Coming Full Circle: A Reciprocal-Engagement Model of Genetic Counseling Practice

As genetic health care and genetic testing expand from primarily addressing conditions that are exclusively genetic in nature to common diseases with both genetic and environmental components, the scope of genetic counseling has grown. Identification and utilization of a normative model of practice defined by members of the profession is critical as genetic services become more commonplace in medical care. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a consensus conference convened to define a model of genetic counseling practice based on the guidance of educators and leaders in the profession. Twenty-three program directors or their representatives from 20 genetic counseling graduate programs in North America listened to presentations and participated in group discussions aimed at determining the elements of a model of practice, including tenets, goals, strategies, and behaviors for addressing patients’ genetic concerns. Their discussion is summarized, training implications and research recommendations are presented, and a model of practice that extends their ideas is proposed.     

‘Does class count?’ Social class and counselling

This article explores the importance attached to social class by experienced practitioners taking part in a co‐operative inquiry group. A review of the literature from the last thirty years indicates that there is very little research on class in relation to counselling and psychotherapy reported in the UK. Both authors position themselves as coming from working class origins. Nine co‐researchers from both middle and working class origins joined the group. Eight meetings took place over a period of nine months. Extracts from the group's discussions are represented and integrated with ‘presentational knowing’ drawn from contemporary culture, including poetry and popular music. This study suggests that social class is a neglected aspect of diversity in the counselling field. Implications of the study have relevance for the language of counselling and psychotherapy and class based values; social class and its impact on initial education; and ongoing counselling practice and access to therapy for working class people.     

箱庭疗法应用于家庭治疗的理论背景与临床实践

心理咨询与治疗领域出现了整合的趋势,将箱庭疗法应用于家庭治疗是这一趋势下的成功尝试。箱庭疗法应用于家庭治疗的理论背景是家庭治疗与游戏治疗的整合以及箱庭疗法在团体治疗中的应用。箱庭疗法应用于家庭治疗的临床实践包括家庭评估、家庭治疗、夫妻治疗、家庭治疗师督导,这些临床实践的开展为儿童青少年心理咨询与治疗方法的发展提供了有益的启示。     

MAKING SPACE FOR THE METHODOLOGICAL MOSAIC: THE FUTURE OF THE FIELD OF SCIENCE-AND-RELIGION

This article is a response to Josh Reeves's recent book Against Methodology in Science and Religion: Recent Debates on Rationality and Theology that welcomes Reeves's proposal for an anti-essentialist future for the field of science-and-religion, particularly because it has the potential to move the field beyond current, well-worn methods: the dominance of Christian theology and doctrine, the importance of credibility strategies, and the dependence upon philosophical discourses. Reeves’ proposal has the potential to open the science-and-religion field to other topics, problems, and methods, such as studying lived science-and-religion. One way of doing this is to study popular culture and its artifacts such as literature, which portrays a co-mingling of religion and science at the level of day-to-day experiences and practices of characters. For at the level of lived experience, religion and science are not well-defined disciplines neatly compartmentalized into separate academic departments.     

“I WANTED ONE THING AND GOD WANTED ANOTHER . . . ”: The Dilemma of the Prophetic Example and the Qur'anic Injunction on Wife‐Beating

Chapter 4, verse 34 of the Qur'an permits husbands to physically discipline recalcitrant wives. Modern Muslims who find this husbandly privilege discomfiting often rely on Muhammad's prophetic practice to mitigate the meaning of this verse. In light of Muhammad's example of never hitting his own wives, as found in one prophetic report, they reinterpret the verse as restricting and/or voiding a husband's right to physically discipline his wife. This essay provides a critical and expository survey of prophetic reports related to the husbandly privilege to physically discipline wives. The essay argues that the modernists are correct in positing that Muhammad's prophetic practice was to morally censure husbands who hit their wives. However, taken as a whole, it is impossible to ignore that Muhammad's example also unilaterally upheld physical discipline as a husband's marital right.     

Where do counsellors in private practice receive their support? A pilot study

Background: Previous research suggests that independent practitioners should ensure that they attend to self-care, and the requirement for self-care is written into ethical practice requirements. Aims: To explore whether or how counsellors in private practice received support, and if so from where. Method: A survey questionnaire containing 29 questions was sent to 525 recipients. Results: 31 questionnaires were completed. The results from these questionnaires indicated that support was primarily received through supervision. Discussion: The support needs of private practitioners are discussed in the context of a very low response rate. The researcher considers factors that might have led to this response rate, as well as reflecting on the study design.     

Assessing students' use of optional online lecture reviews

Online practice quizzes can be used to supplement instruction in the classroom. Such quizzes can engage retrieval practice, thereby improving learning and retention. However, despite their potential benefits, recent work suggests that students typically underutilize online practice quizzes. This article reports an observational classroom study, in which students were provided optional online reviews throughout the semester. The reviews could be accessed in test format, in which students were given multiple-choice questions and provided correct answer feedback, or in read format in which students were given the same questions and were shown the correct answers. Students who used the test format performed better on exams than students who used the read format or did not use the reviews. Nevertheless, the massive majority of the online reviews (approximately 88%) were not completed, highlighting the tendency for students to underutilize optional online reviews.     

Defining and Measuring Mechanisms of Change in Psychological Therapies: The Path Not Taken

Metcalf and Dimidjian (this issue) have provided an important review of the current evidence base for mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and presented a helpful summary of the proposed mechanisms of change. It is necessary to engage in a continuous dialogue regarding the evidence base for change mechanisms, and the article by Metcalf and Dimidjian highlights an important barrier of concern to the field of treatment outcome research. The present commentary aims to expand the discussion regarding the definition, measurement, and evaluation of “mechanisms of change.” Using MBCT as an example, this commentary addresses the ambiguity surrounding the definition and operationalisation of these mechanisms in research on psychological therapies and how the method of measurement may impact the results obtained in clinical trials. It is argued that a potentially fruitful avenue of future research would involve investigation of techniques, important client‐therapeutic processes, and mechanisms in a single study in order to comprehensively evaluate how change occurs.     

Academic Theology Centered on Practical Theology

This article argues that there are considerable advantages for society, university, theology and the church to conduct theological research and education of pastors at a secular state university like the University of Copenhagen. The disadvantage is foremost that learning from a practice‐theory‐practice model is not found in theological education at the secular university. In the case of Denmark, this is, however, more due to the theology and set up of the church than to the university, where it is commonplace to integrate practice in academic studies.     

Drawing on creative reflective practices in counselling research: an example of using mental imagery to shed light on the research process

The disciplines of counselling and psychotherapy have generated a range of innovative qualitative research methods. There is the potential for further developments, particularly in relation to methods that reveal how the researcher is implicated in the research. Practitioner-researchers could help to identify potential new methods through a willingness to engage in creative applications of clinical expertise and knowledge to their research projects. This article presents an example of applying a creative reflective method to the research process and discusses its potential for delivering insights into how the researcher is shaping the research and its findings. This particular mental imagery technique is considered in the light of conceptual metaphor theory and the possibility that representing the research project as a mental image can reveal how the researcher is cognitively structuring the research process.