The Coping with Stress Model: A Counseling Approach for Families with a Handicapped Child

The authors describe a cognitive-behavioral model for coping with stress that counselors can use as the basis for family assessment and personalized intervention. The model, assessment procedures, and appropriate counseling strategies are discussed. Translation of the model into clinical practice is examined with families of handicapped young children. A brief case study is provided to illustrate the model's usefulness for counselors.     

Adolescent Satanism: Rebellion Masquerading as Religion

This article describes adolescent satanic practice as studied by the authors working with affected families in 3 Southwestern states in a 7-year period. Because adolescent involvement in satanism seems to be widespread and may be growing, counselors need to understand how satanism is related to religion, family dynamics, and adolescent rebellion. Counselors also need to recognize how their personal values compare with values inherent in satanism; only from a position of psychological equilibrium can counselors potentially help satanically involved clients. This article reviews the authors' observations of signs and symptoms, definitions and distinctions, family dysfunction, and individual dynamics related to satanism. A systemic perspective is suggested.     

Women Administrators in Christian Universities: Making Family and Career Co-Central

The purpose of this study was to explore how women in administrative positions in Christian higher education integrate their professional and personal lives. Six women in leadership positions in small, faith-based liberal arts colleges were interviewed. Levinson's (1996) concept of gender-splitting was used as a lens to analyze the data. The women in this study have experienced a number of influences that moderate strict notions of gender-splitting: coming from non-traditional homes with working mothers, husbands who provide substantial support with domestic duties, strong personal motivation to achieve, and mentors who provided support and guidance. The women spoke freely of their work as a ‘calling’ and used their faith in God when meeting a variety of challenges. While gender-splitting was a prevailing influence in the lives of the women in this study there was substantial evidence to show that they were resilient and flexible enough to create pathways to negotiate the commitment to family and the commitment to work in order to manage a successful career in higher education.     

Family Climate and Expressed Emotion in the Course of Alcoholism

Family-based predictors of relapse were examined in 100 alcoholics who participated in a 12-week treatment program with 6-month and 18-month followups. “Expressed Emotion” (EE), or attitudes of relatives toward the alcoholic as measured by the Camberwell Family Interview, scales measuring rejection of the alcoholic by relatives, and self-reports of partner interaction were evaluated as possible predictors of abstinence. During therapy, partnership interactions showed a transient deterioration with increased temporary friction. Based on conservative criteria, the abstinence rate was 40% at 6-month followup and 30% at 18-month followup. An association with the relapse at followup could be obtained for the Patient Rejection Scale (PRS) and, using empirically derived classification rules, for the main three variables of the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI) conducted on admission: “Critical Comments,”“Emotional Overinvolvement,” and “Warmth.” A low number of Critical Comments and a high score in Warmth were associated with a lower risk of relapse; however, contrary to expectations, Emotional Overinvolvement of the significant other was associated with more abstinence. In addition, the number of Critical Comments made by relatives about the alcoholic, a major component of high EE as measured by the CFI, had a statistically significant impact on the “survival function” of abstinence, and thus contributed to the prediction of the course of alcoholism in the expected direction.     

Family of Origin: The View from the Parents' Side

Families in which there is increased marital conflict after a relatively stable long-term marriage are a puzzle to the clinician. The author's thesis, based on experience with a group of middle-aged couples whose children's differentiation occurred after having been in individual therapy themselves, is that the differentiated child carried special psychic functions for one parent. The differentiation was experienced as tantamount to ego loss, and that parent's attempt to deal with the inner conflict resulted in a marital crisis.