Counseling Commons^™

The Effect Of Childhood Maltreatment On Psychotherapy Effectiveness In Adulthood: Implications For Counselors, Michael Hillerman

Theses and Dissertations

Recent gains in understanding the effects of childhood maltreatment on the development of the brain and nervous system, combined with the revelation that nearly all psychiatric neuroimaging studies have had an unrecognized confound in childhood maltreatment, imply the possibility that psychotherapy treatment effectiveness studies have been similarly confounded by childhood maltreatment. This study examines whether treatment-seeking adults exposed to childhood maltreatment respond differently to psychotherapy than do individuals who report no history of childhood maltreatment. Response to therapy is conceptualized in this study as reduction in symptom measures pre- and post- treatment, as well as client dropout. It is hypothesized …

Law Library Blog (December 2022): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Counselor Perceived Competence Diagnosing Disorders From Dsm-5 Diagnostic Categories Survey Results And The Development And Validation Of Scores On The Diagnostic Self-Efficacy Scale, Erin Elizabeth Woods

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation focused on the diagnostic self-efficacy of mental health counselors. The diagnosis of mental health disorders serves a wide array of functions in the counseling field including communication, treatment planning, and third-party reimbursement. Self-efficacy, or one’s belief in their own ability to accomplish a task, is considered a factor in successful task completion. The literature lacked information about which mental health disorders counselors are most confident diagnosing and an instrument which measured the self-efficacy of counselors specific to the diagnostic process. The MEASURE approach was employed to create the Diagnostic Self-Efficacy Scale and validate scores on this instrument with …

Forged In The Fires Of Covid-19: The Evolution Of Systemic Therapy For Online Practice And Beyond, Lauren Skuba M.A., Mftc, Lindsay Edwards , Ph.D.

Counseling and Family Therapy Scholarship Review

There has been a swift uptake in the use of teletherapy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has corresponded with an increase in clinical scholarship focused on conducting systemic therapy in an online format. A majority of this scholarship offers ideas for adapting therapeutic tasks developed around in-person contact for a remote format. The current article moves beyond adapting and offers ideas for remote systemic therapy that are born from our experiences of evolving through teletherapy. We begin by noting some of the significant differences between in-person therapy and teletherapy before describing how these differences can influence client …

Bowen Informed Therapy Integrated With Gene Keys, Kristen Oliver M.A.

Counseling and Family Therapy Scholarship Review

The mental health professions require innovation in order to advance theory and practice. This article presents reimagined therapeutic work that joins the metaphysical element of Gene Keys with the largely accepted theoretical approach of Bowen Family Systems Theory. We propose the integration of metaphysics as a way to facilitate higher levels of differentiation – particularly in clients who have an expanded worldview inclusive of metaphysics. The reader is asked to stretch their beliefs and perspective as they read through this paper.

Mft Trainee Experiences Of Shame, Self-Criticism, And Self-Compassion In Their First Practicum, Mark Karris , Ph.D., Angela B. Kim Ph.D.

Counseling and Family Therapy Scholarship Review

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of MFT trainee shame, self-criticism, and self-compassion. Additionally, this study also sought to understand how those experiences may affect a trainee’s clinical work as a first-time practicum student. Interviews were conducted with 15 trainees in a graduate program who were performing therapy at a practicum site. Utilizing Moustakas’ transcendental phenomenology, six essential themes emerged: (1) shame and self-criticism are interrelated and can affect therapeutic presence; (2) self-criticism can have a positive impact on clinical work; (3) trainees use metaphors to describe shame and self-criticism (4) self-compassion …

Using Stories With Families: A Scoping Review, Sam Hadji Cyrous Ph.D. (Candidate), Sofia Valadares Nishiyama Cordeiro, Ana Caroline De Caldas

Counseling and Family Therapy Scholarship Review

This article is the fruit of a systematic scoping review, according to PRISMA precepts. Its objective was to explore the use of stories and other symbolic genre on family therapy settings. Thus, it explains how the researchers made the selection of articles in phases or steps, in a total of six, having a final result of 11 articles, in a time-lapse of 28 years. By the one hand, it was observed a relationship between different techniques that are usually grouped separately and, by the other hand, the disparate way in which the same concepts are confused among researchers, where each …

Notes On Language In The Clinic In A Lacanian Key, Sean J. Carroll

Counseling and Family Therapy Scholarship Review

There is no shortage of therapeutic modalities and interventions at the therapist’s disposal. Psychotherapy, because it claims to treat the individual, is necessarily multifaceted and complex. The dimension of language which structures much of our experience should be considered as a starting point for a psychotherapeutic technique. French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan developed a theory and technique of the talking cure beginning from this assumption: that language structures our experience. In the early 1950s he sought to recover a linguistic Freud: to re-center psychoanalytic psychotherapy on language itself. In this paper, I sketch the theoretical reasons for this turn in Lacan …

Emergency Care For Youth Who Experience Suicidality And Identify As Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning (Lgbtq+): An Interpretive Phenomenology, Theresa Schultz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Suicide is a leading cause of death in children; youth who identify as LGBTQ+ are at an exponentially higher risk of suicide. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of young adults who identify as LGBTQ+ and sought emergency care for suicidality when they were adolescents.

Methods: Heideggerian hermeneutics phenomenology is the research method used in this study. Youth, ages 18-25 years, who identify as LGBTQ+ and sought emergency treatment for suicidality when they were adolescents (13-17 years) were recruited to participate;fifteen youth enrolled. Individuals ranged in age from 20 to 25 years. Participants described …

Mental Health Counselors’ Perceptions Of Professional Identity As Correctional Counselors In An Integrated Behavioral Health Care Setting, Jeanel L. Franklin

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

This study explores the professional identity of clinical mental health counselors employed as correctional counselors in an integrated behavioral health (IBH) setting. Previous research has documented the attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of mental health counselors working in IBH as well as their experiences engaging in interprofessional collaboration. However, researchers have yet to explore how clinical mental health counselors in correctional settings perceive their professional identity and what aspects of their professional roles impact their identity development. This study utilized an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) to describe, understand, and interpret the meaning of four correctional counselors’ perceptions of their professional identities …

A Tide Of Technical Trends: Technology Competence Among Licensed Counselors, Brittany G. Suggs, Mary Sanderfer Stull, Spencer R. Baker, Kathie T. Erwin, David M. Savinsky

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

The inclusion of technology in mental health care can revolutionize the accessibility, affordability, and effectiveness of counseling services, while furnishing practical solutions to reduce mental health disparities and meet widening care demands. Steered by the Coalition for Technology in Behavioral Science (CTiBS) telebehavioral health (TBH) competencies, this study employed a descriptive survey design to investigate licensed counselors’ (LCs’) perceived technology competence in mental health care. The following research question steered the study’s exploration: What is the nature of perceived technology competence among LCs? The overarching hypothesis speculated that LCs’ exposure, familiarity, and current utilization of various mental health technologies would …

The Experiences Of Collegiality By Early-Career Counselor Educators, Jessica M. Tyler, Malti Tuttle, Marina Naviaux, Sara Ellison

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

It is essential to develop a work culture that supports faculty needs, be it professional for promotion and tenure, or personal. This phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of collegiality by early-career counselor educator faculty members (CES) working in a CACREP institution. Relational support, expectations, administration, and doctoral experiences emerged as themes from these narratives. Implications for the field are discussed to address these experiences and provide recommendations to counselor education faculty and departments.

Decolonizing Psychotherapy, Nicole D. Taylor

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This project aims to increase the use and inclusivity of mental health services within marginalized communities by providing education and training tools on the use and application of integrative mental health approaches. It is an offering of guidance, providing a culturally responsive framework for integrating yoga into psychotherapy. The manual aims to reduce systemic, colonialist, barriers to mental health services. This project is founded on the basis that mono-cultural foundations in traditional psychotherapeutic treatments negatively impact the attitudes and beliefs of service seekers, typically within excluded groups. Systems Theory and Critical Race Theory and Social Justice principles inform the application …

A Qualitative Study On Nurse Facilitators Of Mind-Body Skills Groups, Paula D. Blake-Beckford

Mindfulness Studies Theses

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), founded by Dr. James Gordon, provides communities with evidence-based Mind-Body Skills Groups (MBSGs) that foster self-care, self-awareness, and self-expression. MBSGs range from 8 to 12-week series on various mind-body practices wherein group members meet, practice, and reflect on the impact of mind-body skills in their lives. Research has demonstrated that participants in MBSGs have positive outcomes. Healthcare professionals (HCPs), especially nurses, gain resiliency from MBSGs. As facilitators of MBSGs, nurses develop essential skills transferable to clinical and educational settings. MBSGs are therapeutic for adult participants with chronic stress. Prior to this thesis, only one …

Finding A Middle Path: Using Expressive Arts Therapy To Engage Adolescents In Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Literature Review, Rebecca Miller

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This critical literature review explores the limited research on integrating expressive arts therapy (ExTH) with dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). DBT, an evidence-based, third-wave cognitive-behavioral intervention, has been adapted for use with adolescents struggling with emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Yet, the didactic and almost rigid nature of DBT can feel more like a school lesson and less like therapy, making it difficult for adolescents to engage with the treatment. This is problematic as DBT's effectiveness requires the client to be fully committed and willing to engage in the therapy. This paper explores the literature on combining ExTH with DBT and conceptual …

Touch In Drama Therapy: A Literature Review, Sara Hood

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This article is a cursory look at how touch is perceived in the field of drama therapy. Touch is integral to our experience as humans and can be present in drama therapy sessions. Ethical guidelines for touch in the literature are identified and relevant drama therapy texts and articles describing touch are discussed. While drama therapy has a clear voice when it comes to ethically engaging in touch with a client, very little research was found exploring the intention and outcome of touch in a drama therapy session. Other therapeutic modalities, specifically Developmental Transformations and dance/movement therapy, are identified as …

A Group Music Therapy Method To Promote Mentalization Skills In Clients With Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Lisa Riggs Hobbs

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

This paper investigates the development of a group music therapy method by adapting elements of mentalization-based treatment (MBT) to help clients with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). A prominent characteristic of NPD is a deficiency in empathy. The fostering of empathy and emotional awareness forms the basis of MBT. Music therapy offers a means to explore these skills on a nonverbal level. This work is even more impactful in a group setting. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of literature specific to music therapy and NPD. Furthermore, despite the availability of writings separately concerning NPD, MBT, group therapy, and music therapy, …

Building Character By Building Characters: A Literature Review Examining The Efficacy Of Tabletop Roleplay As A Creative Intervention For Developing Social Skills In Adolescents, Kathleen Angela L. Bautista

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

In the realm of tabletop roleplay games, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) earned a reputation as the most prolific franchise within the genre and has since prevailed as a popular bonding activity for peer groups of all ages and backgrounds. Among the player base in the D&D community are those that gleaned its potential to offer a conducive space for personal growth, particularly in the realm of psychosocial development, given that D&D sessions facilitated dynamic social interactions among the members. The emphasis on imagination in D&D nurtures the tenets of intermodal expression, as players are encouraged to explore their creativity through …

Healing Our Connection With Nature: An Expressive Arts Community Engagement Project, Meghan Mccrillis

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

A community engagement project was created and implemented, comprised of two events for which the author facilitated nature-based expressive arts experiences to explore the integration of nature and expressive arts therapy. The events were offered to two different groups of community members, one for nature-curious adults held outdoors on the trails of a local conservation trust, and another for young children at a local library. The healing impact of nature connection and nature connection experiences are explored through a literature review, event methods, and the author’s personal experiences of the project via artmaking. The results include an emphasis on nature …

Implementing Universal Depression Screening In A College Health Clinic, Marilyn J. Grabau

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: College students are at high risk for depression, and this carries a considerable burden. The American College Health Association supports depression screening on college campuses recognizing that early identification leads to better outcomes.

LOCAL PROBLEM: The project site is a public university located in New England. The college campus health center incorporates medical and counseling services. From August 2019 to December of 2019, 67% of students seen in the counseling center described depressed mood as the presenting concern. Currently there is no routine depression screening in place.

METHODS: This QI project implemented universal depression screening at the student health …

Wellness And Professional Quality Of Life In Counselor-In-Training Interns: Assessment Of Wellness And Non-Wellness-Infused Supervision, Ashley J. Blount, Abby L. Bjornsen, Daniel B. Kissinger, Kara Schneider, Lindsay Vik, Jessica Gonzalez-Voller

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Counselors-in-training (CITs) commonly encounter issues of burnout, compassion fatigue, and/or vicarious traumatization due to the nature of their jobs in the helping profession. Wellness infused supervision may help CITs foster personal wellness and mitigate deleterious effects of helping. This investigation examined connections related to counselor-in-training wellness and professional quality of life during an internship-level supervision course across a wellness and control section.

Methods: A quasi-experimental design was piloted, comparing a wellness-focused supervision internship section with a non-wellness control group supervision internship section during one academic semester. Participants included 15 clinical mental health CITs (9 experimental; 6 control), who were …

Complex Thought For Complex Work: Preparing Cognitively Complex Counselors For Work In Diverse Settings, Alexandra C. Gantt

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Counselor education researchers have explored the need for high levels of cognitive complexity (CC) in mental health counselors due to its relationship with high quality counseling skills and counselor ways of being (e.g., Castillo, 2018; McAuliffe & Lovell, 2006; Ridley et al., 2011; Welfare & Borders, 2010b). In these studies, researchers have called for continued study of means of enhancing CC in counselors in training (CITs) through andragogical efforts (e.g., Castillo, 2018; Duys & Hedstrom, 2000; Welfare & Borders, 2010a). However, we do not have an understanding of minimally acceptable CC for graduating CITs. In this study, I explored counselor …

Exploring Higher Weight Women's Experiences Of Provider Weight Stigma, Meredith W. Moore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the phenomena of weight stigma as experienced by higher weight women in mental health treatment who also engage in restrictive eating behaviors. Women in larger bodies who are emotionally or behaviorally restrictive in their eating behaviors face a unique set of challenges and barriers. These include challenges due the disordered eating behaviors themselves, along with barriers related to weight stigma perpetuated by the mental health providers treating them (Harrop, 2019). Distinct hurdles to proper treatment including delay of diagnosis, longer duration of symptoms, and increased distress related to eating and body …

Children Of Divorce Parents Group Manual, Sheyenne Hokit

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Divorce is something that is, unfortunately, becoming a commonality for a lot of children, and due to the complexity of divorce, many children struggle when trying to understand divorce and how it affects them. Some effects of divorce are various emotional and behavioral issues such as increased anger and decreased emotion regulation. Social, health, and academic concerns were also found. Counseling interventions like narrative therapy, emotion-focused family therapy, emotion-focused therapy, and play therapy were found to be effective with this population (Hirschfeld & Wittenborn, 2016, Thomas & Gibbons, 2009). The identified interventions provide peer-based social support, education on the misconceptions …

Affirmative Counseling With Lgbqqia Individuals: A Training And Resource Manual For Mental Health Counselors, Tena Prestidge

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This article is a review of literature related to issues associated with working with LGBQQIA clients. Although not an exhaustive review, the literature provides evidence of the need for additional training to improve the confidence and competence of counselors working with this population. Further, information is provided on what makes a counselor competent to work with LGBQQIA clients and evidence-based practices that have been shown to be effective in working with them. Following this review, a training and education manual is presented to help fill the need of additional training related to working with this population.

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Acculturation, Islamic Religious Practice, And Academic Performance Among Saudi Arabian Students In The United States, Marzook A. Aldhafeeri

Theses & Dissertations

Recent data have indicated that universities in the United States (U.S.) host as many as 21,933 students from Saudi Arabia, making Saudi Arabia one of the top four countries for international students attending U.S. universities. Several research studies have indicated that religiosity and acculturation influence student’s performance. However, there is a scarcity of studies that assessed the relationships among acculturation, religious practices, and the academic performances among Saudi Arabian students in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among acculturation, religiosity, and academic performance among Saudi Arabian students in the United States. This study was …

A Constructivist Grounded Theory Of Spiritual Competencies Development Incounseling Supervision, Emmanuel Javert Nnadozie

Theses & Dissertations

Developing religious and spiritual competencies is paramount in the training of counselors to become effective in addressing clients’ religious and spiritual issues in counseling. Clinical supervision in practicum and internship courses is key to the development of these competencies, but questions as to how best they might be infused in counselor training remained. The purpose of the study was to create an explanatory theory of the process of the development of religious and spiritual competencies in clinical supervision. Utilizing grounded theory, experts in the field of supervision and spirituality were interviewed. The ways paradigm was used as a sensitizing concept …

Latina's Experiences Of Shared Parenting In The Context Of Intimate Partner Violence: A Phenomenological Study, Pisinee Dangwung

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presented a hermeneutic phenomenological study conducted with 12 Latina mothers who were survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) considering or in a process of shared parenting with their former abusive partner. The purpose of this study was to explore the essence of shared parenting experiences among participants in the IPV context and examine how attachment style, adverse childhood experiences, and cultural values impacted their shared parenting decisions and processes. The study was guided by the theoretical frameworks of symbolic interactionism, intersectional feminism, and attachment. Findings indicated adverse childhood experiences and cultural values affected participants’ shared parenting decisions and …

Classical Music In Depth Psychology: Listening To The Unconscious In Active Imagination, Ellen Wimmer Sheahan

Counseling and Family Therapy Scholarship Review

This article aims to explore the role of classical music in depth psychology, with insight from the author’s experience as a classical musician and psychotherapist. The author posits that classical music possesses deep archetypal wisdom that supports awareness for client individuation. Through personal reflection and case examples, the author examines archetypal potentials when classical music arises in active imagination. This writing aims to substantiate the importance of sound and music, as well as image, in the field of depth psychology.

Using Client And Supervision Feedback To Improve Supervision In Health Care, Daryl Mahon Ba, Ma

Counseling and Family Therapy Scholarship Review

This paper seeks to establish a conceptual model of client and supervisee feedback that can be used to improve supervision processes and outcomes in health and social care settings. Supervision is a beneficial practice development endeavor that practitioners find rewarding for various reasons. However, the impact of supervision on client outcomes in health and social care settings is scant and not all supervision is helpful; indeed, harmful and inadequate supervision is also prevalent. Using supervisory measures of the alliance between supervisor and supervisee may be one method to help improve processes and outcomes. In addition, providing client feedback to practitioners …