Goal Of Counseling Research Articles

Counseling the Adolescent About Contraception

1. Mary E. Rimsza, MD* 1. *Director of Health, Arizona State University; Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, University of Arizona College of Medicine; Professor of Pediatrics, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Tempe, AZ After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Delineate the approximate time between an adolescent female becoming sexually active and seeking medical services for contraception. 2. List the noncontraceptive benefits of oral contraceptive pills. 3. List the methods of contraception recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. 4. Describe the value of emergency contraceptive pills. 5. Explain why a pelvic examination is not necessary before starting oral contraceptive pills. The adolescent pregnancy rate in the United States is the highest of any industrialized nation, with more than 1 million adolescents becoming pregnant each year. Pediatricians can help to decrease the teen pregnancy rate by increasing their knowledge of contraception and discussing sexual behavior and contraceptive use during health supervision visits. Most adolescents begin having sexual intercourse by mid- to late adolescence. Discussions of sexual behavior should begin in early adolescence before the onset of sexual activity so the pediatrician can help prevent unwanted pregnancy and its consequences. The patient interview should include questions about attitudes and knowledge about sexual behavior and appropriate counseling regarding prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), sexual responsibility, and contraceptive methods. The goals of contraceptive counseling are to promote healthy and responsible sexual decision-making. Abstinence should be encouraged as the safest and healthiest means of preventing pregnancy and STIs. The adolescent should be interviewed privately and office policies developed that assure appropriate confidentiality. It is important for the pediatrician to initiate a discussion of contraception prior to the onset of intercourse because approximately 35% of teens are not using contraception at the time of first intercourse. Indeed, the approximate time between an adolescent female becoming sexually active and seeking medical services for contraception is 12 months. Unfortunately, approximately 20% of all adolescent pregnancies occur within the first month of initiating coitus, and 50% occur within the …

The Effect of the Solution-focused Group Counseling on the Self-esteem and Interpersonal Relationship of the Nursing Students

Purpose: To examine the effect of the solution-focused group counseling on the nursing students' self-esteem and interpersonal relationship. Methods: The research design was one-group pretest-posttest design in quasi-experimental research. The subjects were 24 sophomore nursing students being in K university located in D city, Korea. The period of this research was from October 16 to December 4, 1999, from October 13 to December 1. 2000 and from October 12 to November 30. 2001. Collected data were analyzed by paired t-test, Repeated ANOVA, and the Scheffe' test with SPSS 10.0 program.Results: 1) Self-esteem increased significantly after solution-focused group counseling(t = 5.02, p = .001) 2) Interpersonal relationship increased significantly after solution-focused group counseling(t= 14.78, p = .001). 3) The scores of self-satisfaction with counseling goal were significantly increasing with the progress of sessions when it was compared with the 1st and the 4th： the 4th and the 8th(F = 318.53, p= .001).Conclusion: It seems that the solutionfocused group counseling should be considered as an effective nursing intervention program for the nursing students by improving self-esteem, and interpersonal relationship. As a results, this study suggests that the specific techniques used in the solution-focused group counseling should be applied extensively in various areas of nursing practice for the purpose of counseling and communication training. And modifications to the current program would be required to improve self-esteem and interpersonal relationship of nursing students.

Interactive group education for refugees from the Former Yugoslavia to reduce their oil consumption

In 1999 at an outpatient dietetic consultation in Geneva, Switzerland, 20% of the patients were refugees. Most were from the Former Yugoslavia. The main goal of dietary counseling was to decrease their fat consumption. As one-on-one counseling was unsuccessful, a pilot intervention was developed to explore the potential of participatory workshops for identifying and implementing appropriate behaviors. Four series of three workshops were held. Participants identified and practiced ways to reduce fat consumption. Knowledge skills were measured on completion of the workshops and 6 months later. Oil was highly valued in participants’ representation of health. However, average reduction of oil per recipe was 58%, or 35 ml (95% CI: 15–55). The application of oil-sparing techniques increased nine-fold. Such an approach may be an alternative to one-on-one dietary counseling where this is ineffective. Next steps should include a trial to determine the impact of new skills on actual fat consumption.

Impact of genetic counseling and testing on colorectal cancer screening behavior.

One goal of cancer genetic counseling is to improve early detection and prevention of cancers by identifying individuals at risk and providing screening recommendations. This study determined the impact of genetic counseling and testing on patient's post-genetic risk assessment colorectal cancer screening behaviors. Follow-up data from patients seen August, 1996, through May, 1998, at the Johns Hopkins Cancer Risk Assessment Clinic were analyzed. Eligible patients included those without cancer who were due for a colon examination by the time of follow-up, based on recommendations given during genetic risk assessment (GRA). We analyzed the role of gender, age, time since GRA, prior screening, genetic testing decision, mutation status, and post-GRA screening. Of 65 patients evaluated, 50 (76.9%) had undergone at least one endoscopic colon exam prior to visiting the Cancer Risk Assessment Clinic. At the time of GRA, 37 of 65 (56.9%) were overdue for a colon exam and at the time of follow-up, 15/65 (23.1%) were past due (p < 0.001). Patients with mutation-positive genetic tests were more likely to adhere to screening guidelines than those with negative gene tests (100% vs. 40.5%, p = 0.05). Genetic counseling and testing increases overall patient adherence with recommended colon screening, especially for those with positive genetic test results. However, patients with negative results may receive false reassurance about cancer risks and fail to follow recommended screening. Emphasis should be placed on the importance of screening even when genetic test results are negative.

Counseling Gifted Clients and Their Families: Comparing Clients' and Counselors' Perspectives

The literature on counseling the gifted comes mainly from an individual- and pathology-based approach with roots in clinical psychology. This study investigated the application of a systemic and resource-based approach with roots in a postmodern orientation to counseling for gifted families. Two sets of participants were interviewed: three counselors and three families who had recently completed counseling using a postmodern approach. A multiple case study was conducted, using constant comparison of the transcripts of interviews to develop themes describing the experience of participants in counseling. Readings of the transcripts produced categories of themes related to roles and goals of counseling. The themes indicated that counselors saw a process of negotiating expectations, while client family members felt that they received the type of service they expected when they began counseling. The findings suggest that clinicians may want to be overt in their theoretical orientation with clients and be aware of how they are meeting or not meeting the clients' expectations.

An Assessment‐Based Model for Counseling Strategy Selection

This article presents a counseling strategy selection model grounded in technical eclecticism (A. A. Lazarus &amp; L. E. Beutler, 1993) and based on thorough assessment of the client's problems. Assessment should consider client mental health, counseling goals, problem complexity, and capacity and desire for insight. Distinguishing between simple and complex problems can aid assessment and provide direction for counseling modality selection (L. E. Beutler &amp; J. F. Clarkin, 1990). Behavioral interventions are more appropriate for less complex problems or when capacity or desire for insight is low. Insight‐based interventions are more appropriate for more complex problems or when capacity or desire for insight is high.

Hidden Resources and Barriers in Career Learning Assessment With Adolescents Vulnerable to Discrimination

The authors maintain that the social learning theory of career development and counseling has not been applied to diverse populations. To address this gap in the literature, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis of interviews with 21 middle school students in a low‐income, culturally diverse, inner‐city public school. Four themes emerged, reflecting the influence of discrimination on participants' career learning: contextual barriers and resources for learning, and psychological barriers and resources for learning. The authors provide a conceptual framework for assessing resources and barriers and a rationale for why these aspects often remain hidden or unexamined in career assessment with clients who are vulnerable to discrimination.

Wisdom, casuistry, and the goal of reproductive counseling.

Reproductive counseling includes counseling of prospective parents by obstetricians, clinical geneticists, and genetic counselors regarding, for example, the use of assisted reproductive technologies, prenatal testing, and preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Two different views on wisdom and the goal of reproductive counseling are analyzed. According to the first view, the goal of reproductive counseling is to help prospective parents reach a wise decision. A specific course of action is recommended by the counselor in contrast to other possible alternatives. According to the second view, the goal of reproductive counseling is not to help prospective parents reach a wise decision but to help them reach their own decision wisely. It is the prospective parents who should make the decision, and it is their value commitments that should be decisive. It is argued that the second approach is to be preferred to the first. It combines respect for autonomy with a recognition of the need for assistance in decision-making. Both the first and second views relate the goal of reproductive counseling to wisdom. A problem is, however, what wisdom more precisely means - there are many different views. A casuistic view of wisdom is investigated. This view roughly defines wisdom as practical prudence in dealing with particular cases. What characterizes a casuistic decision-making method is elaborated in more detail. Applied to the second view, a casuistic view of wisdom implies that the counselor should encourage prospective parents to take into consideration the nature of the particular problem at hand, the context of the problem, their own individual identities, their personal value commitments, and various alternative perspectives, values and arguments.

Rationality, Emotion, and Belief Revision

Sarah Waller proposes that cognitive therapists and philosophical counselors ought to consider the feelings of the client of paramount importance in belief system change rather than the rationality of the belief system. I offer an alternative strategy of counseling that reinstates the place of rational belief revision while still respecting the importance of emotions. Waller claims that, because of the problem of under-determination, the counseling goal of rational belief revision can be trumped by the goal of improved client affect. I suggest that, if we consider a different ontology for the domain of counseling—one whose objects are dialogues (the goal of counseling becomes greater information of dialogues), we can accommodate a place for emotions in rational belief revision. I then note some limitations of the new proposal and the possibility of incommensurability in the comparison of our different views.

The Effect of the Solution-Focused Group Counseling Program on the Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem, Depression, and Hope of the Homeless

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the Solution-Focused Group Counseling Program (SFGCP) on the homeless person's self-efficacy, self-esteem, depression, and hope and suggest a nursing intervention program designed to help rehabilitation and improve the quality of life of the homeless.Research method used in this study was an equivalent control group pre-test and post-test design in quasi-experimental research. The intervention program started from June 2nd to September 29th, 2000 and the subjects were 50 homeless persons residing at 2 shelters in Seoul and Suwon, Korea. To testify the effect of the SFGCP, the subjects were divided into two groups : 22 in experimental group and 28 in control group.Using the SPSS/WIN 8.0+ program, the data were analysed by Chi-square test, t-test. the Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Repeated ANOVA, and the Scheffe' test.The results of this study were summarized as follows. 1. The experimental gi'oup received the SFGCP showed a significantly higher self-efficacy score than the control group.2. The experimental group received the SFGCP showed a significantly higher self-esteem score than the control group.3. The experimental group received in the SFGCP showed a significantly lower depression score than the control group.4. The experimental group received in the SFGCP showed a significantly higher hope score than the control group. 5. There was a significant positive correlation between the variables of self-efficacy and self-esteem, self-efficacy and hope, and self esteem and hope, while there was a significant negative correlation between the variables of self-efficacy and depression self-esteem and depression. and hope and depression. 6. As conducting the SFGCP, the experimental group's scores of self-satisfaction with counseling goal were significantly increasing with the progress of sessions when it was compared with the 1st and the 4th: the 4th and the 8th. It seems, therefore, that the SFGCP is a very useful nursing intervention by improving self-efficacy, self-esteem. and hope while reducing depression, and improving psychological function and quality of life of the homeless.The following suggestions might be offered on the basis of the results of this study.1. It is recommended that the shelter workers taking care of the homeless have to receive training of the SFGC and use the counseling technique as an intervention for solving psychological problems of the homeless and for improving homeless's ability to adapt to the society again.2. It is recommended that the effectiveness of programs on self-esteem and depression between the Solution-Focused Individual Counseling and the SFGC should be examined and compared each other. 3. It is also recommended that the specific techniques used in the SFGC should be applied extensively in various areas of nursing practice for the purpose of counseling and education.

Goals of genetic counseling.

The goals of genetic counseling have differed over the past three decades. Two schools of thought are prominent in reviewing past literature. One upholds the goal of preventing birth defects and genetic disorders while the other promotes a goal of improved psychological well-being in client adaptation to a genetic condition or risk. Both types of goals emphasize that clients should make their own reproductive decisions; however, the former relies on clients making decisions that will reduce the impact of genetic disorders. The differences in the types of goals may be due to the training and orientation of genetics health care providers, socio-cultural views, or priorities of health care settings. Regardless, there are ample reasons to dismiss the prevention of birth defects as a goal. This mini-review recommends use of genetic counseling sub-specialties as a framework for considering different client needs and thus different counseling goals and specific aims in the reproductive, pediatric/adult, and common disease settings. Given the extent of new genetic information, technologies, and the need to evaluate genetic counseling practice, genetics health care providers should work toward arriving at consensus on the goals of genetic counseling, and in doing so, the needs of clients should be considered.

Role of Deceased Mentors in the Ongoing Lives of Protégés

Participants addressed questions relating to the role(s) that deceased mentors continue to play in their lives, if any. Three active roles, designated as role model, situation specific guidance, and values clarification emerged, along with one inactive role designated remembrance formation. Roles were evenly distributed among participants. Membership in role category appeared unrelated to participants' age, gender, relationship to mentor, length and timing of mentoring, degree of grief resolution, emotional stability, and a number of other potentially relevant variables. Findings are discussed in relation to Western theories of grief, the emerging literature on continuing bonds with the deceased, and implications for conceptual changes in the language and goals of grief therapy and grief counseling.

Teaching Feminist Counselor Responses to Novice Female Counselors

This article describes an innovative teaching method to teach novice counselors 4 counselor responses based on selected goals of feminist counseling. Using a workshop format and ongoing group supervision, graduate student counselors were taught 4 counselor responses: empowerment, decreasing the power differential between client and counselor, taking a gender role perspective, and placing client issues in a sociocultural context. An evaluation of the teaching approach showed that counselors were able to apply feminist counselor responses in counseling sessions with clients and that these clients reported experiencing these responses.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy and nutritional counseling in the treatment of bulimia nervosa and binge eating

The goals of manual-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and nutritional counseling for eating disorders are similar, namely, eliminating dysfunctional patterns of eating. Modifying these behaviors requires specific therapeutic expertise in the principles and procedures of behavior change that is not typically part of the training of nutritionists and dieticians or mental health professionals without specific expertise. We discuss ways in which principles of behavior change can be applied to eating disorders by non-CBT experts. Specific nutritional rehabilitation programs have the potential to augment CBT in addressing the array of appetitive abnormalities present in eating disorder patients. The dysfunctional appetitive, hedonic, and metabolic characteristics of patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder are reviewed. These abnormalities constitute potential target areas that might be more fully addressed by nutritional interventions designed to restore normal appetitive function.

Rachel's Story: A Transpersonal Experience

This article presents a case study in which a client's transpersonal/religious/spiritual experience facilitated the achievement of her counseling goal. Through the paranormal experience, she resolved several of her conflicts, including a new appreciation of the church from which she had become estranged.

Fostering Client Connections with Alcoholics Anonymous

ABSTRACT Alcohol abuse is common among clients in human service agencies, but most never seek help for their drinking problems, either in professional treatment or self-help (mutual aid) groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.). A.A. is a widely-available resource, but it is not always introduced to clients in a manner that fosters acceptance of A.A. Social workers in various practice settings can facilitate A.A. affiliation by working collaboratively with clients, seeking a goodness-of-fit between client needs and the resources available within A.A. This article offers a pragmatic approach to initial A.A. involvement, intended to help professionals utilize barriers to affiliation as opportunities for furthering both counseling goals and the connection to A.A.

T.R.E.A.T

The T.R.E.A.T. model was designed as a blueprint for constructing counseling goals and objectives during Individualized Education Program meetings. Our model provides the multidisciplinary team-specifically, school counseling professionals— with a procedure for systematically organizing all relevant information when addressing students with special needs. Use of this model results in measurable, manageable, and defensible goals and objectives.

The Tragic and Faith in Pastoral Counseling

This essay uses Edward Farley's notion of the interrelation of tragic vulnerability and creation and Niebuhr's idea of faith in offering a conceptualization of the process and goals of pastoral counseling. Openness, novelty, separation, and change, which characterize creative activity, give rise to anxiety, fear, and suffering as created entities seek to achieve their ends and needs amidst the limits of life. Faith as vital concern—defined as human and transcendent relations marked by reciprocal belief, hope, trust, and fidelity—is a response that represents participation and cooperation in creative activity with its concomitant anxiety and suffering. Pastoral counseling may be understood as an activity that facilitates a response of faith as vital concern. The process of pastoral counseling involves three essential and interrelated tasks. First, the counselor invites the person to experience present and past painful disappointments, losses, and betrayals. Second, the counselor invites the client to explore the types of trust and fidelity that are distorted and diminish his or her capacities for risking intimacy, spontaneity, and freedom. The third task is learning to recognize, contain, and work through the inevitable disappointments, broken promises, frustrations, and betrayals encountered in human relationships. Thus the work of pastoral counseling involves reciprocal experiences of belief, hope, trust, and fidelity, which provide the essential and necessary ground through which persons develop a) the capacities for and experiences of spontaneity, awe, and freedom, b) the ability to handle and work through experiences and perceptions of distrust and infidelity, and c) a sense of subjective and intersubjective identity, continuity, and cohesion.

Understanding the “Medicine” of Native American Traditional Values: An Integrative Review

A major goal of counseling is to promote the wellness of the client by promoting his or her optimum development through positive human change, and it is important for counselors to be able to informally assess and more fully understand Native American cultural values to promote the wellness of those clients. The cultural values of Native Americans are discussed, an integrative review of value studies conducted on Native Americans is presented, and a traditional Native American view of wellness is described with implications for counseling.You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. … The sky is round, and I have heard that earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. … Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a [person] is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. (Black Elk, cited in Neihardt, 1959)

Genetic counseling: clinical and ethical challenges.

After explaining the origin, nature, and goals of genetic counseling, we consider the impact of the Human Genome Project on its practice. In light of the availability of presymptomatic tests for late-onset disorders and the possibility of preventive behavior or treatment, we examine the apparent conflict between nondirectiveness and directiveness in genetic counseling. We discuss views of genetic counselors, medical geneticists, and counselees on specific issues, and document gender differences in attitudes toward genetic ties to offspring. Because genetic discrimination and unequal access to genetic services are likely to increase with advances in genetics, we conclude that efforts of genetic counselors to adhere to the principle of justice or equity in their practice cannot be successful without governmental and public support, as well as support from researchers and colleagues in health care.