Incorporating films in abnormal psychology courses often helps to enliven the class and engage students in the diagnostic process. This summary of films that have been effectively incorporated by clinical instructors may be of value to those wishing to enhance their classroom presentations of these content areas. Although use of mass-marketed…

Constructivists believe that counselors and therapists help clients with the construction of knowledge by helping clients expand their alphabet into more flexible, viable, and complex acts of telling (language, conversations, narratives). Ways in which professionals can deconstruct the fundamental assumptions of the mental health professions and…

Maladaptive eating behaviors are a growing phenomenon which has captured the interest of not only health and psychology professionals, but also the general public. This paper examines the various types of treatment and counseling approaches for treating anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Definitions for both disorders are provided, followed by…

This book describes the use of drawing in therapy. Stimulus drawings (SDs) and techniques were developed in the 1960s for use with deaf children at a time when manual communication was forbidden in their schools. During the 1970s, the drawings were expanded for use with learning-disabled children, adult stroke-patients, and others with…

Listening requires a great awareness of self, words, facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and eye contact. This article examines the importance of these factors in the development of the therapeutic relationship. Among some of the characteristics of effective listening treated here are qualities within the client/therapist…

A study analyzed the extent to which writing teachers in conferencing situations employ the communication techniques used by professional helping agents. A metatheory of communication techniques developed by Allen Ivey and associates which attempts to combine and synthesize the relevant psychotherapeutic and counseling techniques in the profession…

Historically, the literature on psychotherapy with borderline personality disorder has been based on object-relations theory or psychoanalytical approaches, rather than cognitive and behavioral approaches. In clinical assessment, the term borderline has been used to refer to patients with both neurotic and psychotic symptoms, a particular type of…

One clinical psychologist worked with terminally ill, end-stage Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients in a hospice type setting for an 18-month time period. Interventions included individual psychotherapy, mental status assessments, staff group sessions, and supportive services for families and significant others. During that time,…

To explore the relationship between pre-therapy information and perceptions of therapy by prospective clients, a total of 192 black subjects and white subjects, equally divided by race and sex, were presented pre-therapy information, observed an initial therapy session, and then rated the therapist and predicted the overall therapy duration.…

A key task for the therapist in psychotherapy is to build trust and rapport with the client. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioners believe that matching the sensory modality (representational system) of a client's predicates (verbs, adverbs, and adjectives) improves rapport. In this study, 16 volunteer subjects participated in two…

With the addition of the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs to the American Psychological Association and the observation that greater numbers of ethnic minorities are seeking psychological treatment, a growing area of research has been related to ethnic issues in psychotherapy. Many empirical studies have been conducted comparing psychotherapy…

A developmental dialectical approach to understanding and working with lower and middle class damaged parents--those identified as abusive and neglectful--has specific features and implications. The approach suggests that (1) the personality characteristics and interpersonal relations of parents are inseparable from their social conditions; (2)…

Casa de Esperanza, Incorporated, is a program which provides residential care to severely disturbed children, ages birth to 6 years. The philosophy of the program is to provide care to the disturbed child and counseling to the parents so that the child may return to the parental home once the crisis is past. The children are cared for in shelter…

Learned helplessness often precedes depression. The elderly are more likely than the general population to be faced with uncontrollable events which may bring on learned helplessness. Intervention by gerontological counselors has been useful in reducing effects of helplessness. With pseudohelplessness, persons act helpless in order to control…

The disabled reader's measurably low success in processing print creates tension, stress, and increasingly negative perceptions of the reading act and of the reader's own beliefs about his or her personal competencies. The task of the reading specialist might be facilitated by conscious and increasingly skilled application of psychotherapeutic…