This article presents the authors' response to Pignotti and Mercer's "Holding Therapy and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Are Not Supported and Acceptable Social Work Interventions." Pignotti and Mercer offer a very detailed, informative, scholarly, and eloquently expressed concern about the merit of holding therapies and the danger of offering…

This description of counseling and psychotherapy services at Amherst College begins with our heritage from the "mental hygiene" movement of the nineteenth century, the founding of the first university mental health services and the later development of a counseling center tradition. By tracing the evolution at Amherst, from a brief…

The authors respond to the article by H. F. Coelho, P. H. Canter, and E. Ernst (2007), which reviewed the current status of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). First, they clarify the randomization procedures in the 2 main MBCT trials. Second, they report posttreatment and follow-up data to show that trial participants allocated to…

Describes an insight achieved during the author's own therapy through her knowledge of J.M. Synge's play "Riders to the Sea," regarding issues in her own and her mother's life. (SR)

This paper comments on the article "Psychology and Phenomenology: A Clarification" by H. H. Kendler. In this article, Kendler sought to resolve the methodological issue that divides much of contemporary psychology--namely, the difference between natural science and human science in their respective views of psychological life. Whereas Kendler…

This paper discusses some misconceptions about person-centered therapy being incompatible with brief counseling. Three major reasons contribute to why the person-centered approach has been omitted from the literature related to brief counseling. First, brief counseling was initially identified with the cognitive-behavioral school of therapy.…

Describes the three major approaches to play therapy: psychoanalytic, structured, and relationship approaches. Discussion focuses on problems of interpretation in the psychoanalytic approach, release of pent-up emotions in the structured approach, and phases of play and therapist guidelines in nondirective, relationship therapy. (RH)

Presents an interview with George Gazda. Includes his assessment of the current status of group work, the future trends, and his contributions to the field. (Author/PVV)

Offers an overview of the root metaphors and philosophical assumptions associated with formism, mechanism, contextualism, and organicism, the four world views described in Pepper's 1942 philosophical treatise and his presentation of root metaphor theory. Examines recent and historical trends of development in counseling theory and practice within…

Explicates a sonnet by Hellen Jaskoski to illustrate the benefits of the therapeutic use of poetry. Gives particular attention to organization, condensation, clarification, safety, catharsis, and mastery. (SR)

Offers 15 humorous questions and answers for certifying Bards for poetry therapy who, once certified, will know exactly what to do when an irresistible farce faces down an immovable objective correlative. (SR)

Considers inquiry into the nature and process of change to be fundamental to the domains of counseling and psychotherapy. Clarifies distinction between first- and second-order change. Proposes that rationalist approaches to counseling are guided by first-order assumptions about change whereas constructivist approaches are based on second-order…

Suggests that the poet and the psychotherapist begin with different motivations and address quite different tasks. Discusses the paradox embodied in poetry therapy. (SR)

Argues that Lavinia of "Titus Andronicus" is Shakespeare's metaphor for the wounds of division between spoken and written word, who talks in signs, and is both poet and agent of healing: the poem's capacity to sustain the passion of rapture and its capacity to shape a house of consciousness for the particular movement within the…

Assessing, consulting, and intervening with students being treated with psychotropic medications is an increasingly common activity for school psychologists. This article reviews some of the literature providing evidence for the greater need for training in school psychopharmacology. A legal and ethical case study is presented that highlights the…