East and West: Transpersonal Psychology and Cross-Cultural Counseling

In this article, the authors examine cross-cultural counseling (specifically Western counselor-Eastern client) within a transpersonal psychological framework. A meta-model is presented that allows counselors to adopt attitudes that transcend cultural differences. The benefit for counselors would be a superordinate framework in which various, specific counseling strategies could be better understood.     

Women and AIDS: Implications for Counseling

Women's concerns regarding AIDS have been ignored or minimized by most writers and AIDS educators. Although women may share many similarities with men in their reactions to AIDS, they have unique concerns that must be recognized. Understanding these concerns is essential for counselors in order to give quality care to women at risk for infection. This article describes women at risk and offers suggestions for counselors in working with such women.     

Cultural Values,Counseling Stigma,and Intentions to Seek Counseling Among Asian American College Women

The authors explored the extent to which Asian American college women's perceived stigma about counseling mediated the relationship between their adherence to Asian cultural values and intentions to seek counseling. Participants, 201 Asian American college women (age range = 18–24 years), completed measures of Asian cultural values, perceived stigma regarding counseling, and intentions to seek counseling, along with a demographic questionnaire. Asian cultural values were positively correlated with perceived counseling stigma; both Asian cultural values and social stigma were negatively correlated with intentions to seek counseling. The main analysis showed that perceived counseling stigma partially mediated the relationship between participants' Asian cultural values and intentions to seek counseling.     

Group Counseling for Aged Women

Because of the benefits of group-counseling experiences, the lack of psychological services for older adults, and the unique concerns of aged women, a group-counseling program for aged women was conducted. The results of these efforts are presented for the purposes of sharing the proposed program sequence, describing what actually took place during the group sessions, conveying the comments and reactions offered by the group participants, and summarizing what we learned about facilitating groups for aged women.     

Religiosity and Adolescent Narcissism: Implications for Values Counseling

The authors show that the distinctive character of values counseling as a therapeutic intervention can be justified on empirical grounds. The fact that religiosity has been consistently associated with positive mental health outcomes is a warrant for counselors to explore the resources of one's religious tradition for therapeutic change. The authors also argue that pastoral counseling is particularly suited for addressing the ego development needs of adolescents and that the vicissitudes of adolescent narcissism can be effectively mobilized to support self-transcendence and relational autonomy, tasks that have both developmental and religious significance.     

Values in Counseling and Psychotherapy

The purpose of this article is to consider the various ways that values enter into counseling or psychotherapy, with particular attention to the goals of the process and the methods or procedures by which the counselor or therapist implements the process.     

Counseling in an Enlightened Society: Values for a New Millennium

In the year 2001, civilization will enter a new century and a new millennium as well. For counseling professionals the start of a new millennium encourages an examination of the philosophy and practice of mental health intervention. The purpose of this article is to share a vision that can possibly lay the foundation for an enlightened world society. It also attempts to outline how the counseling profession can influence the possibility of such a society.     

Neopragmatic Thought and Counseling Values: Reconsidering the Role of Values in Counseling From an Alternative Epistemological Foundation

The history of Western philosophical thought has been dominated by the search for transcendent truth. As a consequence of this history, various epistemological dualisms (such as fact/value and appearance/reality) have come to structure modes of inquiry. Reliance on such dualisms has resulted in a degradation of values discourse, which, along with other “soft” forms of inquiry, is often viewed as epistemologically inferior to the “hard” sciences. However, particularly within the last century, philosophers have proposed compelling challenges to these dualisms, which, in turn, have massive implications for values discourse. These challenges are overviewed, and implications for values discourse within the counseling profession are discussed.     

Counseling Counselors: A Survey of Values

This study surveyed counselors' rates of involvement in counseling, explored whether counselors value seeing therapists of a similar theoretical orientation to their own, and examined which characteristics were important in choosing one's therapist. Of 2,000 randomly selected ACA members, with a 38% return rate, 80% were found to have attended counseling, with women seeking counseling at significantly higher rates than men. Having been in counseling varied as a function of division affiliation as well as counselor's theoretical orientation. Finally, this study also explored the characteristics deemed important in choosing one's counselor and the values counselors hold regarding involvement in their own therapy.