender, sexuality and faith — not only in the life of the individual but in the wider body politic. The notion of integration is problematized alongside heteropatriarchal practices of prayer, and an eschatological understanding of prayer and identity offered. The article argues for prayer which engages with a multiplicity of embodied, erotic and queer images of God (and particularly Christ), as necessary to the complex work of personal and political integration with which prayer is charged as well as gesturing towards the fullness and mystery of God who both inhabits and transcends the limitations of metaphorical discourse about the divine.     

Why Social Workers Enter Private Practice:

This article describes the results of a nationwide survey which investigated private practice among clinical social workers and the factors which motivated them. The survey also explores opinions about the qualifications which social workers should meet before entering private practice.     

No Place to Hide: When Shame Causes Proselfs to Cooperate

Shame is considered a social emotion with action tendencies that elicit socially beneficial behavior. Yet, unlike other social emotions, prior experimental studies do not indicate that incidental shame boosts prosocial behavior. Based on the affect as information theory, we hypothesize that incidental feelings of shame can increase cooperation, but only for self-interested individuals, and only in a context where shame is relevant with regards to its action tendency. To test this hypothesis, cooperation levels are compared between a simultaneous prisoner's dilemma (where “defect” may result from multiple motives) and a sequential prisoner's dilemma (where “second player defect” is the result of intentional greediness). As hypothesized, shame positively affected proselfs in a sequential prisoner's dilemma. Hence ashamed proselfs become inclined to cooperate when they believe they have no way to hide their greediness, and not necessarily because they want to make up for earlier wrong-doing.     

Expanding Treatment for the Elderly: Counseling in a Private Medical Practice

The exploding elderly population demands expanded services in new settings. A primary care practice invites unique opportunities for counseling geriatric patients with psychosocial concerns.     

Counselors in Private Practice: A Survey Report

A questionnaire was mailed to every marriage counselor, child guidance specialist, and psychologist listed in the yellow pages of Florida telephone directories. The replies were used to describe the profession of private practice counseling. Sixty-seven percent of the sample replied. It was found that several professions offer counseling as a service, but there is not yet an established profession of private practice counseling.     

Attitudes Toward Private Practice in Social Work:

This article, based upon a study examining attitudes of social workers toward private practice, describes social work educators and nonprivate clinical social workers as having some inaccurate perceptions of the private practitioner. Private practitioners do want to remain identified with social work although they are frequently dissatisfied with the profession. Findings are also described which reveal a "tension" all social workers may feel in their attempt to integrate personal goals with professional values and beliefs.     

How to Conduct Research in Your Private Practice

Mental health professionals who work in private practice and other clinical settings have huge opportunities to contribute to the science of our field. But they rarely do so. This article describes ways that practitioners who have research training can capitalize on recent developments in practice, science, and technology to conduct research in their private practice. I describe a model for conducting research as a practitioner that entails tightly integrating the research into clinical practice, and I point out why conducting research in your private practice is worth doing. The remainder of the paper provides a primer, describing strategies for implementing in a clinical setting all the elements of the research enterprise: addressing ethical and legal issues, keeping up to date with the scientific literature, selecting a good research question, conducting a single-case experimental design, finding collaborators and assistants, collecting the data, analyzing the data, writing the paper and getting it published, and handling time and money. Although this paper focuses on research in a solo or group private practice setting, many of the strategies described here can also prove useful in the conduct of research in hospital or community settings.     

Dynamics and Techniques of Group Psychotherapy in Private Practice

In rearing a mentally retarded child, parents are confronted with a number of taxing stresses and problems. As a result, many in this parent population need and could benefit from a social support network. Unfortunately, such networks often do not exist or parents make no effort to join them. One seemingly useful means of providing a facilitative social system for parents of retardates is via the support group. In this article, two support groups—each developed to assist parents in adjusting to their retarded children—are described. Also, the process stages of these groups are discussed.     

How to Fail in Private Practice: 13 Easy Steps

Because the many burdens of establishing and maintaining a private practice can sometimes feel heavy, this article is offered as a catalyst for lightening up a bit. Having learned from making some form of each of these 13 mistakes, the author humbly presents them to readers with tongue in cheek.