Strange Bedfellows?: Rational-Emotive Therapy and Pastoral Counseling

Integrating Rational-Emotive Therapy with biblical precepts is discussed as a basis for pastoral counselors to bridge the gap between religion and psychotherapy.     

Wisdom in Pastoral Care and Counseling: What Does it Entail?

The purpose of this article is to suggest richer potential meanings of spiritual wisdom and theological reflection in response to a critical reading of Pamela Cooper-White's book, Shared wisdom: Use of the self in pastoral care and counseling.     

Counseling and Consulting: Separate Processes or the Same?

This article examines the theoretical similarities and differences between the counseling and consulting processes and finds that differences between the two processes are reflections of the differences found among the counselors who use them.     

Dual Role Relationships: What Makes Them So Problematic?

The author argues that all dual role relationships, not only those involving sexual contact, may be ethically problematic. Three guidelines are offered to differentiate between relationships that have a high probability of leading to harm and those that do not. First, as the incompatibility of expectations increases between roles, so will the potential for harm. Second, as the obligations associated with different roles diverge, the potential for loss of objectivity and divided loyalties increases. Third, as the power and prestige between the professional's and consumer's roles increase, so does the potential for exploitation. Last, it is argued that, as the risks of harm increase, so should the ethical prohibitions about engaging in the relationship.     

Giving Counsel: Donald Capps’ Contributions to Pastoral Counseling

This article explores some of Donald Capps’ contributions to the ministry of pastoral counseling. In particular, several key attributes of pastoral counseling as a ministry of the church are identified and discussed. This is followed by identifying six features necessary for good enough pastoral counseling. A final brief section offers some musings that I wish Capps could respond to.     

Dual prism adaptation: calibration or alignment?

Dual adaptation to different amounts or directions of prismatic displacement, or both, can be acquired and maintained with little mutual interference. Associative recalibration of the regional task- or workspace, contingent on differentiation of distinguishing sensory information, can explain such adaptation. In contrast, nonassociative realignment restores dimensional mapping among spatial representations. Methods for measuring the separate contributions of those 2 kinds of prism adaptation are identified in the present article. On the basis of a critique of dual-adaptation studies, the authors suggest that recalibration can explain the data but that the method used in those experiments confounded realignment and might have obscured the effectiveness of dual-calibration training.     

Rehabilitation Counseling: A Profession or a Trade?

The problem of the shortage of counselors is examined and the various possible solutions considered. A solution that appears to be developing in many state rehabilitation agencies is the employment of college graduates with no preparation in counseling. These employees are designated as counselors, counselor aides, or counselor trainees, and given in-service training. Such persons, it appears, will eventually be considered counselors without any further educational preparation. It is questioned whether they are, in fact, counselors, but if they are able to perform all the functions of those designated as counselors (excluding professional counseling), then counseling is not a profession, but a trade, for which adequate preparation can be obtained through on-the-job training.     

Ethnic Diversity and the Use of Humor in Counseling: Appropriate or Inappropriate?

Humor can reflect the healthy release of feelings during the counseling process, the type of emotional release that leads to significant therapeutic gains. It can also be a disturbing distraction, possibly causing early termination, if used inappropriately. Counselors need to exert particular caution before attempting to apply humor in working with a client from a culture different from the counselor's. This article explores the available literature and offers contributions on the subject from 4 “ethnically diverse” perspectives. Finally, a general approach based on existential theory is presented along with 5 general conditions to ascertain the appropriate use of humor.     

Counseling in the culture cycle: feeling or reason?

Recent changes in the student subculture are seen as manifestations of a more general phenomenon, that of cultures cyclically changing from affective predominance to cognitive predominance. The article examines the implications these changes have for counseling and counseling techniques, i.e., that the counselor is a translator of one cultural style to the other, and that his predominant tools are different in an affectively based culture from what they would be in a cognitively based one.     

General and Multicultural Counseling Competency: Apples and Oranges?

This investigation tests the hypothesis that perceptions of general and multicultural counseling competence are distinct constructs. The findings question the validity of the assumption that general and multicultural counseling competence are separate constructs—particularly for certain clients. The implications of these findings for future research and counselor training are discussed.     

Pastoral counseling and pastoral care: is there a difference?

The author argues that there is little difference between pastoral counseling and pastoral care. Utilizing an evidence-based and narrative approach, he examines the ideas of a variety of historical and contemporary writers to illustrate this thesis. Along with historical and contemporary writings on the topic, the author includes his own clinical experiences and associations to illustrate his conviction that pastoral counseling and pastoral care are more alike than different.     

Counseling Past and Present: Is There a Future?

Major criticisms directed at counseling are identified and prominent suggestions for their elimination are described through an analysis of the counseling literature of the past 10 years. A brief outline of the history of counseling offers a historical perspective to the discussion. One suggestion to improve counseling, that counselors become change agents in their institutions, is examined and described with steps for its implementation. The implementation of the change-agent role for counselors would address much of the substantive criticism directed at counseling, and would remold the profession to more effectively meet today's needs.     

Disciplinary Counseling: A Contradiction?

Many counselors appear to be operating on false assumptions (shibboleths) regarding counseling. The removal of these shibboleths leaves one more receptive to examining the basic assumptions underlying the linkage of discipline and counseling. Discipline and counseling may be seen as similar in terms of their educational goals, and counseling is used as a tool for the disciplinary counselor to implement the attainment of these common goals. Unresolved problems remain, however. Counseling is used during only a portion of disciplinary activities; thus there seems to be a misplaced emphasis on counseling in the title of the disciplinary counselor. Such inaccuracy may have unfortunate implications. Because of the usually accepted meaning of “discipline,” the title of disciplinary counselor is confusing and possibly damaging to both the profession and the students it intends to serve.     

Conceptions of Relationships in Children with Depressive and Aggressive Symptoms: Social-Cognitive Distortion or Reality?

This research tested skill-deficit and cognitive-distortion models of depression and aggression in 615 fifth- and sixth-grade children. Children completed a measure of their generalized conceptions of relationships in the peer domain and their level of depressive symptoms. Teachers completed measures of social competence, social status, and aggression. As anticipated, children with higher levels of depressive symptoms, either alone or in combination with aggression, demonstrated more negative conceptions of both self and peers than did nonsymptomatic children. Conceptions of relationships did not differentiate between aggressive and nonsymptomatic children. Children with depressive symptoms and children with aggressive symptoms displayed unique profiles of social competence deficits and problematic status in the peer group. Analysis of the accuracy of children's conceptions of relationships revealed support for both skill-deficit and cognitive-distortion models. Consistent with a skill-deficit model, children with depressive and depressive-aggressive symptoms were sensitive to actual differences in their social status. In contrast, aggressive children showed an insensitivity to social cues. Consistent with a cognitive-distortion model, children with depressive and depressive-aggressive symptoms had more negative conceptions than would be expected given their social status, whereas aggressive-unpopular children demonstrated a self-enhancement bias. These findings indicate the importance of integrated cognitive-interpersonal models of depression and aggression that incorporate multiple pathways among social-cognitive, interpersonal, and emotional functioning.     

Life's Challenges: Curse or Opportunity? Counseling Families of Persons With Disabilities

Disability is viewed as an opportunity for reframing physical and emotional difficulties. In accepting responsibility, clients recognize that, even in the most difficult of circumstances, they have the ability to choose how they wil respond. Strategies for facilitating personal healing and empowerment are explored, including self-forgiveness and positive self-talk.     

A Counseling Paradox: Do Preservice Counselors Need Employment Counseling?

Data from this study identified a significant discrepancy between preservice counselors' perceptions of their career opportunities and actual placement data.