Relationship between the therapist personality variables of empathy and authoritarianism and the prognosis that a therapist makes was investigated using 25 PhD psychologists as subjects. A positive relationship was found between therapist empathy and the prognosis variables dealing with perception of degree of disturbance and overall prognosis.…

Presents information concerning both ethical and legal aspects of violence as they relate to client welfare, dangerousness, confidentiality or duty to warn, and counselor violence. Uses case material to illustrate both the ethical standards and the laws and statutes that provide directives for professional behavior. (Author/ABB)

The training models of two schools of family therapy in Italy are compared on the basis of the logical level of intervention practiced at each school. The relational context in each program, the therapeutic style taught, and selected characteristics of each clinical method are examined. (Author)

Reviews the empirical research on divorce mediation with regard to: (1) the overall effectiveness of mediation, especially compared to the traditional use of lawyers; (2) the kinds of divorce conflicts in which mediation has been found most effective; and (3) mediator behaviors most often correlated with success. The existing studies are solely of…

Presents guidelines for clinicians to observe in building and practicing a personal integrative method in family therapy. Focuses on the need for a personal paradigm, the assimiliation of aspects of scholastic approaches, the role of the person of the therapist, the adaptation of the model to specific cases, and the pathways toward developing a…

Examined phenomenon of counselor-therapist disclosure through direct assessment of potential clients' desires for disclosure and through development of a measure of counselor disclosure. Results revealed that clients wanted information about counselors. (Author/NB)

Examined effect of counselors' body postures on client perceptions of counselors. Undergraduates (N=63) met with female graduate student counselor and then completed counselor rating form. Results revealed no significant differences between open and closed postures for attractiveness or trustworthiness. Clients perceived counselors in open posture…

Conducted three studies to investigate relationship of dualistic and relativistic epistemological thought to empathic understanding in the counseling setting. Relativistic epistemological thought was positively related to aspects of counselor empathy, both in role-played counseling sessions by student counselors and in a written empathy measure.…

Reports on a study of proprietary college counselors, i.e. private, for-profit educational consultants outside of the formal education system, examining their backgrounds, the services they offer, their relationship with public school counselors, and the clients they serve. Found that although well-seasoned professionals, their collaboration with…

Describes how group leaders can improve therapeutic outcomes by understanding the importance of hope as a curative factor, and by learning specific strategies for its installation in counseling groups. (Author/KS)

Used peer rated measures of Warmth, Understanding and Openness to predict scores on the Kagan Affective Sensitivity Scale-E80 among 66 undergraduates who had participated in interpersonal skills training groups. Results indicated that, as an additively composite index of Therapeutic Talent, they were positively correlated with affective…

Counselors may feel anger when clients do not behave according to their expectations of what is a good client. Client resistance, client impositions, verbal attacks on the counselor, and overinvolvement by the counselor in client dynamics seem to be relatively common occurrences that annoy counselors. Possible counselor responses to these feelings…

Examined the interpersonal structures of interviews by Ackerman, Bowen, Jackson, and Whitaker with the same family to identify common features across counselors. Multidimensional scaling provided a spatial representation of the hidden structure in the communication patterns of these interviews. Correlations indicated counselors' interactions were…

Examined the relationship of personality and demographic variables to job satisfaction in school counselors (N=123). Results supported Holland's theory of person environment interactions in predicting job satisfaction. Age, sex, experience, and education level were not correlated with satisfaction. (JAC)

Proposes a method which links counseling theory and techniques to current eclectic practices in counseling and psychotherapy, to stimulate thinking about ways to improve the counselor-client relationship. Proposes guidelines that enable counselors to intentionally integrate theory and techniques with each client's behavior. (LLL)