Professional Therapists Research Articles

Self-help groups: the members' perspectives.

The emergence of self-help groups as an important source of help-giving for persons with psychological problems has occurred without a systematic attempt to tap an important source of information about this phenomenon: the members themselves. Eighty members of nine self-help groups were surveyed. The results of this study suggest that self-help groups serve a different population than do professional therapists, that the help-giving processes are mainly supportive in nature, and that an optimistic attitude toward increased collaboration between professional care-givers and self-help groups is justified. Questions for further research are discussed.

Patient Motivation as a Predictor of Process and Outcome in Psychotherapy

This study examined the effect of the patient's level of motivation upon process and outcome in short-term psychotherapy. 18 shy, anxious, and depressed male college students received up to 25 sessions of therapy with experienced professional therapists. Analyses of audiotaped samples from four therapy sessions indicated that motivation was a good predictor of a patient's behavior in therapy. These analyses also suggested that the patient's level of motivation may influence the therapist's behavior during treatment. Lastly, ratings of motivation significantly predicted both the therapist's and the clinician's ratings of overall improvement, but not the patient's rating of overall improvement or the residual maladjustment scores derived from the MMPI.

Role perceptions in a community mental health setting.

The increasing trend of utilizing nonprofessional personnel in community mental health has led to considerable controversy. It is suggested that studies comparing the relative competence and efficacy of professional therapists to that of nonprofessional therapists may be counterproductive and in need of augmentation. The present study employed a role perception procedure in which members of three different randomly chosen groups (11 professional therapists, 11 nonprofessional therapists, and 11 children-clients) from a community mental health program were asked to rank various aspects of the therapeutic relationship in order of importance to the children-clients' improvement. It was hypothesized that (a) due to their relatively low self-concept, nonprofessionals would underestimate their own role importance in comparison to that of the professionals; (b) professionals would overestimate their own role importance; and (c) children would selectively value certain aspects of each role without preferring one over the other. The last two hypotheses were supported, but the first hypothesis was not: nonprofessionals, in fact, showed the highest level of overestimation of their own role importance. A further analysis of the data showed that inexperienced nonprofessionals did not overestimate their own role performance. This suggested specific training procedures for nonprofessionals.

The state of art therapy in greater Los Angeles, 1974 two year follow-up study

A survey was conducted by the author in 1974 to ascertain the status of art therapy in the mental health field in the greater Los Angeles area as a follow-up to a similar survey taken in 1972. The cover letter and questionnaire were mailed by Helen Landgarten, Director of the Master of Arts in Art Therapy program at Immaculate Heart College. The questionnaire dealt with those issues which were considered of major importance in discussing the present and future status of art therapy: current knowledge or awareness of art therapy in the field of mental health, the present use and status of art therapists, educational preference on the part of employers, possibilities for future placement of art therapists, the availability of institutions willing to serve as practicum settings for training art therapists, consideration for hiring professional art therapists within two years, and desirability on the part of institutions to be educated through slide/lecture presentations .

Observations on group process in a leaderless group of professional therapists

Observations on group process in a leaderless group of professional therapists

A-B status and sex stereotyping among psychotherapists and patients. Toward a model for maximizing therapeutic potential.

Previous studies indicate that mental health professionals, when evaluating the mental health of males and females, sex role stereotype to the disparagement of females. Some feminists have further assumed that male therapists in particular discourage self-actualization of females, and have argued that female patients should be seen by female therapists only. This study examined the major hypothesis that among both male and female therapists and among both male and female patients, there may be identifiable kinds of therapists and patients who sex role stereotype more than others. A total of 240 subjects (male and female) were recruited from three populations: professional psychotherapists, medical and nursing students, and psychiatric patients. Each subject was administered an A-B therapist scale and a sex role stereotyping questionnaire. Analysis of variance of this 3 x 2 x 3 factorial study revealed: a) patient groups stereotyped significantly more than professional therapist groups (p less than .01), with student groups stereotyping intermediately; b) within each major group, male subjects stereotyped significantly more than their female counterparts (p less than .01); and c) within each male group and within each female group, A status subjects stereotyped significantly more than B status subjects (p less than .01), with AB status subjects stereotyping intermediately. Previous research has indicated that A status psychotherapists are more effective in treating schizophrenic disorders, while B status therapists are more effective in treating neurotic disorders. Since our results reveal a strong relationship between A-B status and degree of stereotyping, our discussion explores the possibility of differentially matching psychotherapists and patients in order to maximize therapeutic potential. Matching could be done according to complementary differences between psychotherapist and patient (in terms of A-B status and sex role stereotyping) or according to similarities between psychotherapist and patient, depending on whether reconstructive or supportive therapy is the objective. Sex of patient and therapist as well as diagnosis of the patient are other variables considered in the model for maximizing the therapeutic potential.

The "No-Win" Position of Professional Therapists for Drug Addicts

The "No-Win" Position of Professional Therapists for Drug Addicts

Professional therapists, professional helpers, and graduate students: An uneasy alliance.

Professional therapists, professional helpers, and graduate students: An uneasy alliance.

Professional therapists, professional helpers, and graduate students: An uneasy alliance.

Professional therapists, professional helpers, and graduate students: An uneasy alliance.

The Black person as client and as therapist.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates particular aspects of the black person as client and therapist. It emphasizes the importance of heterogeneity within the black population in the understandinci of the black client, the black therapist and their interaction. There are important differences between blacks due to urban vs. rural background; socioeconomic status; religious affiliation; education; etc. A stereotype of Black is thus misleading. Both client and therapist must acknowledge and deal with the effects of the black stereotype in their interactions, as they can make a difference in the therapeutic outcome. It is noted that, although the black professional therapist will typically be a member of the middle or upper class, this is not necessarily true of the client. The therapist should be aware of different cultural styles among black people, especially those with whom he intends to work. Such awareness will also help the therapist strengthen his own racial identity. In the therapist-client interaction, the twin dangers of overand under-emphasis on the importance of race are noted. The ways in which racial issues are to be resolved will depend on the particular case.

Supervisory and Counseling Process: A Comparative Study

This study compared the process of supervision with that of counseling by examining the behavior of five professional therapists in both situations. Counselors recorded their counseling sessions with 10 clients and their supervisory sessions with 10 trainees. A total of 180 three‐minute samples were selected for study. The level of facultative conditions (empathy, respect, genuineness, and specificity) was assessed. The Hill Interaction Matrix was also used to compare the verbal interactions in both counseling and supervising situations. Results indicated that the level of respect and genuineness were equal in the two situations. Contrary to the assumptions made by researchers in the area, the levels of empathy and specificity were significantly lower in supervision than in counseling. When interactions were rated with the Hill Matrix, supervision was significantly less therapeutic than was counseling. The differences found were discussed in terms of their implications for the teaching and learning of psychotherapy, as it related to both the theoretical literature and in terms of its effect on trainees and clients.

Great Cases in Psychoanalysis

The strength and weakness of this book lies in the heterogeneity of the articles it contains. Dr. Greenwald's objective is to portray the history of the development of psychoanalysis through the presentation of representative case histories by famous authors. "For the professional therapist or student, whether he be psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker, these cases will illustrate the therapeutic methods employed by the masters in our field." Exposure to the heterogeneous collection of case histories might expose the reader to points of view other than those with which he may be familiar. Theories that differed on personality development and structure, and on the origin and rational treatment of emotional disorder divided psychoanalysis into various schools in the early part of the century. Many of the case histories in this book were originally reported to support the theoretical position of proponents of one or another of the schools. A single report

Self-disclosure by the professional and paraprofessional therapist.

Self-disclosure by the professional and paraprofessional therapist.

Integrated aversion therapy and psychotherapy: Two sexual deviation case studies

While both aversion therapy and psychotherapy can claim considerable success, they also fail occasionally. In view of this experience an attempt has been made to intergrate these therapies. Two cases are discussed in which such collaboration of representatives of both schools was achieved. After successful termination of the treatment, the patients filled out questionnaires in which they evaluated the contribution of each of these therapies. Behavior therapy has attained a respectable status for the treatment of sexual problems. For example, aversion therapy, a conditioning approach that involves the use of mild, unpleasant electric shock. has proven to be highly effective with patients having problems related to homosexuality, transvestism, and sexual fetishes. The aversion methodology has been described in detail by Marks (1968) and by Rachman and Teasdale (1969). While behavior therapy has proven to be effective, there have also been therapeutic failures, but these failures have received much less attention than the successes. An analysis of failures in behavior therapy revealed four possibiiities: opposition to treatment (of any kind); resistance to behavior therapy (as distinct from another form of therapy); misdiagnosis, i.e., failing to ascertain accurately the requisite reinforcers; and transference in behavior therapy, i.e., psychoanalytically-based reactions to the therapist as a person (Woody, 1971). An obvious objective would, of course, be to try to eliminate failures in treatment. This might take the form of increasing the expertise of the professional therapist or, and more cogent to this discussion, an integration of various therapeutic procedures. Integrative therapy is nothing new. Indeed, Thorne (1968a, 1968b) has, for several decades, continually supported the idea that therapists should be prepared to accept any theoretical principle and any therapeutic technique that might prove to be beneficial to the patient; the therapist should not be restricted by the boundaries of one

Cross-validation of some personality correlates of the A-B therapist scale among male alcoholics.

The A-B therapist distinction, determined by a therapist's responses to a scale composed of Strong Vocational Interest Blank items, seems a promising variable for predicting therapist-patient compatibility. One assumption of A-B laboratory analogue studies, needed to justify the use of non-therapists, is that scores on the A-B scale have some basic personological invariance across populations. Recently, the explicability of the scores in terms of scales and factors of Jackson's Personality Research Form has been demonstrated (1). Also, five core correlates of A-B scores in Jackson's Harmavoidance, Dominance, Change, Sentience, and Succorance scales for male professionals, male students, male patients, and female smdents have been shown (2). The present aim was to examine the invariance of the A-B scale within a radically different population, 129 chronic alcoholic male veterans, whose mean age was 42 yr., and mean education 11 yr. The A-B scale was included in the admissions battery of this hospital's Alcoholic Treatment Program of which Form AA of Jackson's inventory was already a part. Of Jackson's 20 content scales, 8 were significantly (p < .05) but very modestly correlated with A-B total scores-Harmavoidance ( - .25 ) , Sentience (.23), Change (.23 ) , Play (.21) , Affiliation (.21), Nurmrance (.21), Dominance (.19), and Understanding (1) Among these 8 scales are 4 of the 5 core correlates, 3 of which, here, rank as the best 3 correlates of A-B scores for male alcoholics. Ss were then assigned an A-B status on the basis of total score cut-offs for male professionals and male students (1). Univariate F ratios, berween the 16 As and 52 Bs thus obtained, for each of Jackson's scales, yielded significant Fs (p < .05, df = 1/66) for 7 scales (only Play did not differentiate groups). The same 4 core scales emerged among the first 5 largest F ratios across the A vs B groups. Thus, even for chronic alcoholic males these core scales were related to both the distribution of A-B total scores and, more importantly, to the A and B prototypes (based on total score cut-offs) as used in analogue studies. Thus, like the A-type professional therapists, collegiate Ss, and outpatients studied in prior research, the A-rype male alcoholics emerge as cautious, uninclined to seek sensory thrills, change-avoidant, and submissive; the B-types, in contrast, may be depicted as more adventurous, as seekers of sensation and change, and as more dominant. The convergence of these data with those of prior studies (1, 2) leads to the conclusion that the A-B scale's personological invariance is not only replicable, but quite robust.

Psychotherapeutic "Birds of a Feather": Social-Class Status and Religio-Cultural Value Homophily in the Mental Health Field

This study examines the relative influence of social-class status and religio-cultural values on psychotherapeutic relationships between psychiatrists and clinical psychologists and their private patients. Questionnaire survey data on professional therapists in the Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago metropolitan communities are used to re-assess the underlying bases of the homophilic hypothesis that Kandel (1966) and recently Rowden et al. (1970) applied to professional-patient relations in psychotherapy. The central finding of the study is that psychotherapeutic relationships between both types of professionals and their private patients reflect value involving therapists' religious biographies, based primarily on their family religious origins, and the current religio-cultural affinities of their private patients far more than status based on therapists' social-class origins and either current educational level or family income of patients. The data suggest that social-class status is most directly related to the verbal, intellectual, cognitive dimension of psychotherapeutic relationships whereas religio-cultural value is a direct reflection of the emotional, affective dimension of psychotherapeutic relations. These findings suggest that the influence of congruent religio-cultural values on mutual professional-patient selection processes stems from an underlying emotional homophily in which religious groupings are used as convenient clues to affective characteristics and feeling states.

Attitudes of mental health professionals toward homosexuality and its treatment.

A random sample of 163 professional therapists in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area were surveyed on their attitudes toward treatment of homosexuals, diagnostic categories, and other matters. Results indicated a majority had some (limited) experience with (predominantly male) homosexuals, most would use but few preferred group therapy for homosexuals, treatment goals were mixed, change of sex orientation in treatment was minor, but belief in its possibility widespread; there was considerable disagreement with some diagnostic categories, little support for mandatory treatment, near-unanimity on liberalization of the law, widespread support for non-exclusionary employment policies.

Parents as tutorial participants

The language therapy approach described in this article evolved out of the desperate need for remedial help for children who had been diag nosed as having some degree of specific language disability, but for whom adequate time with a trained therapist was not available. In general, it has been thought that "parents cannot, satisfactorily, teach their own children." On the contrary, there have been a few therapists who have been successful in using parents as assistants in planned programs. The needs suggested an experiment in parent-child-therapist collaboration, which is reported here. The subjects chosen were seven elementary school boys and one parent of each child. As an alternative to the traditional three to five tutorial hours per week, each parent and child had a single, joint one-hour lesson per week with their professional therapist. Initially, only the father was chosen as the parent "helper." However, two fathers in the study were unable to be consistent in their attendance, hence, the mothers of these two children attended, instead of the fathers. While the parents sat quietly observing, the therapist taught the child, using, essentially, the Orton-Gillingham procedures. The parent was instructed to practice the same approach at home for no more than fifteen minutes each evening, doing just what the therapist had done. In order for the parent to produce and reinforce the correct "sound/symbol" relationship of the alphabet, a portable tape re corder was used for recording the sounds to he imitated and practiced at home. The tape recorder was also used to dictate quickly the elements of the lessons covered in class, but which needed practice at home, such as spelling generalizations and rules. Parents were also encouraged to tele phone the therapist when they were in doubt. Each child was retested on his twenty-first lesson to ascertain the growth in reading and spelling. The average score of three reading tests was used: the Wide Range Achievement Test, the Gray Oral Reading Paragraphs Test, the IOTA Word Lists. In spelling, the Wide Range Achievement Test list was used. The bar graphs (Fig. 1 and 2) depict each child in terms of his earlier and later achievements.

Cotherapy in Mass

The title of this paper is intended as a play on words, meaning cotherapy con ducted in the Mass, a religious service, and conducted en masse, involving as many as 450 patients at one time. The material on which the paper is based comes from some eleven years of work in psychiatric institutions and from three years of co-operative work and dialogue with members of the profes sional treatment specialty of music therapy. I am particularly indebted to Her bert P. Goldsmith and his staff at Central State Hospital for their many efforts during the time we were colleagues at that hospital and for assistance in the preparation of the paper, and to Miss Emily Stevens, a fellow-staff member at the Georgia Mental Health Institute. Cotherapy is generally defined as the collaboration of two or more profes sional therapists in the provision of intensive therapy to an individual or group of patients. Retaining that definition, I would like to do these things:

VARIETIES AND USES OF GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY.

This has been a rather general discussion of the broad properties of group psychotherapy and psychotherapy groups, attempting to indicate how a variety of approaches and techniques is applicable to different kinds of therapeutic situations. Group psychotherapy is defined here as having three essential characteristics: A collection of people in need, a professional therapist, and a use of group dynamics. Group psychotherapy has turned out to be no panacea or cheap mass medium. On the other hand, its flexible use in a variety of situations appears to broaden our existing therapeutic armamentarium considerably, and the practical question to-day is not “What patient is suitable, or unsuitable, for group psychotherapy?”— so much as— “What particular combination of group psychotherapy methods is suitable for the group of patients presenting for treatment?” This paper has accordingly scanned some of the variables seen in treatment groups, using the psychoanalytic group as a paradigm. It seems likely that as we understand human groups better, we shall apply group methods more widely and effectively in psychiatric treatment.