Executive Career Counselling

Executive career counselling is relatively new. Some of its implications are examined and a three-tiered approach by organisations is advocated. Executives are verbally fluent, and this highlights the importance of the 'opening paragraph' of words they use in counselling. Neuro-linguistic programming offers a useful set of tools to the executive career counsellor. Left-handedness, probably overlooked in most types of counselling, is briefly considered. However, counselling is not only about problems, but also offers executives a welcome chance to review their lives and careers.     

Insight-oriented group psychotherapy of latency-age children in an acute care setting

Traditional approaches to group therapy with latency-age children have stressed activity and nonverbal therapeutic interventions. These approaches originated in the 1940s with Slavson's activity aroup therapy. A review of the literature of the past 25 years reveals that many clinicians have increasingly employed verbal techniques with latencyage groups. Most such reports describe groups for latency-age out-patients. In this paper, a verbal, interpretive technique for group therapy with latency-age inpatients is described. Clinical vignettes are included to illustrate this technique. Our experience suggests that such a technique can become an integral part of the inpatient treatment program for the latency-age child.     

Power,family therapy,and the systemic-organismic paradigm

How is the concept of power integrated into the systemic organismic paradigm? Power concepts, especially Kantor and Lehr's six dimensions of distance regulation mechanisms, are related to several models of family therapy. Power is found to be a part of the Gestalt formation process of Perls, a process of dynamic selfregulation. Each family therapy model is regarded as part of an integrating process. A theory of conflict strategy and of integration strategy in therapy is developed. The article is intended to promote comparison and exploratory discussion around different models of family therapy.     

Prophetic visions in 1988: A critical reappraisal

This paper reviews the research into a specific aspect of neardeath experiences (NDEs): the prophetic vision (PV). PVs are subjectively compelling flashforwards of planetary-wide cataclysms and eventual regeneration that sometimes occur during or in the immediate aftermath of an NDE. Previous research has shown that the most frequently mentioned year for the culmination of the geophysical calamities foreseen in PVs was 1988. I argue that PVs should be understood as manifestations of a collective prophetic impulse that historically tends to arise during periods of cultural crisis. PVs are thus expressions of the felt need for cultural renewal and therefore should not be taken literally as prognostic of drastic physical changes on Earth.     

Leadership behavior,group climate and outcome in group psychotherapy: A study of outpatient psychotherapy groups

A recent clinical study of outpatient psychotherapy groups in a community mental health center explored the linkage between group leadership variables, group climate, and outcome. The study involved nine outpatient therapy groups, over 50 group clients, and several group therapists. A repeated measures design involving assessment of clients' outcome and level of functioning, group leadership style, and group climate was used to assess changes over a 6-month period. The findings suggest: 1) a reduction in symptoms and improved functioning for clients; 2) a similarity of perceptions by members and leaders of perceived leadership behaviors and group climate; 3) the presence of direct and indirect influences of group climate and leadership behavior on clients' outcome; and 4) a linkage between leadership behavior and group climate with the theoretical orientation of the group. The findings of the research are discussed in relation to the understanding of specific effects in group psychotherapy and the implications for construction of group psychotherapy theory.The authors would like to thank Robert Dies, Ph.D., for his helpful suggestions in the early phase of this study; Roy MacKenzie, M.D., for permission to use the Group Climate Questionnaire; Diane DePalma, Ph.D., for permission to use the Global Leadership Behavior Index; Chris Boltwood, B.A., for her untiring efforts in administering the instruments and coding and entering the data; and most importantly, the psychotherapy group members and the group therapists for their cooperation in this endeavor—without their help, this clinical study would not have been possible.A version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, 1987, New Orleans, Louisiana. Lenore Phipps, R.N., M.S., C.S., was formerly Director, Group Psychotherapy Program at Park Ridge Mental Health Center, Rochester, now in private practice at Guild Medical Center, Norwood, MA 02062.     

Stress,Coping and Adjustment in Victims of Sexual Assault: The role of psychological defense mechanisms

The paper considers sexual abuse within a stress and coping framework with particular emphasis on victim-initiated psychological defense mechanisms in the recovery process. Analysis of case history data from 40 adolescent victims of sexual abuse indicated that 90% used psychological defense mechanisms, particularly repression, emotional insulation and rationalisation. The paper explores the usefulness of such mechanisms from a theoretical and applied perspective and compares these Singaporean findings with earlier research conducted in the United States.     

Professional liability (malpractice) coverage of humanist scholars functioning as clinical medical ethicists

In contrast to theoretical discussions about potential professional liability of clinical ethicists, this report gives the results of empirical data gathered in a national survey of clinical medical ethicists. The report assesses the types of activities of clinical ethicists, the extent and types of their professional liability coverage, and the influence that concerns about legal liability has on how they function as clinical ethicists. In addition demographic data on age, sex, educational background, etc. are reported. The results show that while nearly one third (28.9%) of the ethicists regularly make recommendations about patient care, only 10.8% of them regularly make entries in the medical record; only approximately half (53.0%) of them are covered by professional liability (malpractice) insurance; and the vast majority (84.3%) of them say that concerns about legal liability do not influence the way they function as clinical ethicists.