In view of recent studies of media use in mental hospitals showing that television is the predominant mass medium and one with great potential for therapy, a study was conducted to determine the patterns of television viewing in this environment. A total of 1,204 observations were made in five lounges on two wards of a mental hospital.…

Antidepressant medications are the most popular treatment for depression in the United States, despite the fact that there may be more effective and safer alternatives. This paper discusses alternative, effective psychological interventions for unipolar depression. Studies that compare and contrast psychological and pharmacological treatments for…

This group of papers presents the conference reports and discussion topics of the American Orthopsychiatric Association annual meeting. The conference topic was "Dilemma of the Therapist; Practice and Values in a Changing Society." Reports and discussions focused on examining ethical concerns and the dilemmas they pose for therapeutic…

Noting that the mental health practitioner needs highly developed linguistic and communicative skills in order to precipitate therapeutic changes, this paper discusses the nature of the contexts of therapeutic interaction. It examines verb tense as a linguistic context marker and shows how various schools of therapy can use it. In addition, it…

According to Dr. Gorelick, "fictional literature has unique assets that live clinical experience lacks," thus setting the tone for his paper. Literature serves many purposes; a form of communication; a tool for making the reader understand her/his subjectivity; and most importantly for the mental health situations, "it (literature) represents the…

Older adults, defined as those aged 65 or older, are rapidly becoming the largest group of individuals in the United States. As this population steadily increases, so will the demand for adequate and appropriate mental health care. Counselors need to be prepared to meet this increasing demand by understanding efficacious ways to conceptualize and…

A variety of psychotherapeutic methodologies has proliferated as a consequence of rapid growth in the need for mental health services. The effectiveness of many of these methods is questionable. Although each psychotherapeutic technique advances claims for its continued use based on clinical effectiveness, few offer adequate scientific evidence to…

Noting that therapeutic nursery programs (TNPs) offer one alternative to mainstream daycare or preschool settings for young children experiencing severe emotional and behavioral difficulties, this study gathered information about TNPs and their services. Response rate to a survey mailed to a nonrandom nationwide sample of 40 programs was 50…

This study examined the occurrence of high and low risk self-disclosure in 12 therapy groups. Eight groups were conducted for clients served by a community mental health center on an out-patient basis, and four groups were composed of extremely maladjusted in-patient clients at a state hospital. The Group Interaction Profile, an instrument which…

This clinical study describes a pilot experience of Multi-Family Treatment Groups (MFTG) as a treatment modality. The group leaders were two family therapists. Three intact families with completely different life styles, all chronically malfunctioning, and with previously unsuccessful treatment were chosen at random from the Clinic intake. The…

Phenomenology is an important force in the development of psychological theory, rather than a variant type of counseling method. A distinction must be drawn between the sensory phenomenology in which gestaltists focus on sensory receptors, and logical pheomenology in which the grounding of belief or self-identity is viewed as a prediction or…

This article discusses a program originated in response to the need to serve a most disturbed segment of children in New York City--youngsters discharged from psychiatric hospitals or residential treatment centers. This program directly links separate social institutions--the schools and the mental hospitals--in a plan for unified services to one…

For the vast majority of persons of all ages who suffer from major depression, it is recurrent. A traditional wisdom has been that elderly persons respond more poorly to treatment for serious depression than younger persons. The psychiatric status of 127 elderly persons hospitalized for an episode of major depression was systematically assessed…

To examine the effects of an 8-week parent/child cognitive behavioral treatment intervention on physiological, symptomatic, and behavioral indices of asthma, a comparison was made of results on 1-year pre-intervention and 1-year post-intervention assessments. The first year of the study involved a retrospective collection of medical data for 18…

Fourteen wilderness and adventure therapy programs in England, Scotland, the United States, and New Zealand were studied to explore critical issues of practice. In view of differences in terminology among countries, various terms and assumptions are defined at length: adventure therapy; wilderness therapy; wilderness-adventure therapy; the…