High Tech Counseling: Revisited

This article includes a discussion of technology's use in counseling. It contains reviews and implications of 4 articles that appeared in the Journal of Technology in Counseling (JTC) and provides a discussion of the future of technology in the counseling profession.     

Guided visualization and suggestibility: effect of perceived authority on recall of autobiographical memories.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a possible component process in the formation of childhood pseudomemories in adults. Participants recounted a childhood event, the details of which came from hearing others tell it (a know event) rather than from their personal experience (a remember event). Then participants were placed in 1 of 4 possible conditions: They completed a guided visualization task led by an expert, a guided visualization task led by a nonexpert, a visual search task, or a verbal list-learning task. For the guided visualization task, participants listened to a middle-aged man on audiotape, who asked them to imagine details about their know event. Half believed the person on the tape was a well-known and esteemed psychologist (an expert), and half were led to believe that he was someone who had gone back to school to study communications (a nonexpert). As predicted, guided visualization led participants to rate their know event closer to a remember event. Planned comparisons demonstrated that the effect was significantly greater for the expert versus nonexpert conditions. Results were applied to the process of false memory formation and the use of visualization procedures in psychotherapy.     

Solution-focused Couples Therapy Groups: An Empirical Study

The professional literature contains numerous theoretical and case study articles regarding the development and use of solution-focused therapy. However, as with many models of systems-oriented therapy in use with couples, very little has been subjected to empirical investigation. This project was designed to make a contribution to the empirical literature regarding the effectiveness of solution-focused therapy in use with couples' groups. This study utilized pre-test comparisons of treatment and comparison groups, and examined pre- to post-test changes in the scores of the treatment group couples. Twenty-three treatment group couples participated in a six-week solution-focused couples therapy (SFCT) group. A separate group of thirteen couples served as a comparison group. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) was used to assess changes in the couples' relationships. Scores on the Marital Status Inventory (MSI), as a pre-test measure indicating the couples' likelihood of divorce, indicated no significant differences between groups. The remaining analyses revealed significant improvement in DAS scores. Self-reports from the couples involved indicate improvement in a variety of areas after completing the six-week solution-focused couples group therapy process.     

Spirituality and religion in training, practice and personal development

In the midst of a revitalized interest in spirituality and religion in Western societies, there has been reported a resurgence of activity regarding spirituality and religion in the mental health professions, including marriage and family therapy (MFT). Little is known, however, about the beliefs, behaviours, and training experiences of MFT graduate students. Therefore it is important to examine the training (education and supervision) needs in this area. For this initial study, a sample of US MFT graduate students were surveyed regarding their spiritual and religious attitudes and practices in their personal and professional lives. In most areas, graduate students were found to be similar to the previously published reports of practising professionals. In other areas, they report even more investment in spirituality and religion. The results of the survey suggest a need to include systematic attention to these areas in graduate training curricula and in the professional supervision process.     

Inventory responding as a model of people's acceptance of personality interpretations

The hypothesis was tested that inventory responding modeled the acceptance of personality feedback. A barnum group (n=40) was asked to rate the personal accuracies of a list of personality inventory items and then an equivalent list of bogus personality feedback. The two lines of evidence which supported the model were (a) that the correlation between their inventory ratings and their feedback ratings was not only Significant (p < .001) but achieved a ceiling magnitude, as evidenced by a control group's (n = 40) data; and (b) that the variables influencing, inventory responding exerted an equal influence upon feedback acceptance, Contrary to the model, it was found that feedback was accepted more highly than were the inventory items. Conclusions were that inventory responding, as a model of feedback acceptance, is accurate with respect to individual differences but somewhat inaccurate with respect to overall levels of acceptance due to the additional influences of persuasion. It was also concluded that clients' acceptance or rejection of personality feedback is not evidence of the validity or invalidity, respectively, of assessment devices. A reformulated model of personality feedback acceptance was proposed.     

Early Identification of Autism: Implications for Counselors

The author reviews an article (L. C. Eaves & H. H. Ho, 2004) published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders that discussed screening tools and diagnostic assessments used to identify autism in 2‐year‐olds as well as a follow‐up study 2½ years later. The author also provides a discussion of the impact of receiving this diagnosis on families and roles for counselors.     

Using Multidimensional Grief Theory to Explore the Effects of Deployment, Reintegration, and Death on Military Youth and Families

To date, the US military has made major strides in acknowledging and therapeutically addressing trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in service members and their families. However, given the nature of warfare and high rates of losses sustained by both military members (e.g., deaths of fellow unit members) and military families (e.g., loss of a young parent who served in the military), as well as the ongoing threat of loss that military families face during deployment, we propose that a similar focus on grief is also needed to properly understand and address many of the challenges encountered by bereaved service members, spouses, and children. In this article, we describe a newly developed theory of grief (multidimensional grief theory) and apply it to the task of exploring major features of military-related experiences during the phases of deployment, reintegration, and the aftermath of combat death—especially as they impact children. We also describe implications for designing preventive interventions during each phase and conclude with recommended avenues for future research. Primary aims are to illustrate: (1) the indispensable role of theory in guiding efforts to describe, explain, predict, prevent, and treat maladaptive grief in military service members, children, and families; (2) the relevance of multidimensional grief theory for addressing both losses due to physical death as well as losses brought about by extended physical separations to which military children and families are exposed during and after deployment; and (3) a focus on military-related grief as a much-needed complement to an already-established focus on military-related PTSD.