Commonalities in Values Among Mental Health Counselors

Mental health counselors (N = 161) from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who ascribed to distinct theoretical orientations were surveyed with regard to their personal and mental health values. Although on theoretical grounds value differences among counselors professing divergent orientations seem plausible, the empirical literature has failed to support these differences. What has been supported is a sizably shared professional culture characterized by a values profile beyond theoretical orientation. This article provides further empirical input on what the values commonalities are even among counselors who profess distinct theoretical orientations and have a different national origin from prior samples. Implications for clients are discussed.     

The Role of Public Argument in Emerging Democracies: A Case Study of the 12 December 1993 Elections in the Russian Federation

The authors argue that in the 1993 Duma elections it was the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, led by Gennady Zyuganov, that incorporated rhetorical values and audience adaptation into its campaign strategy. Finding its discursive ground limited by history, the CPRF gradually shifted its rhetorical posture and argumentative strategies, redefining itself in the process. This evolution allowed the CPRF to employ the ideographs of democracy, will of the people, citizen, and other key terms of Western-style democracy, while retaining, albeit in transformed meaning, traditional communist ideographs such as justice and spirituality. In addition, the CPRF was able to borrow selectively from the history of the USSR between 1917 and 1989, thereby imbuing their political appeals with historical force and cultural memory.     

Family Therapy Training: Academic and Internship Opportunities for Psychologists

Institutions that train psychologists in psychotherapy skills have generally neglected the family approach. This article provides information on both university departments of psychology and psychology internship facilities that include family therapy training in their programs.     

Professional issues in group work

This article first describes the explosion of interest in and practice of group work, with the resultant lag between the development both of standards for training and practice and of a code for ethical behavior/ practice. We used a questionnaire to fill in some gaps regarding the number of cases of unethical behavior/practice in group work and the respondents' recommendations for dealing with the problems raised both externally by the public media and internally by professional association members. The data from the questionnaire are summarized, analyzed, and made relevant to the problem of ethics for group practices. We drew conclusions from these data, from others who have addressed themselves to the problems, and from our own experiences in the group field. From these conclusions we list recommendations for alleviating the problem.     

Working with Mental Health Service Users to Change Mental Health Services

During the last ten years in the UK, service user consultation and collaboration has gradually entered the vocabulary of people providing and purchasing mental health services. However, we are not convinced that much needed change in mental health services will be achieved as a function of increased commitment to market consumerism. We argue here that service user consultation and collaboration should take account of the effects of social inequalities on mental health and on mental health services. This perspective highlights the need for fundamental change in mental health services, and helps us to appreciate the strength of resistance to change, and to understand some of the dynamics involved. We describe here how this perspective has motivated and shaped our own efforts to collaborate responsibly with service users to change mental health services.