Existentialism in a Post-Modern World: Meaningful Lessons for the Counselor

This article advocates a humanities-philosophy model of therapeutic practice that emphasizes empowering and promoting understanding in a client by encouraging him or her to investigate and choose between alternative meaning structures in the context of a trusting human relationship. An integration of existential and postmodern attitudes is proposed as a template for understanding human experience that must underlie the application of all therapeutic procedures.     

Aging and Alcohol Abuse: Increasing Counselor Awareness

Alcohol abuse in older adulthood is a rapidly growing but often hidden problem. The authors provide an overview of the issues related to older adult alcohol abuse through a discussion of physiological, psychological, and social risk factors; an examination of appropriate assessment procedures; and an overview of factors related to treatment.     

Treating the Sexually Addicted Client: Establishing a Need for Increased Counselor Awareness

Seventeen to 37 million Americans struggle with sexual addictions (P. Carnes, 1994b; A. Cooper, D. L. Delmonico, & R. Burg, 2000; B. Morris, 1999; J. L. Wolf, 2000), yet traditionally trained addictions and offender counselors often find themselves unprepared to assist clients who are sexually addicted. This article provides a general overview of the disorder, explores the ongoing definition debate, and offers clinically proven treatment protocols.     

A Path of Counselor Self‐Awareness

This article explores self‐reflection and self‐awareness from an ethical standpoint, proposing that counselors have a responsibility to themselves, their clients, and the profession to engage in these practices. The authors propose a path to counselor self‐awareness and a 2nd process that assumes counselor mastery.     

The Inner World of the Genetic Counselor

The external experience of genetic counselors reflects and is processed in their personal inner worlds. A small window into that private interior is opened here revealing the strengths and frailties, vulnerabilities and sensitivities professionals bring to bear in their work. The relational, human interplay—between counselor and colleagues, counselor and clients, counselors in their nonprofessional roles relative to others—is the primary focus of the interior experience.     

Global Mental Health: A Call for Increased Awareness and Action for Family Therapists

Global mental health (GMH) is an emerging field that focuses on the need for culturally sensitive mental health services in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). While many new initiatives have been established worldwide to understand GMH needs and to provide care in LMICs, family therapists have primarily worked with families in high‐income countries. The few existing family‐based initiatives in GMH focus on psychoeducation and are typically not based on general systems theory. However, emerging trends in family therapy may enable family therapists to impact mental health issues in LMICs. These trends, which are shared interests of both family therapy and GMH, include collaborative care, a growing emphasis on the importance of culture in understanding and treating mental health issues, recognition of the ability of families to support or impede recovery from mental illness, and the use of strength‐based and evidence‐based treatments. This paper describes ways for family therapists to become active in the GMH community.     

Preparation,Action, Recovery: A Conceptual Framework for Counselor Preparation and Response in Client Crises

Despite increasing requirements for counselor proficiency in crisis response, there is an absence in the standards for counselor preparation, certification, and supervision of consistent criteria on which best practice in crisis prevention and intervention, and postcrisis recovery can be gauged. The authors present a conceptual framework that defines the actions required at the different phases of a client crisis and identifies potential constraints to effective counselor action that must be acknowledged and overcome at each phase.     

The Counselor Who Is: A Critique and a Modest Proposal

In light of the essential nature of counseling as it is reflected in current theory and texts, it is submitted that a discrepancy exists between the idea of the counseling process on the one hand, and the teaching and practice of counseling on the other hand. The absolute necessity for the counselor's having a body of substantive information relating to the discipline of counseling psychology is asserted but the sufficient condition is that the counselor be (or become) the kind of person who can facilitate the therapeutic happening. Two proposals are made. A rationale for the exposure of counselors and aspirants to group-encounter experiences is given, and possible outcomes suggested. Further, in response to a basic need in our educational structure, the staffing of each large high school with a relatively independent counseling center is recommended. The function and possible ameliorative effects of such centers are described.     

Counselor Awareness of the Consequences of Certification and Licensure

In the decade since professional counselor regulation was widely debated, more than half of the states have legislated regulation, and it is sought in others. The extent to which counselors in a state currently pursuing legislation are familiar with potential consequences of legislated regulation was examined. Most counselors were found to be unfamiliar with potential negative consequences of regulation, and most were desirous of more information regarding these issues. Implications of the findings for the profession are presented.     

The Need for Counselor Licensure: A Rehabilitation Counseling Perspective

The legal, ethical, and professional problems related to the private practice of rehabilitation counseling are described. Counselor licensure is recommended as a remedy.     

The Counselor in the Hospice: A New Role

Part of the outreach program of the counselor training program at The College of Staten Island for the past ten years has been to provide counseling for persons with life-threatening and terminal illnesses and for their families. This effort led Cheikin to visit and work in hospices in England and Scotland. His experience has clearly shown that counselor education must include experience with and increased understanding of dying, grieving, and the effect of death on surviving family members; these are now being incorporated into the regular curriculum of the College.     

God's Action in the World: The Relevance of Quantum Mechanics

It has been suggested that God can act on the world by operating within the limits set by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (HUP) without violating the laws of nature. This requires nature to be intrinsically indeterministic. However, according to the statistical interpretation the quantum mechanical wavefunction represents the average behavior of an ensemble of similar systems and not that of a single system. The HUP thus refers to a relation between the spreads of possible values of position and momentum and so is consistent with a fully deterministic world. This statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics is supported by reference to actual measurements, resolves the quantum paradoxes, and stimulates further research. If this interpretation is accepted, quantum mechanics is irrelevant to the question of God's action in the world.