The Noncustodial Parent: Dilemmas and Interventions

This article focuses on the often overlooked group of people, usually men, who are noncustodial parents. The authors discuss 10 common dilemmas of parents in this position and delineate what can be done by individual and family counselors to enhance the ability of these parents to maintain parenting relationships with their children.     

Relevance and Alliance: Cornerstones in Training Counselors of Men

The need for alliance between women and men is fundamental for fully understanding as well as for effectively countering the negative consequences of gender roles and related strains for both sexes. This article discusses training counselors of men in relation to two questions: Is sexism as relevant an issue for men as it seems to be for women? and What are appropriate goals for training sessions of counselors of men?     

A Structural Blueprint for Group Facilitators: Three Group Modalities

This article provides a conceptual model, typology, or blueprint to unify and more clearly understand the spectrum of task-, socio-, and psycho-group processes used by guidance and counseling personnel. The authors provide a structure for group leaders to follow within their various group forms or modalities.     

Family Therapy After the Divorce: Developing a Strategy

Family therapy with the whole family after a divorce has taken place provides a unique opportunity for intervention. Though the spouses have legally terminated their relationship, their parenting function remains. However, this reality is often clouded by the emotional conflicts generated by the divorce. Family therapy can be useful in facilitating life in the post-divorce period. A four-part model for intervention is described. The first task is to redefine the family as existentially including all members. Next, generational boundaries are firmed in order to reduce the parentification process, often intensified by the parent's physical absence. Third, the family needs to have a replay of the history of the marriage to correct developmental distortions and offer a changce to mourn the loss of the intact family. Finally, the therapists attempt to facilitate an emotional divorce. A case study is presented to elucidate the manner in which these steps unfold in treatment.     

Chaos Theory and Counselor Training

This article presents the perspective that chaos theory may provide a more flexible, nonlinear, and effective model and basis for the preparation and education of counselors than competing linear-causal models.