Who drops-out? Do measures of risk to self and to others predict unplanned endings in primary care counselling?

Aims: Unplanned endings, where clients unilaterally end therapy, are of concern for psychological therapy services generally as they raise questions about the appropriateness of the treatment and it's delivery for some clients. Limited available data indicates that those who drop-out often have more severe symptoms at entry, and have poorer clinical outcomes. This raises further questions about risk to self and others for those clients who leave therapy prematurely and how these clients might be identified and kept engaged. Method: This paper uses a large dataset of CORE data collected routinely in a primary care counselling service between 2000 and 2003. Logistic regression was utilised to consider different measures of risk and other client characteristics recorded at assessment to predict drop-out from the service. Results: These indicate that younger age, greater psychological distress at assessment, an addiction problem and greater risk to others, are associated with an unplanned ending. However, no reliable logistic regression model could be produced. This may be partly due to data quality issues or important characteristics not being available in the data. Implications for practice: The paper concludes that counsellors should actively seek to minimise unplanned endings, as amongst them may be represented the more distressed and risky clients referred to primary care counselling.     

Research in counselling and psychotherapy Post‐COVID‐19

The COVID‐19 pandemic brings to light many areas the field of counselling and psychotherapy may need to address in future research. We outline several issues stemming from or exacerbated by the pandemic and offer suggestions for future research to address the mental health needs of those impacted. Our suggestions focus on five domains: (a) the health and well‐being of helping professionals, (b) the infodemic, (c) discrimination and minority stress, (d) spiritual and existential dynamics in mental health and (e) couple and family stress and resilience. We aim to provide a multi‐systemic perspective of mental health and well‐being in the time of COVID‐19, as well as encourage current and future studies to incorporate these suggestions to advance the health and well‐being of our communities through evidence‐based treatment approaches.     

Training Counsellors to Work with People who Live with Cancer: A Needs-led Approach to Planning

This paper traces the development of a cancer counselling service within a voluntary helping agency. The steps of recognizing the needs of people with cancer, identifying multi-faceted desired outcomes and the implementation of one specific goal, that of provision of a counselling service, are outlined. Significant events, stages and decisions made during this process are described and discussed. The emphasis throughout is on the importance of needs analysis and client group consultation in order that the planned service is best placed to meet such needs.     

心理健康服务的文化胜任力：理论取向与实践策略

心理健康服务的文化胜任力随着欧美对多元文化群体的重视而逐渐发展起来。该领域存在两种不同的理论取向及相应的实践策略。内容取向关注静态的、结构化的文化胜任力; 过程取向则关注动态的、非结构化的文化胜任力。两种取向的异同体现了文化胜任力的研究和实践中对文化特异性和普遍性因素的平衡。在此基础上, 本文最后讨论了如何参考国外经验, 立足中国现实问题和加强社会心理服务体系建设的大背景, 来发展中国的文化胜任力。     

Asian and Non-Asian Attitudes Toward Rape,Sexual Harassment,and Sexuality

The purpose of this study was to explore potential differences between Asian and non-Asian university students in attitudes toward coercive and noncoercive sexual behavior. Four hundred women and men (205 Asian, 195 non-Asian) were assessed on attitudes towards rape, sexual harassment, and general sexual behavior. Length of residency in Canada for Asian respondents was examined to determine whether Westernization might attenuate differences. Analysis revealed that Asian students were significantly more conservative in attitudes toward sexual behavior. Asian students were also more tolerant of rape myths and more accepting of sexual harassment. Asian respondents demonstrated a decrease in tolerance for rape myths and sexual harassment as length of residency in Canada increased. Women were less conservative than men from the same background on almost all items.     

The psychological sense of economic hardship: measurement models, validity, and cross-ethnic equivalence for urban families

Poverty is a community stressor that disproportionally affects ethnic minority families. One aspect of programmatic research on poverty focuses on the psychological sense of economic hardship. In a study of 319 African American, European American, and Mexican American urban families, parents completed objective measures of economic status and scales of perceived economic hardship that were adapted from previous research. Measurement models identified a coherent construct of psychological sense of economic hardship that was essentially equivalent for mothers and fathers, English- and Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans, and the 3 ethnic groups. In support of the validity of this construct, relations between objective indicators of economic status and perceived economic hardship showed equivalence across these same groups.     

Revisiting Group Attachment: Ethnic and National Identity

The study of ethnic and national identity, owing to the complex interaction between individuals, groups, and systems, has not remained confined to traditional disciplinary boundaries. In particular, a branch of social-psychological research has provided insight into the most fundamental aspect of this phenomenon, subjective bonds between individuals and groups. Here, data derived from a Q-methodological study of Basque national identity are used to show that claims advanced within the existing literature appear to be restricted in their ability to explain subjective attachment to the nation; that is, they cannot adequately account for the types of bonds that emerged from the Basque case study. Primarily through Q methodology, an alternative explanation and method for uncovering the ties between individuals and groups is offered. In the place of previously vague and restrictive a priori categories of collective attachment, Q is shown to offer a means by which to explore the subjective nature of ethnic and national identification.     

Corporal Punishment by American Parents: National Data on Prevalence, Chronicity, Severity, and Duration, in Relation to Child and Family Characteristics

We present data on corporal punishment (CP) by a nationally representative sample of 991 American parents interviewed in 1995. Six types of CP were examined: slaps on the hand or leg, spanking on the buttocks, pinching, shaking, hitting on the buttocks with a belt or paddle, and slapping in the face. The overall prevalence rate (the percentage of parents using any of these types of CP during the previous year) was 35% for infants and reached a peak of 94% at ages 3 and 4. Despite rapid decline after age 5, just over half of American parents hit children at age 12, a third at age 14, and 13% at age 17. Analysis of chronicity found that parents who hit teenage children did so an average of about six times during the year. Severity, as measured by hitting the child with a belt or paddle, was greatest for children age 5–12 (28% of such children). CP was more prevalent among African American and low socioeconomic status parents, in the South, for boys, and by mothers. The pervasiveness of CP reported in this article, and the harmful side effects of CP shown by recent longitudinal research, indicates a need for psychology and sociology textbooks to reverse the current tendency to almost ignore CP and instead treat it as a major aspect of the socialization experience of American children; and for developmental psychologists to be cognizant of the likelihood that parents are using CP far more often than even advocates of CP recommend, and to inform parents about the risks involved.     

Energy psychology and psychotherapy: A study of the use of energy psychology in psychotherapy practice

Aim: The aim of the study was to increase understanding of how energy psychology informs and affects counselling/psychotherapy practice. By undertaking phenomenological interviews with experienced clinicians, the aim was to enrich and expand on the scientific approaches to energy psychology research. Method: This research is based on in‐depth semi‐structured interviews using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Five experienced psychotherapists who are also practitioners of energy psychology were interviewed. Findings: Four main themes emerged from the analysis: energy psychology as a potent intervention that facilitates shifts in emotions, cognitions, behaviours and physiology; the safety of energy psychology techniques; the role of the therapeutic relationship when using energy psychology techniques; and the challenges of integrating energy psychology into the work context, highlighting the need for more complex, systemic models to understand how people experience distress and how change is facilitated. Conclusion: Overall, participants in this study found energy psychology to be a valuable supplement to counselling and psychotherapy. The implications for current practice are discussed.