DOES "FEMINIST" PLUS "THERAPIST" EQUAL "FEMINIST THERAPIST"?

This research examined the therapy behaviors self-identified feminist therapists engaged in. Practicing therapists (N = 101) were asked to endorse various feminist self-labels and to indicate how often they engaged in a variety of feminist (as assessed by the Feminist Therapy Behaviors-Revised [FTB-R] scale; and other therapy behaviors with both women and men clients. The following results were found. First, incrementally specific feminist self-labeling by therapists improved the prediction of therapy behaviors reflecting the notion that the personal is political. Second, the most strongly identified feminist therapists were distinguished from other therapists by their attention to issues of oppression (e.g., sexism, racism, heterosexism) and socialization. Third, therapists reported engaging in FTB-R behaviors with men clients almost as much as with women clients. And finally, FTB-R and other therapy behaviors emerged as distinct, both in terms of the underlying structure of therapists' responses and in terms of the links to feminist self-labeling.     

Self-Disclosure and the Therapeutic Frame: Concerns for Novice Practitioners

Under the influence of the intersubjective or relational perspective, guidelines for establishing the therapeutic frame in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are undergoing modification. Therapeutic interventions such as disclosing subjective reactions have a sound theoretical basis, but they must be executed judiciously within a context of general neutrality, anonymity, and abstinence. Novice practitioners ought not attempt the more difficult relational interventions until they have acquired experience and security in the basic tenets of psychoanalytic practice, including how to maintain the traditional therapeutic frame. Inexperience in knowing when and under what circumstances to attempt self-disclosure of therapist affect, and insecurity in examining one's countertransference, have the potential to exacerbate enactments and entanglements for beginning therapists, as is illustrated in a case example.     

Feminism and group psychotherapy: an ethical responsibility.

In response to Martin Lakin's (1991) IJGP article, "Some Ethical Issues in Feminist-Oriented Therapy Groups for Women," this article examines recent developments in feminist theory and proposes that a feminist perspective is both ethical and can make significant contributions to the practice of group psychotherapy. The overview of feminist theory focuses on (1) the importance of the social context, (2) contributions and challenges to psychoanalytic and developmental theory, (3) attention to power relations, (4) the connection between the personal and political, and (5) recognition and integration of diversity and difference. Clinical examples illustrate ways in which male and female group therapists can take a feminist perspective and become "ethical advocates."     

Sex differences in self-disclosure: a meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 205 studies involving 23,702 Ss was conducted to determine whether there are sex differences in self-disclosure. Across these studies, women disclosed slightly more than men (d = .18). This effect size was not homogeneous across studies. Several moderator variables were found. Sex of target and the interaction effect of relationship to target and measure of self-disclosure moderated the effect of sex on self-disclosure. Sex differences in self-disclosure were significantly greater to female and same-sex partners than to opposite-sex or male partners. When the target had a relationship with the discloser (i.e., friend, parent, or spouse), women disclosed more than men regardless of whether self-disclosure was measured by self-report or observation. When the target was a stranger, men reported that they disclosed similarly to women; however, studies using observational measures of self-disclosure found that women disclosed more than men.     

Therapists' Use of DBT: A Survey Study of Clinical Practice

The purpose of this study was to examine how therapists conduct Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) individual psychotherapy with clients, focusing on clinical factors that could account for decisions regarding modifications of DBT (e.g., client diagnosis, therapist theoretical orientation, and intensity of DBT training). Additionally, the study investigated how therapists integrate DBT into their primary approach to therapy. Greater adherence to the DBT protocol was reported by therapists who described using DBT with a client with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. More frequent use of DBT components (i.e., group skills training, consultation teams, and telephone consultation) was reported by therapists who viewed their therapy as being guided by an applied behavior analysis/radical behavioral theoretical orientation and by therapists who had received intensive DBT training. Most therapists reported using DBT skills in their non-DBT work, with non-cognitive-behavioral therapists more likely to introduce mindfulness skills.     

Instagram Use and Self-Objectification: The Roles of Internalization,Comparison, Appearance Commentary,and Feminism

The current study examined potential mediators (i.e., internalization of cultural standards of beauty, engaging in upward and downward appearance comparison, and receiving positive and negative appearance-related commentary), moderators (i.e., feminist beliefs), and moderated mediation of the links between Instagram (an electronic way to share visual images) use and self-objectification and body surveillance among 492 undergraduate women from the Southeast United States. Results revealed that internalization of cultural standards of beauty and engaging in upward appearance comparison uniquely mediated Instagram usage and self-objectification and body surveillance links. Additionally, findings from the moderation analyses indicated that the direct effect of Instagram usage on body surveillance was contingent on feminist beliefs, such that this relationship was only significant among women with lower and moderate feminist beliefs. This finding suggests that higher feminist beliefs play a buffering or protective role whereas lower feminist beliefs play an intensifying role. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

The use of self-disclosure among Swedish psychotherapists

Although self-disclosure, when handled with discretion, is often seen as an important intervention in many psychotherapy orientations, including psychodynamic as well as humanistic and cognitive-behavioral approaches, many psychotherapists seem reluctant to use it. The frequency and type of those interventions from psychotherapists of different orientations is less well known. In this study, a random sample of Swedish psychotherapists was asked about their use of different types of self-disclosing information. The results showed that therapists with CBT orientation told their clients more about their training and about their personal ways of handling affective-relational issues. It was apparent that the trend toward more use of self-disclosure in relational psychodynamic treatment has not been accepted among a large number of psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in Sweden. It is recommended that psychotherapists inform their clients more about their training and in appropriate ways share more with their clients about their own relational experiences. Doing so may help enhance clients’ hope and their ability to address their ongoing difficulties.     

The relationship between three types of aggression and peer relations in elementary school children

Previous studies have repeatedly found that aggression causes various internalizing and externalizing problems. Despite the robust relationship, exactly how aggression causes these problems remains unclear, although it is plausible to postulate that this occurs both directly and indirectly (via other behavioural factors). One possible indirect factor might be the aggravation of peer relations. The poor peer relations of aggressive children could make them isolated psychologically or physically from peers, which in turn might result in depressive or disruptive problems. This study examined the relationships between three types of aggression and peer relations in Japanese elementary school children. The three aggression types comprised reactive-expressive (i.e., verbal and physical aggression), reactive-inexpressive (e.g., hostility), and proactive-relational aggression (i.e., aggression that can break human relationships, for instance, by circulating malicious rumours). Participants were 1581 children in grades 4 to 6 (752 boys and 829 girls), all of whom completed the Proactive-Reactive Aggression Questionnaire for Children to measure three types of aggression and the Peer Relation Questionnaire to measure peer relations (mutual understanding, self-disclosure, and similarity of taste) and number of friends. Hierarchical regression analyses of the data showed that higher scores of relational aggression were significantly associated with higher scores of all of the peer relations and the number of friends, and that higher scores of inexpressive aggression were significantly associated with lower scores of all except for self-disclosure in the peer relations. These findings suggest that among the three types of aggression, relational aggression leads to the best friendship in both dyadic relations and the number of friends, whereas inexpressive aggression to the poorest friendship. The implications of these findings with respect to internalizing and externalizing problem behaviours for aggressive children are discussed.     

Die verbale Aktivit?t in therapeutischen Dialogen

The discourse in psychotherapeutic treatment is less specific than usually expected so the question arises whether different therapy methods are different in the style of communication. In this study the verbal activity and other characteristics of the discourse of therapist and patient for sessions from two psychoanalytic, two psychodynamic and two cognitive behavior therapies were compared. Psychoanalytic therapists were found to talk the least and behavior therapists the most. Patients talk nearly the same amount in all therapies. As therapists of psychoanalytic treatment talk less than behavior therapists the percentage of patient talking is highest in psychoanalytic therapy. Further formal characteristics: statements are the most frequent form of intervention in behavior therapy (51?%), followed by psychodynamic (36?%) and psychoanalytic therapy (27?%). The most frequent form of intervention in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapy is listening, whereas it is only a small part of communication in behavior therapy. Questions are asked most often in behavior therapy. Hence there are significant differences which correspond to the theory of treatment, between the three methods in discourse behavior on a single case level.     

Precursors and Underlying Processes of Adolescents' Online Self-Disclosure: Developing and Testing an “Internet-Attribute-Perception” Model

This study developed and tested an “Internet-attribute-perception” model that explains how self-disclosure develops in instant messaging (IM) interactions. Following hyperpersonal communication theory, two attributes of computer-mediated communication (i.e., reduced nonverbal cues and controllability) were assumed to be responsible for increased online self-disclosure in IM. However, our model posed that any actual effects of these attributes would depend on users' perceptions of the relevance of these attributes. Furthermore, our model posed that these perceptions would mediate the relationship between personality characteristics (i.e., pri vate and public self-consciousness, and social anxiety) and online self-disclosure. Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 1,203 Dutch adolescents, we found that adolescents' perceptions of the relevance of reduced nonverbal cues and controllability encouraged their feelings of disinhibition, which in turn increased their online self-disclosure. As expected, private and public self-consciousness and social anxiety stimulated adolescents' perceptions of the relevance of reduced nonverbal cues and controllability, but did not directly influence online self-disclosure. The study shows the vital role of users' perceptions of CMC attributes in Internet-effects research.     

Effects of Administrator and Participant Sex and Ethnicity on Self-Disclosure

Self-disclosure patterns of Anglo-Americans and Mexican Americans were analyzed according to overall frequency of reported self-disclosure and preferred targets (i.e., mother, father, male friend, female friend). Administrator sex and ethnicity were systematically varied so that the interaction of these variables with participant sex and ethnicity could be investigated. Results revealed that Anglo-Americans reported the most disclosure and Mexican-American men the least. Some suggestions are provided for counselors working with Mexican-American men.     

WHAT'S IN A LABEL? JUDGMENTS OF FEMINIST MEN AND FEMINIST WOMEN

Although significant progress has been made on research concerning stereotypes of feminist women, very little is known about the stereotypes of feminist men. College students rated one of four terms—"feminist man,""feminist woman,""man," or "woman." Compared to "feminist woman,""feminist man" was evaluated more positively, but as less potent (i.e., lower in stereotypically masculine characteristics) and less heterosexual. Although feminist man had the highest evaluative ratings of the four terms and was rated similarly in confidence to woman and man, compared to the other terms it was rated low in attractiveness and potency. These results suggest that at least on some dimensions a feminist man's masculinity may be questioned, which in turn may be a hindrance to men in adopting the feminist label.     

The clinical representativeness of couple therapy outcome research

The clinical representativeness of outcome studies is defined as the generalizability of recruitment processes, assessment/diagnostic procedures, treatment protocols, and therapeutic results from research settings to naturalistic treatment settings. The main goal of the present study was to examine the clinical representativeness of couple therapy in outcome studies. The data set was formed by 50 published clinical trials, including 34 couple therapy outcome studies for marital distress (CTMD) and 16 couple therapy outcome studies for comorbid relational and mental disorders (CTMD + C). The present findings showed that, overall, the clinical representativeness of couple therapy outcome studies is only fair (i.e., the mean global score is slightly lower than the midpoint of the rating scale used to assess representativeness). CTMD + C studies fared better than CTMD studies on many dimensions of clinical relevance. Studies in which pretherapy training was less intensive (for CTMD studies only), treatment was less structured, and therapists were more experienced showed larger effect sizes than those in which such was not the case.     

Women’s preference of therapist based on sex of therapist and presenting problem: An analog study

An analog study was conducted to examine differences in women’s preference for and anticipated comfort self-disclosing to hypothetical therapists of different sexes based on the type of hypothetical presenting problem. The impact of general level of self-disclosure was also examined. Participants included female college students (n?=?187). Anticipated comfort self-disclosing to male or female therapist was rated by subjects when presented with therapists of each sex with the same qualifications. Women preferred and reported higher levels of anticipated comfort self-disclosing to a female therapist. The type of hypothetical presenting problem and general level of self-disclosure also impacted anticipated comfort self-disclosing. There was an interaction between general level self-disclosure and the sex of therapist on anticipated comfort self-disclosing. General level of self-disclosure only impacted anticipated comfort self-disclosing when the therapist was male. This information is relevant for therapists or organizations that provide psychosocial services to women. Organizations may want to inquire about a client’s preferences about sex of therapist beforehand and, if possible, cater to the client’s preference.     

Relations Among Dimensions of Feminism and Internalized Heterosexism in Lesbians and Bisexual Women

This study was designed to examine the relations among dimensions of feminism and internalized heterosexism in 227 lesbian and bisexual women. In addition, psychometric support for 2 newly created multiple-item scales, Self-Identification as a Feminist (SIF) and Involvement in Feminist Activities Scale (IFAS), is provided. Results indicate that internalized heterosexism is correlated significantly with most of the feminist dimensions assessed in this study (i.e., self-identification as a feminist, involvement in feminist activities, attitudes toward feminism, feminist identity development, and various feminist ideologies). Interesting relations among feminist identity development and feminist ideologies were found. In addition, involvement in feminist activities was uniquely predicted by self-identification as a feminist and the Embeddedness-Emanation and Active Commitment dimensions of feminist identity development. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Predictors and Correlates of Collective Action

Social identity theory suggests that feminist identity should predict engagement in collective action on behalf of women. We examined predictors of collective action by asking female college students (N = 215) to complete a set of questionnaires that measure life experiences, beliefs about feminism and collective action, feminist self-labeling, and involvement in women-focused collective activities. Life experiences (i.e., having a feminist mother, having taken a women's studies class, and having experienced sex discrimination), feminist attitudes and beliefs, feminist self-labeling, and belief in collective action were positively correlated with collective action, whereas conservatism was negatively correlated with collective action. A logistic stepwise regression revealed that the Synthesis stage of feminist identity development was the only variable that uniquely contributed to predicting feminist activism.     

Convergence,commonality, and context in psychoanalytic supervision

ABSTRACT

What are the binding commonalities that demark and define any and all psychoanalytic supervision perspectives? What do we all do as psychoanalytic supervisors that practically matters? Furthermore, might there be a unifying model that anchors those binding commonalities together into a supervision meaning-making, explanatory framework? In this two-part paper, I take up those questions. In Part I, based on a century-spanning literature review, I identify 50 (non-exhaustive) common Support and Learning factors that appear present across the panoply of psychoanalytic supervision perspectives. Relational, educational, and interventional, these 50 factors reflect the very stuff of which psychoanalytic supervision is made. In Part II, I present and elaborate upon the Contextual Psychoanalytic Supervision Relationship Model (CPSRM) – a theoretically-grounded model that anchors and contextualizes those common Support and Learning factors. Because common factors can be seen as nothing more than atheoretical amalgamation (i.e., lists of desirable characteristics endlessly strung together), the CPSRM is proposed as a theoretically-based antidote. A supervisory extrapolation of Wampold’s contextual psychotherapy relationship model, the CPSRM accentuates relational connection, expectations/goals, and educational action as preeminently supervisee change inducing and learner affecting.     

What Happens After the Demonstration Phase? The Sustainability of Canada's At Home/Chez Soi Housing First Programs for Homeless Persons with Mental Illness

This research examined the sustainability of Canada's At Home/Chez Soi Housing First (HF) programs for homeless persons with mental illness 2 years after the end of the demonstration phase of a large (more than 2000 participants enrolled), five‐site, randomized controlled trial. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 142 participants (key informants, HF staff, and persons with lived experience) to understand sustainability outcomes and factors that influenced those outcomes. Also, a self‐report HF fidelity measure was completed for nine HF programs that continued after the demonstration project. A cross‐site analysis was performed, using the five sites as case studies. The findings revealed that nine of the 12 HF programs (75%) were sustained, and that seven of the nine programs reported a high level of fidelity (achieving an overall score of 3.5 or higher on a 4‐point scale). The sites varied in terms of the level of systems integration and expansion of HF that were achieved. Factors that promoted or impeded sustainability were observed at multiple ecological levels: broad contextual (i.e., dissemination of research evidence, the policy context), community (i.e., partnerships, the presence of HF champions), organizational (i.e., leadership, ongoing training, and technical assistance), and individual (i.e., staff turnover, changes, and capacity). The findings are discussed in terms of the implementation science literature and their implications for how evidence‐based programs like HF can be sustained.     

'No-show': therapist racial/ethnic disparities in client unilateral termination

In the present study, the authors examined the source of racial/ethnic minority (REM) disparities in unilateral termination (i.e., the client ending therapy without informing the therapist)--a form of dropout that is associated with poor alliance and outcome. First, the authors tested whether some therapists were more likely to have clients who reported unilaterally terminating as compared with other therapists. Next, the authors examined 2 competing hypotheses regarding the therapists role in termination disparities: (a) that racial/ethnic disparities in unilateral termination are similar across therapists and thus due to other components of the treatment process or (b) that racial/ethnic disparities in unilateral termination are specific to therapists, where some therapists are more likely, on average, to have higher rates of unilateral termination with REM clients as compared with White clients. The sample included 155 REM clients and 177 White clients who were treated by 44 therapists at a university counseling center. The results showed that therapists accounted for a significant proportion of the variation in clients' unilateral termination, and REM clients were more likely to report they unilaterally terminated from therapy as compared with White clients. Furthermore, racial/ethnic disparities in clients' report of unilateral termination varied across therapists' caseloads. These results suggest that therapists have a central role in their clients' unilateral termination and have implications for understanding racial/ethnic mental health disparities.     

Dynamic Simulation and Static Matching for Action Prediction: Evidence From Body Part Priming

Accurately predicting other people's actions may involve two processes: internal real‐time simulation (dynamic updating) and matching recently perceived action images (static matching). Using a priming of body parts, this study aimed to differentiate the two processes. Specifically, participants played a motion‐controlled video game with either their arms or legs. They then observed arm movements of a point‐light actor, which were briefly occluded from view, followed by a static test pose. Participants judged whether this test pose depicted a coherent continuation of the previously seen action (i.e., “action prediction task”). Evidence of dynamic updating was obtained after compatible effector priming (i.e., arms), whereas incompatible effector priming (i.e., legs) indicated static matching. Together, the results support action prediction as engaging two distinct processes, dynamic simulation and static matching, and indicate that their relative contributions depend on contextual factors like compatibility of body parts involved in performed and observed action.