The Straight Path to Healing: Using Motivational Interviewing to Address Spiritual Bypass

Spiritual bypass is the avoidance of underlying emotional issues by focusing solely on spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a client‐centered, compassionate approach to effectively addressing resistance among those who present with spiritual bypass. In this article, the authors provide background information on spiritual bypass and a rationale for adopting an MI approach to working with these clients. A case presentation illustrates 1 example of using MI with spiritual bypass.     

Neuropsychological Functioning in Children with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with deficits in the areas of verbal memory and learning, executive functioning, working memory, and attention in adults. Findings have been less consistent in the few studies examining neuropsychological functioning in childhood PTSD, which are often limited by comparing children with PTSD to children without trauma histories, making it unclear whether observed neuropsychological deficits are related to trauma exposure or to PTSD symptomatology. In an ethnically diverse sample of 62 children who witnessed intimate partner violence (n = 27 PTSD+ and 35 PTSD?), children with PTSD exhibited slower and less effective learning, heightened sensitivity to interference, and impaired effect of rehearsal on memory acquisition on the California Verbal Learning Test – Children's Version, a word list learning task. Both groups performed in the below average range on measures of executive functioning, attention, and intellectual ability.     

Longitudinal Analysis of Associations between 3-D Mental Rotation and Mathematics Reasoning Skills during Middle School: Across and within Genders

ABSTRACT

The development of math reasoning and 3-d mental rotation skills are intertwined. However, it is currently not understood how these cognitive processes develop and interact longitudinally at the within-person level – either within or across genders. In this study, 553 students (52% girls) were assessed from fifth to seventh grades on 3-d mental rotation spatial skills (assessed each fall) and numerical and algebraic math reasoning skills (assessed each spring). Boys outperformed girls on mental rotation tests across all three grades, and on fifth and seventh grade math reasoning tests. Consistent with the literature on between-person comparisons, there was a positive correlation between mental rotation and math reasoning skills in the full sample and for both genders. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model was used to control for these confounding group-level differences in order to isolate within-person associations between earlier and later performance. Initially in fifth grade, math reasoning predicted subsequent sixth grade mental rotation skills. By seventh grade, more advanced mental rotation skills were associated with subsequent math reasoning skills while math reasoning skills were no longer predictive of mental rotation skills. An examination of gender differences revealed that this pattern was driven by boys while girls experienced less within-person change. These findings suggest that boys may initially rely in part on their math reasoning skills to solve 3-d mental rotation tasks. However, as their 3-d mental rotation skills mature, they begin to primarily depend upon these developing spatial skills to solve math reasoning problems rather than the reverse.     

Shame,posttraumatic stress disorder,and intimate partner violence perpetration

Drawing from theoretical and empirical literature linking shame to aggression and violence, the authors propose that shame may be an important variable to examine in studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. The authors review the literature linking shame, PTSD, and IPV, propose ideas for future research, and suggest that shame and shame regulation may be a useful target of clinical interventions aimed at violence perpetrators.     

Drawing to reconstruct: Pilot study on acknowledging prisoners' internal and external resources in a penitentiary institution

Since the first offender rehabilitation treatments, all theoretical approaches have been focusing on reducing risk factors that may influence recidivism, without satisfactory results. Recent resilience research has instead shown the important mediating or moderating role of protective factors and provided the theoretical principles for the Good Lives Model Comprehensive. This holistic model suggests the importance of integrating the reduction of risk factors with the reinforcement of protective factors in offenders' treatment programs. This combined action is considered the main condition through which offenders are motivated to change their life and develop a sense of agency on their current life conditions. This article presents a pilot study, aimed at analyzing the feasibility of a psychosocial intervention, based on graphic workshops. The purpose of the intervention is helping prisoners strive toward adaptation in jail, and facilitating the redesign of their life beyond bars. Drawing activities allowed prisoners to enhance their own internal and external resources, and recognize risk and protective factors that could influence their successful reintegration into society. The main limit of this study is directly linked to the setting of the penitentiary institution where the study was conducted, which is characterized by a high prisoners' turn over.     

Surviving Abuse: Shame,Anger, Forgiveness

The issue of forgiveness affects everyone at some time or another; whether young or old, male or female, Christian or not. For the survivor of abuse, the issue of forgiveness journeys with them profoundly influencing their life, their recovery, and even their faith. Surviving Abuse: Shame, Anger, Forgiveness is an attempt to develop a theology of forgiveness from the perspective of a survivor of abuse.