Reports results of ratings of Structural Family Therapy skills important for beginning family therapists. Panel of experts (N=103) who practice and teach Structural Family Therapy rated 100 competencies in terms of importance. Discusses rationale for the approach and results in terms of importance of empirically based competencies for the practice…

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999) is a behaviorally based intervention designed to target and reduce experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion (holding the thoughts in one's mind to be literally true) while at the same time helping clients to make powerful life enhancing behavioral changes that are in line…

This book presents an organized picture of how professional counselors and counseling psychologists can become primary prevention agents and shows that this approach is rooted in the very origins of counseling and counseling psychology. Section I presents the origins and a conceptual understanding of primary prevention in mental health. It shows…

Discusses the role of technique and technology in psychological counseling. Argues that the distinction between "knowing that" and "knowing how" is an important one in professional training. Techniques are necessary codifications of more basic, abstract development. The counseling apprentice and supervisor should relegate technique and technical…

The history of dream analysis and interpretation is presented to provide additional background for practitioners interested in dream analysis. (Author)

A hermeneutic view of counseling attunes counselors to the particular meanings and meaning-making potentials clients and students bring to conversations. Accordingly, counselors' questions and proposed solutions can engage the meaning-making efforts of clients in ways counselors and clients both can learn from. Article explores ways to adopt and…

For marriage and family therapists and educators who train future marriage and family therapists, families formed by means of adoption offer an abundance of learning opportunities in both the areas of assessment and intervention. The following consultation case represents a composite family designed to highlight the unique features of adoptive…

Examines idea of psychological skills training. Raises questions concerning the conceptual validity and generalizability of programs that attempt psychological skills training as a means of "giving psychology away." Draws specific references and illustrations from recent research in applied psychology and literature in counseling and…

Contends that counseling/therapy is more complicated than it may first appear. Urges counselors/therapists trained in limited areas to place their specific techniques within a general, comprehensive counseling framework. Stresses that failing to do so makes counselors/therapists limited in what treatment they can provide. (CM)

Refers to misunderstandings of client-centered theory and attempts to explain how client-centered supervision works. Notes that a client-centered supervisor sets explicit standards for student behavior and, on basis of those standards, evaluates particular behaviors of a supervisee while still relating to trainee as person worthy of respect. (NB)

Conducted week-long course of study in counseling skills for individuals (n=73) working with juvenile offenders. Participants evidenced significant changes in certain behavior categories as measured by the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior Scales (FIRO-B). Compared to controls, participants made certain movements in positive…

Three distinct clinical orientations were identified in a sample of chemical dependency counselors (N=406). Based on cluster analysis, the largest group, identified and labeled as "uniform counselors," endorsed a simple, moral-disease model with little interest in psychosocial interventions. (Contains 50 references and 4 tables.) (GCP)

The practice of having professors or supervised doctoral students leading laboratory groups for students in masters-level group counseling courses is widespread. There are, however, a number of ethical considerations which render this practice problematic, as well as alternative solutions with fewer potential ethical conflicts.

The authors examine the counseling skill of immediacy, emphasizing its importance in counselor education. Ways of addressing and teaching the skill are proposed, with an emphasis on a "gentle approach" to reduce risks associated with applying the skill and to minimize students" resistance to applying it. Examples are provided of narratives that…

The author surveyed counselor education programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs regarding the importance placed on eating disorders in counselor preparation and how they may be addressed. Most respondents valued the topic, and most did include or would consider including eating disorders…