A Grammar of Love

Abstract

Recently researchers in the family therapy field have encouraged a focus on aspects of therapy common across all models that are important to therapeutic change. The purpose of this study was to build on the “common factors” literature by exploring clients' perspectives of what was useful to their therapeutic experience. Quantitative and qualitative measures were used to collect data from 41 clients who participated in therapy at a university-based family therapy clinic. Quantitative results indicated that therapeutic relationship, client motivation, extratherapeutic factors, and hope and expectancy accounted for 49% of the variance of clients' perception of change and 73% of the variance of clients' perceptions of therapy helpfulness. Qualitative results indicated the therapeutic relationship to be the most helpful aspect of clients' therapeutic experience.     

Health,Finances, Religious Involvement,and Life Satisfaction of Older Adults

ABSTRACT

This study examines the patterns and relationships between twelve independent variables and the expressed subjective well-being of older adults within that classic community setting of the Lynds' “Middletown.” The twelve variables include measures of church attendance, religious activity, religious conservatism/liberalism, subjective health status, social participation, importance of leisure, participation in physical activity, age, sex, marital status, and level of education.     

The Health and Social Service Needs of Transgender People in Philadelphia

SUMMARY

Two Philadelphia-based HIV service organizations and a local university collaborated on a study of health and social service needs of transgender people. Transgender people were the primary resource for the development of the needs assessment survey. In this article, the survey development process, including two discussion groups and two focus groups, are described. Findings on barriers to care, violence, perception of public safety and comfort, suicide and health and social service needs are presented. Total sample size was 81, with 49 male-to-female and 32 female-to-male transgender individuals. Most (68%) were African American. About half of the respondents had thought about attempting suicide. High levels of violence were reported, especially among male-to-females. Health and social service needs included job training/work, dental care, health care, legal services, transportation, education and housing.     

Therapist Awareness of Client Resistance in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Clients' resistance relates negatively to their retention and outcomes in psychotherapy; thus, it has been increasingly identified as a key process marker in both research and practice. This study compared therapists' postsession ratings of resistance with those of trained observers in the context of 40 therapist–client dyads receiving 15 sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. Therapist and observer ratings were then examined as correlates of proximal (therapeutic alliance quality and homework compliance) and distal (posttreatment worry severity) outcomes. Although there was reasonable concordance between rater perspectives, observer ratings were highly and consistently related to both proximal and distal outcomes, while therapist ratings were not. These findings underscore the need to enhance therapists' proficiency in identifying important and often covert in-session clinical phenomena such as the cues reflecting resistance and noncollaboration.     

Social Workers and Battered Women: The Need to Study Client Violence in the Domestic Violence Field

Domestic violence is a significant issue for the United States and internationally. Although many social workers may desire to work in the domestic violence field, such work is far more difficult and challenging than many social workers would expect. In fact, many domestic violence workers are abused by their clients or their clients' family members in the course of their work. The purpose of this article is to clarify why examining client violence toward workers in the domestic violence field is critically important, describe the current state of the research, and discuss recommendations for future research in this area.     

Spiritual well-being,burnout and trauma in counsellors and psychotherapists

Burnout represents a potential risk for counsellors and psychotherapists in their work with distressed clients. In the research reported here, the relationship between spiritual well-being and burnout was explored, with attention paid to clinicians’ perceptions of trauma. Eighty-nine Australian counsellors and psychotherapists (71 females and 18 males) completed a demographic survey, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Spiritual Well-Being Scale. It was found that existential well-being accounted for some of the variance in MBI subscale scores, and buffered the effect of trauma on emotional exhaustion. In addition, clinicians who reported high levels of existential well-being reported being better able to avoid emotional exhaustion when working with severely traumatised clients.     

Psychometric Properties and Norms of the Family Needs Scale

We studied 205 low-income families, using the Family Needs Scale (FNS). Factor analysis of the FNS data resulted on a 7-factor solution with high internal consistency within the various subscales. We provide normative scores based on the factor structure of the FNS. A total of 53 parents completed the FNS on two occasions with an average of four weeks between these two ratings. In general, the test-retest reliabilities were low to moderate. A total of 61 pairs of parents independently rated their families with the FNS. Again, agreement between raters was low to moderate. Several factors that may have detracted from better test-retest and interrater reliability were identified. Our data point to the need for more psychometric studies with the FNS.     

How do counsellors make client assessments?

This paper reports on a consultation exercise undertaken with 18 experienced counsellors on how they make client assessments. These practitioners expressed a high degree of consensus on the purposes of assessment making (to reach a shared understanding with the client about their willingness and ability to undertake a shared therapeutic journey) but the way in which they approached the task varied according to the theoretical orientation they acquired during training. Although most had developed their counselling skills and techniques considerably since initial training, not all had integrated the assessment implications of later experience into their formulation making. The implications of combining single model assessment with eclectic practice are discussed, particularly in relation to making a decision to continue working with a client or to refer a client to a colleague. The authors call for further debate on how counsellors find meaning in what their clients say, why they ask the questions they do at the assessment stage, and how they achieve coherence in relation to ideas and skills accrued through ongoing training and practice. The implications of such a debate for training and supervision are discussed.