A national sample of female counselors (N=377) was surveyed regarding their psychological health and distress, work pressure and support, personal history (including erotic sexual contact with clients), personal traits, burnout and stress, personal work satisfaction, and professional concerns. Results revealed a wide variety of endorsed concerns.…

Family systems theory's contribution to the world of psychotherapy was its move away from lineal causality toward a view of human relationships as not merely multi-determined, but unavoidably and inextricably inter-related and inter-dependent. Circular causation allows the therapist to assume enormous flexibility. The rise of family therapy in…

The nature of clinical psychologists' religiosity, belief orientation, and practices in psychotherapy, including an assessment of ideology, non-doctrinal beliefs, attitudes toward clinical interventions, and a measure of dimensions of religiosity needs to be examined. To assess psychologists' religious and spiritual orientation in relation to…

The literature on attrition points to the intake and first therapy interviews as sharing the highest dropout rates. Attrition is said to be related to client, therapist, and type-of-therapy variables. To look further into the intake session with an emphasis on client-therapist and client-clinic interaction variables, clients (N=45) rated their…

Tabulated and discussed are responses to questionnaires distributed before and after a conference on the state of vocational education counseling in Montana, attended by 182 educators, school board members, students, and representatives of business, industry, labor, State legislature, and the general public. Responses to topical questions posed in…

This paper attempts to provide initial perspectives on guidelines for the preparation of counselors in dealing with client problems as they relate to death. Four elements of a training program are presented: (1) sensitizing counselors and prospective counselors to the topic of death and its potential importance; (2) helping those same people…

The literature on social cognition and intergroup relations suggests that gender and age are social concepts which, because they are at the same level of abstraction, may produce interactive effects on person perception judgments. The purpose of this study was to explore gender stereotypes that therapists hold about people who differ in age;…

Professionalism and professionalization are two issues important to the field of counseling. A basic definition of a profession is necessary in order to understand the role of counseling as a profession. One theory on the development of professions in the western world begins with the priest as the prototypical professional. Professions then…

This study sought to identify characteristics of counselors and counseling services that are important in the selection of a counseling service. Subjects (N=28) were recruited through a newspaper advertisement and through mall intercepts. The screening criteria were designed to locate potential or previous counseling service consumers whose…

This study examined the degree and dimensions of professional satisfaction among a large, nationally-representative sample of practicing counselors. The objectives of the study included estimating the distribution of global professional satisfaction among practicing counselors; examining the relationships between counselors' global professional…

Salient Issues (SI) is a paper-and-pencil test designed to measure a subject's tendency to consider sex role issues as salient ones within the counseling experience. Issues within the instrument are masked. SI is intended for use in a repeated measures design in order to assess trends within groups and across groups. In this study, the construct…

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes held by counseling psychologists about alcoholics and alcoholism, and to determine the relationship between these attitudes and the individual's level of experience, knowledge and training in the alcoholism domain. Although counseling psychologists typically deal with developmental issues,…

W. G. Perry (1970) formulated a description of stages of intellectual and ethical development. Perry's schema seems to have applicability in describing trainees as they approach working with families and gauging counselor trainees' level of progress. The first stage is "dualism" in which trainees rely primarily on the use of logic and the weight…

This study compared the beliefs of mothers (N=36) of persons with Down Syndrome with the beliefs of genetic counselors (N=28) and nurses (N=32) about parenting children with Down Syndrome and about prenatal diagnosis. All subjects were shown a videotaped discussion by parents of persons with Down Syndrome and then responded to a questionnaire.…

This document notes that it is commonly recognized that empathic attunement is vital if psychotherapy is to be truly therapeutic. It goes on to explain that, in spite of this recognition, therapists and clients alike will frequently demonstrate an anti-empathic attitude that indicates a basic opposition to understanding and being understood.…