Intensive Gestalt Group Therapy with Schizophrenics

Abstract

Teaching group therapy is an essential aspect of graduate studies within the helping professions. Existing models discuss four basic elements required for such training: experience, observation, supervised practice, and theory. The present paper offers a model for a group therapy seminar based on these four elements and organized along developmental concepts. Clinical observations of 120 psychology students who participated in the seminar were gathered over a five-year period. Teaching techniques included supervised observation, fish-bowl, one-way mirror, and a final paper integrating theory and practice. The seminar enabled students to practice and to theorize about group processes, both as participants and as co-leaders. Seminar outcomes and conclusions are discussed.     

Group Psychotherapy and Rehabilitation of Long-Stay Patients

Abstract

Bulimia is a complex disorder that can significantly interfere with psychosocial functioning. It is a particularly significant problem among adolescents and young women in college and university settings. The preponderance of literature on group therapeutic approaches for this disorder is from a cognitive–behavioral perspective. In this paper, we present a psychodynamic group therapy approach for female university students, informed specifically by self psychological and relational frameworks. Through clinical illustrations, we demonstrate how the group provides selfobject experiences, including mirroring, idealizing, twinship, and adversarial experiences, and how the group becomes the arena through which group members can experience, express, and understand emotions. The interpersonal context of the group uniquely provides opportunities for members to examine their bulimic symptoms in relation to interactions that take place outside of or within the group.     

Transforming career stories through poetry: a group-based career counselling intervention

ABSTRACT

Contemplating the school to work transition in the insecure and unpredictable twenty-first century world of work can be anxiety inducing for college students. Consequently, college students may develop disempowered career stories in which they feel ill prepared to explore career prospects or engage with the world of work. This paper describes a career counselling intervention aimed at transforming the disempowered career stories of college students into more empowered versions. Grounded in career construction theory and designed as a group modality, the intervention employs poetry therapy to enhance the development of internally defined and motivated career stories among the group participants. Although this paper highlights the Kenyan context, the intervention itself can easily be adapted to other contexts.     

Changing Polish university students’ attitudes toward cluttering

PurposeThis quasi-experimental design study in Poland explored the extent to which attitudes toward cluttering of university students could be changed or improved after a series of activities dedicated to attaining deeper recognition of problems associated with fluency disorders.MethodUniversity students were assigned to either an Experimental or a Control group, with 39 in each (total = 78). They all completed the Polish version of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Cluttering (POSHA–Cl) on two occasions up to eight weeks apart.Participants in the Experimental group attended the following intervention activities: watching and discussing an educational video on cluttering, participating in a workshop on the nature of cluttering, and watching and discussing a documentary on the life experiences of people struggling with fluency disorders. The Experimental group also filled out an open-ended questionnaire at the end of the study.ResultsPre-intervention comparisons indicated that participants assigned to either of the Experimental or Control groups differed significantly on 2 of the 15 summary ratings (13 %) of their pre-POSHA–Cl attitudes toward cluttering. For the Experimental group, the intervention resulted in significant positive changes in cluttering attitudes on 8 of the 15 summary ratings (53 %). In contrast, pre- and post- POSHA–Cl scores for the Control group were essentially unchanged (0 of 15 ratings).ConclusionsThis quasi-experimental study demonstrated that it is possible to positively modify the cluttering attitudes of university students. This has implications for the length, content, and experiential components of interventions designed to improve public attitudes toward fluency disorders.     

A short-term grief and loss therapy group: Group members' experiences

Abstract

This article is an evaluative study of a short-term grief and loss therapy group conducted at a large Midwestern university's counseling center. The group was held for students who had experienced loss through death of a significant person. The author examines brief group psychotherapy, special considerations of the college student's grief experience, an adaptation of the brief group model for grieving students, and data gathered from the members of the therapy group. Students' scores on a grief instrument showed mixed results. Group members made journal entries at four times during the group experience. They reported that the group was a supportive and helpful experience; five of Yalom's (1995) eleven therapeutic factors could be discerned. Recommendations regarding the treatment of grieving students in a group setting are made.     

Do the benefits from autonomy-supportive PE teacher training programs endure?: A one-year follow-up investigation

ObjectiveAn earlier study (Cheon, Reeve, & Moon, 2012) showed wide-ranging benefits from a training program designed to help teachers be more autonomy-supportive toward students during PE instruction. The present study collected a follow-up data set to determine whether those earlier-observed benefits endured one year later.DesignWe used an experimentally-based 3-wave longitudinal design. The experimental group consisted of 8 PE teachers from the original teacher training study and their 470 middle- and high-school students; the control group consisted of 9 matched PE teachers and their 483 students. Dependent measures included 3 manipulation checks, 3 measures of student motivation, and 6 course-specific outcomes.MethodTrained raters scored teachers' instructional behaviors at mid-semester, while students reported perceptions of their teachers' motivating style and their own course-related motivation and outcomes at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester. We tested our hypotheses using hierarchical linear modeling to account for the hierarchical structure of data in which repeated measures were nested within students who were nested within teachers.ResultsCompared to teachers in the control group, teachers in the experimental group were scored by raters and perceived by students as more autonomy supportive and less controlling. Their students consistently reported greater motivation and more positive outcomes than did the students of teachers in the control group. All 8 teachers in the experimental group reported being significantly more autonomy supportive than a year earlier.ConclusionTeacher- and student-related benefits from the earlier autonomy-supportive training program endured.     

Beliefs About Overcoming Psychological Problems Among British and Japanese Students

Abstract

This study was part of a series investigating lay attributions for the cure of psychological problems. Three groups of students–Japanese students in Japan, Japanese students studying in England, and British students–completed a questionnaire and rated the perceived efficacy of 24 different strategies for overcoming each of 5 psychological problems: agoraphobia, depression, smoking cessation, lack of confidence, and obesity. Factor analysis of the curative strategies revealed 5 interpretable factors, the first 3 of which were Professional Help, Inner Control, and Understanding. There were numerous cultural differences between the British group and both Japanese groups in their written ratings of strategies, particularly professional help, for each psychological problem.     

The Prison of My Mind

Abstract

This paper describes the process of two groups of students from high schools located in the immediate vicinity of the World Trade Center grappling to make sense of the events of September 11 through the creation of a documentary chronicling their experiences. The process of creating these videos mirrored the process and curative factors of a psychotherapy group in a non–stigmatizing, innovative, and accessible format, one generated by the students themselves with the assistance of professionals in the visual and performing arts.

After reviewing the literature on the potential impact of violence on adolescents and the use of group treatment, especially in school settings, as an optimal choice for this population, we describe the distinctive process of the two separate groups of students, each culminating in different expressions of their very personal experience of September 11. We understand and contextualize their process through the lens of the therapeutic dynamics and elements of group work.     

Effects of an early reading intervention based on grapho-syllabic decoding and fluency training in French elementary schools

IntroductionStudies conducted in recent decades have led to the development of instructional interventions to help prevent or eliminate a large proportion of reading difficulties. However, few experiments have been conducted in French schools.ObjectiveAims for this research were to create, implement and evaluate a remediation program for French students with reading difficulties up to the end of elementary school.MethodThis paper examines the effects of a decoding-skills and fluency-based intervention on 133 struggling readers in second- to fifth-grade. Depending on the nature of their reading difficulties, students were given a year-long training based either on grapho-syllabic conversion — focusing on syllable units, rather than phonemic units, is considered a promising way of helping French-speaking beginning readers — or on repeated reading techniques, used to improve fluency.ResultsIncreases in written-word identification scores were greater for students who followed the program than they were for a control group of 184 students with reading difficulties who did not follow the program.ConclusionThe results show that programs combining early evaluation of written-word identification abilities followed by a year-long series of remediation sessions focusing on specific difficulties can help students progress in written-word identification. However, further research is needed to examine why our program was less effective with children from disadvantaged (“éducation prioritaire”) areas.     

Group psychotherapy in a school setting for adolescent children of alchoholics

Adolescents experiencing personal difficulties commonly evidence their problems while in school. Group psychotherapy within the school setting can be an effective means of helping an adolescent subject to stress at home. Parental alcoholism is the problem shared by a group composed of six students led by a clinical social worker. The broader implications of group therapy in a school setting as a means of helping young people with problems that interfere with their education and socialization are also considered.     

Attributions for Success and Failure in Children of Different Social Class

Abstract

Seventh-grade male and female students (N = 60), divided on the basis of socioeconomic status, were asked to attribute causes to their success or failure on a block-design measure after having experienced solvable, unsolvable, or no pretreatment problems. Differences in use of attributions to ability, effort, task ease, and luck factors were analyzed. The results failed to support the hypothesis that social class groups would differ in their use of attributions in response to success. Subjects were more clearly differentiated, however, in their choice of attributions for failure, with lower class failing students less prone to ascribe their outcome to unstable causes than middle-class failing students.     

WORD RECOGNITION SKILLS OF LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN AND AVERAGE STUDENTS’

Abstract

The ability of learning disabled and average students’ to recognize and identify words was investigated. Two informal reading measures, the Sundbye Minimal Contrast Phonics Test and an oral reading sample, were administered to three groups. The groups were composed of learning disabled students evidencing reading problems (LD), average students matched with the learning disabled group on reading level and IQ (YN), and average students matched with the learning disabled group on chronological age and IQ (ON). The LD group and average readers did not differ on identification of symbol‐sound associations, word recognition proficiency, the ability to detect and correct word recognition errors, and the ability to use information within the text to recognize words. However, the LD and ON group differed on mean number of word recognition errors. Educational implications of the findings were discussed and a profile of the word recognition skills of learning disabled children was presented.     

Anger Management Effects on Middle School Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders: Anger Log Use,Aggressive and Prosocial Behavior

ABSTRACT

This study examined the impact of a classroom-based, 10-week, cognitive-behavioral, anger management program plus booster sessions on middle school students with emotional disorders attending a therapeutic day school. Forty-five students were in the study; 20 received the program. The program group completed significantly more anger logs compared to the nonprogram group in both program and follow-up periods. Program students were observed to exhibit significantly more prosocial behaviors toward their teachers and showed a trend toward exhibiting fewer negative behaviors toward peers than nonprogram students at the end of the program. Program students also showed a trend toward fewer aggressive incidents than their nonprogram peers during follow-up. Findings may suggest mechanisms of change in anger management.     

Vers une nouvelle appréhension des mathématiques par traitement EMDR : actualités et perspectives

ObjectiveEMDR for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing developed since 1989 by F. Shapiro has demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In Science of Education, no study has been previously developed in the application of EMDR protocols. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the relevance and effectiveness of EMDR in supporting cognitive and emotional remediation of students in Master 1, with respect to mathematics, preparing Schools Teacher contest. The first encounters with the students revealed, through their discourse, an aversion to mathematics linked to one or more particularly painful experiences in a learning situation. Mathematics may cause anguish, sometimes tinged beliefs such as “I’ll never be able to… I am very bad at math”. This represents even an insurmountable obstacle in the professional life of some.MethodsNearly 170 students in Master 1 “Professor of the Schools” registered on the ESPE (College of the Teaching profession and Education) were asked about their relation to mathematics, both in their emotions as their self-efficacy. Among those who suggested a traumatic memory in a learning situation in mathematics, forty were selected and divided into two groups. The control group received two hours of information about relaxation techniques that could be used before mathematics. The other group benefited of the EMDR treatment according to the standard protocol in eight phases.ResultsThe results showed that students who received EMDR treatment experienced after treatment and one month later, a significant decline in their negative emotions with mathematics and an increase in the strength of their self-efficacy, unlike the control group.DiscussionEMDR demonstrates its effectiveness in reprocessing beliefs and emotions of students with respect to mathematics and opens ways of research in Educational Sciences. So, it will be necessary, from the principle of alternated bilateral stimulation, to develop specific protocols for the struggling students, to measure the effects in the long term and develop them in a group situation.     

A qualitative study of the decision to engage in tanning behaviors among female college students

IntroductionIndoor tanning is associated with increased risk of melanoma and is particularly prevalent among female college students in the U.S.ObjectivesThe present study aimed to explore why female students decide to engage, and keep engaging in indoor tanning.MethodsWe included eighteen female undergraduates who participated in group discussions. The group discussions were recorded and transcribed, then they were organized into themes.ResultsThree main themes appeared: appearance reasons for tanning, tanning-related health risks, and tanning salon-marketing strategies. Students were overall informed regarding tanning-related health risks, and suggested that they justified their tanning behaviors by rationalizations. They also revealed that the marketing strategies employed by tanning salons made them more likely to tan frequently. Finally, students spoke about how the health risks, the affects on appearance, and leaving the college setting might lead them to stop tanning.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that tanning among students could be reduced both by engaging students in programs addressing rationalizations about the risks associated with tanning, and policies targeting marketing techniques and tanning salon locations.     

A Triadic-behavioral approach to encopresis

Abstract

This paper describes the training and supervisory components of a doctoral level, pre-internship clinical experience, designed to teach Ph.D. candidates a contextual or systemic approach to therapy. The training occurred in a university-based departmental clinic which balanced the three interdependent areas of training, service and research. The therapeutic orientation was a problem-focused, goal-oriented, directive therapy candidates a contextual or systemic approach to therapy. The training designed to view and treat individuals in their social contexts. From this perspective, students were able to gain experience with individuals, couples and families. The paper discusses the function and components of the weekly supervision seminar and describes the integrative and sequential use of several innovative supervisory methods such as live supervision, peer consultation and videotape playback supervision.     

Exploring mystery: can Christian meditation at school nurture students’ relationships with God?

ABSTRACT

While there is growing international interest in meditation and mindfulness initiatives in schools, little research has focused on exploring the impact of such practices on students’ spirituality. This paper reports data from a mixed method study involving primary school classes engaged in the regular practice of Christian meditation between Years 4 to 6 in Catholic schools in New South Wales, Australia. Student focus group data (n = 114 students) and a student survey (n = 250 students) suggest Christian meditation offers an inclusive and ‘hospitable’ space for many students, where their spiritual well-being can be nurtured, including their connection to God. However, the findings suggest that accompanying dialogue with students around the purpose and possibilities of Christian meditation may help to better situate the practice as a ‘hospitable space’ thus enabling deeper engagement with the spiritual in contemporary Catholic classrooms.     

Efficacy of an internet-based intervention for burnout: a randomized controlled trial in the German working population

Background and Objectives: Internet-based interventions are a viable treatment option for various mental problems. However, their effects on the burnout syndrome yielded mixed results. In this paper, we examine the efficacy of a structured and therapist-guided internet intervention, based on solution-focused and cognitive-behavioral therapy, for individuals with symptoms of burnout.

Design: Two-arm, Internet-based, randomized, wait-list controlled trial (RCT).

Methods: Participants were recruited through in-house events and online advertising. They were randomly assigned to the intervention or a wait-list. Group comparison was conducted three months after randomization. Outcomes were the burnout level according to the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-GS) and the levels of depression, anxiety and stress according to the DASS-21.

Results: Thirty-nine participants were included in the trial; 36 (92.3%) took part at the 3-months-follow-up. Intention-to-treat analyses revealed significant group differences in favor of the intervention group in depression (d?=?0.66), cynicism (d?=?0.87) and personal accomplishment (d?=?0.75).

Conclusions: The intervention helped ameliorate symptoms of work-related stress and burnout. Although limited by a small sample size, the study suggests that the program provides effective support for affected individuals. However, further studies with bigger sample sizes should be conducted to examine the effects of such programs more precisely.     

Gender Biases and Therapists’ Conceptualization of Couple Difficulties

In spite of the fact that gender issues have played an important role in many family therapy training programs, little research has been developed to explore the effects of gender and gender biases in therapists’ conceptualizations of client problems. This study explores beginning and advanced marriage and family therapy (MFT) student’s inclusion of gender in the conceptualization of a clinical case. To examine clinician’s thinking, 32 therapists (18 beginning MFT students and 14 advanced MFT students) were asked to 1) view the first 20 minutes of an intake interview conducted by a sex therapist, and 2) identify the couple’s central issues. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to explore constructs associated with therapists considerations and inclusion of gender and cultural issues in their conceptualizations of marital difficulties. Results revealed that trained MFT students who considered gender may have analyzed gender issues more extensively than untrained MFT students. In addition, results of qualitative analysis of participant critiques revealed subtle forms of gender and cultural biases. Discussion focuses on how these biases, some of which are linked to clinical theory, can lead to differential expectations and inequality in the treatment of men and women in couple therapy. Implications for clinical training, curriculum development, and future research are also discussed.