Welcoming the Other: Actualising the humanistic ethic at the core of counselling psychology practice

In the past 20 years, there have been numerous calls for a reinvigoration of vocational psychology. Now, as vocational psychology has grown again within counseling psychology, the authors argue that what is needed is not a reinvigoration but rather a new paradigm that reintegrates vocational psychology and the rest of counseling psychology. The new paradigm conceptualizes vocational issues as an integral part of theory, research, practice, and teaching of counseling psychology. Vocational issues should not over shadow other issues but should be an integrated part of what counseling psychologists do. The articles in this major contribution take steps toward this new paradigm by addressing teaching issues in counseling psychology training programs. If the new paradigm is to be adopted by all counseling psychologists, they must begin in their training programs. These articles give suggestions for how to begin the paradigm shift in this setting, discussing implications for the science and practice of counseling psychology beyond the training programs.

This article presents a revised conception of research and practice in counseling psychology that (1) emphasizes the traditional activities of each role that have positive implications for the other role; (2) expands each role to bring each closer to the activities of the other; (3) highlights a number of practices in the humanities and other social sciences that can aid counseling psychologists in their efforts to further integrate research, theory, and practice; and (4) indicates why counseling psychologists are uniquely well suited to accomplish such an integration and have in many instances informally begun the task. What has historically occurred is that an unnecessarily wide gap has arisen between research and practice in counseling psychology (e.g., Goldman, 1976). By broadening the range of acceptable explanations in psychological research and modifying slightly the evidence-collecting procedures in the practice of counseling, the gap between the two might be lessened to the benefit of both undertakings.

This study analyzed the jobs of animal-assisted therapy specialists using the Development of a Curriculum (DACUM) technique, a job analysis method for the duties and tasks performed in a specific job. It derived nine duties and 54 tasks through a verification process. In addition, by analyzing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes according to the task, the duties of animal-assisted therapy specialists were derived with 37 knowledge points (K), 32 skills (S), and 46 attitudes (A). The curriculum was designed based on the results derived from the job analysis. The final derived subjects were "understanding the counselee", "clinical practice", "therapy-assisted animal management", "case conceptualization", "psychological test and evaluation", "program development", "understanding and practice of counseling psychology", "animal-assisted intervention introduction", "evaluation analysis and report", "case study and practice", "case guidance and management", "training and behavior", and "animal welfare". These results can improve the professionalism of animal-assisted therapy specialists and the overall quality of the therapy site.

Chapter 6 discusses clinical competence in intervention and how to do so in a way that can be considered as typical of or consistent with the practice of counseling psychology. It also covers the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM ), the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP), the competency benchmarks (CB) model, the American Board of Counseling Psychology (ABCoP) model, the current movements toward evidence-based psychological practice (EBPP) and empirically supported treatments (ESTs), and the Division 29 Task Force.

Background/aims/objectives:In the United Kingdom, there is a growing movement towards including more arts-based interventions within healthcare systems. This study investigated attitudes of counselling psychologists towards using music therapeutically. The aim was to provide preliminary evidence, and inform future research, on the feasibility of including music as an intervention in counselling psychology practice. It was hypothesised that practitioners who personally engaged with music would be more likely to view interventions using music as acceptable.Methodology:The study utilised quantitative survey methodology to collect data from trainee and qualified counselling psychologists practising in the United Kingdom. Forty-three participants completed the survey, which comprised the Music Use and Background Questionnaire (MUSEBAQ; Chin et al., 2018) to assess personal engagement with music across factors of musicianship, musical capacity and motivations for music use, and an acceptability questionnaire. Data was analysed via multiple linear regression.Findings:Analysis indicated that this sample of counselling psychologists was accepting of the prospect of using music with clients. The personal motivations of participants for using music were found to be a significant positive predictor of acceptance.Discussion/conclusions:Participants who were motivated to use music to improve their own wellbeing were significantly more likely to consider music as an acceptable intervention. If music-based interventions are to become more integrated within counselling psychology practice, leadership of this process and training will be important and it suggested that this bias be accounted for in selection criteria.

OVERVIEW. In this chapter, we examine how counseling psychology theory, practice, and research may be deconstructed and transformed to make them more relevant for the African context. “Deconstruction” refers to ways in which one can expand the limits of accepted conceptual meanings in counseling psychology and in the process show that those meanings are complex and unstable. The aim, in this chapter, is to deconstruct ideological biases and traditional assumptions that have influenced counseling psychology in African contexts. The chapter shows that in deconstructing traditional psychology, the need for transformation becomes an important imperative, that is, change in the nature of counseling psychology in African contexts, the counseling psychology community, its social institutions, the theories that influence the field, its research agendas, and its practice. LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of the chapter, the reader should be able to: Explain why it is necessary to transform counseling psychology for the African context. Discuss the hegemonic influences of counseling psychology theory and practices in Africa. Outline ways in which we can begin to make counseling psychology theory, practice, and training more relevant to the cultural–sociopolitical contexts in Africa. Suggest what can be considered relevant research for the discipline of counseling psychology in Africa. INTRODUCTION In African contexts, Western theories, concepts, and methods, which have emanated largely from high-income countries, still influence psychological science and practice, including counseling psychology, despite the fact that African scholars have over the years questioned their applicability and relevance (e.g., De la Rey & Ipser; 2004; Nsamensamg, 1995; Painter and Terre Blanche, 2004; Stead & Watson, 2006).

Cognitively oriented research on counseling and psychotherapy is criticized for ignoring the full implications of cognitive mediation for therapeutic science. A discussion of the individual uniqueness of human cognitive structures and the uncertainty of human social actions leads to a philosophical analysis of the relevance of these observations for a human social science of counseling psychology. Against this background, criteria for the conduct of cognitive-mediational therapeutic research are proposed and illustrated, as part of a larger proposal for multifaceted inquiry into therapeutic events and effects. In the later part of the article, implications of this proposal for the relationship between scientific theory and professional practice in counseling psychology are explored. Throughout the discussion, salient distinctions among experimental cognitive psychology, hermeneutic inquiry, and cognitive-mediational therapeutic research are elaborated.

There is a dearth of research addressing the validity of life stories, or autobiographies. In part, this is because it is unclear how such data sources might be validated. This article recommends two different perspectives for obtaining evidence relevant to the validity of autobiographical data. A study is conducted from each of these perspectives, and multiple validity estimates are obtained in each investigation. The construct validity of standard psychological constructs (e.g., assertiveness, trustworthiness) obtained in Study 1 from autobiographies was equal to that of standard instruments designed to assess these constructs. Evidence for the validity of life themes, extracted from autobiographies in Study 2, was also apparent. Because life histories, autobiographies, and case studies are relied on heavily in the practice of counseling psychology and are rapidly regaining popularity in scientific studies, these positive findings suggest the wisdom in this increasing use of life history data.

Counseling psychologists generally agree that science-practice integration is a good thing. However, most discussions of this topic are less clear about how to actually apply scientific findings to an individual client case. In this article, the author attempts to describe a philosophy for applying research to practice in counseling psychology that requires using theory as the bridge between science and practice.

Fifteen years of research on gender role conflict indicate it has been a fruitful construct in counseling psychology. G. E. Good, J. M. Robertson, J. M. O'Neil, L. F. Fitzgerald, M. Stevens, K. A. Debord, K. M. Bartels, and D. B. Braverman (1995) and R. J. Cournoyer and J. R. Mahalik (1995) add to the empirical knowledge and are certain to stimulate thinking in this area. In this comment, issues related to (a) psychological maladjustment, (b) test development, (c) life span development, and (d) practice implications are discussed. Although clear progress is being made, much more is unknown about how gender-related variables positively and negatively affect male development and, subsequently, the practice of counseling psychology

Reflections of a consulting counseling psychologist: Implications of the principles for education and training at the doctoral and postdoctoral level in consulting psychology for the practice of counseling psychology.

The Logic of the Body: Retrieving Theological Psychology

The purpose of the study was to determine what combination of 16 PF primary factors and what combination of second-order factors best predicts number of sessions in counseling. The sample included 98 clients (71 women, 27 men) from a private practice in counseling psychology. Results indicated that clients who schedule more sessions tend to be more shy (H-), conservative (Q1-), and introverted (Q1-). Conversely those who schedule fewer sessions tend to be more impulsive (H+), experimenting (Q1+), and extraverted (Q1+). Mean number of sessions was 10.4 and the median, eight sessions. Implications for treatment are considered, as well as suggestions for research.

This article develops the premise that counseling psychology programs should consider providing education and training in health psychology. It addresses key questions concerning the possible loss of traditional values or the necessity of modifying currently existing training programs to accommodate health psychology education and training. It concludes that providing health psychology training is an appropriate option for counseling psychology. The article then presents some general guidelines for health psychology education and training that could be adopted by counseling psychology programs. These include endorsement of (a) the scientist-practitioner model of training, (b) a university-based context of training, (c) basic grounding in the discipline of counseling psychology, (d) basic grounding in research methodology, (e) core courses in health psychology, G) elective courses from other departments, (g) recognition of the role of diversity, (h) traditional standards of licensure and accreditation for counseling psychologists, (i) a 1-year internship, and (j) integration of theory and practice of counseling psychology.

This article examines the 50 qualitative studies published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) over a 15-year period in light of methodological principles advocated by qualitative theorists. The match between practices and principles is not high. In the modal investigation, coders (most of whom did not interact with or observe participants) worked from transcripts of a 60-min interview conducted in a setting convenient for the researcher. Researchers endorsed the need to bracket their own subjective experiences and used auditors to enhance reproducibility of findings. Trend analyses suggest that qualitative research in JCP has tended to drift further from qualitative principles over time. The authors consider the implications of these findings for the potential of qualitative methods to inform science and practice in counseling psychology.