Today's families face many stressors during the early childhood years. Particular stressors like homelessness, violence, and chemical dependence, play havoc with the family system. Urie Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological perspective offers an insightful lens for understanding and supporting families under stress. This article presents the key…

Writing centers offer students the means to success. The Reading Writing Center (RWC) at University High School in Orlando, Florida, serves a diverse population of more than 3,700 students. The center serves dual purposes. A classroom side operates as a demonstration space where the author, who is the center's director, leads and sometimes…

A 2005 national survey of incoming freshmen in the US reveals that two out of three college freshmen believe it is essential or very important to help others who are in difficulty, with 83 percent stating they volunteered at least occasionally during their senior year of high school. The survey also finds an increased level of political…

This training manual provides a sequence of organized training sessions and activities which prepare elementary school students for such helping roles as student assistant, tutor, special friend, and small group leader. The first chapter discusses growing up in a changing world, defines peer facilitation, and provides an overview of the book. The…

This program leader's guide provides suggestions for organizing, administrating, and evaluating a middle school peer helper program. The first chapter builds a case for peer helpers. The problems of youth, peer influence and personal growth, mobilizing student resources, peer facilitators and helpers, four basic helping roles, and advantages of…

This book presents a developmental model for peer helping which places less emphasis on students in crises and more emphasis on helping them in advance of serious problems. The first chapter introduces peer helping and the facilitative model and provides an overview of the book. The second chapter discusses principles of human behavior. The third…

A study compared the nurse-patient communication of native and non-native English-speaking nurses. Examination of the literature on nurse-patient relationships and a brief survey of native nurses yielded an instrument for observation of nurses. Ten nurses were observed for 3 hourse each. Transcripts of the observations of the five non-native…

This report examines both the impact of Operation Desert Shield/Storm on the families of active duty service members who were deployed to the Persian Gulf region, and the effectiveness of the Air Force's family support systems in meeting family and mission needs. The Air Force's Family Matters Office sponsored this study in order to identify the…

Although few people bring their psychological problems to mental health professionals, research in the area of 'natural' help is rudimentary. To investigate the process and effectiveness of natural professional groups in helping individuals experiencing marital disruption, 42 helpers (14 mental health professionals, 14 divorce lawyers, and 14…

The perceptions of empathy among 12 clients, 12 counselors, 12 observers, and two judges on the empathy subscale of the Truax Relationship Inventory and on Carkhuff's empathy rating scale were studied. Results indicate strong agreement among all participants of the counseling process on their perceptions of empathy. (Author)

A gay counselor explains what heterosexual counselors can do to help homosexual counselees. Included in the article is a short list of useful organizations which counselors may find useful for referral purposes. (HMV)

This article traces one client's progress from chronic unemployability to vocational stability through the use of rational emotive therapy (RET). The authors explain the causality among activating events, belief systems, and emotional consequences. The client is helped toward a view of self-responsibility in determining his own consequences.…

An experienced Gestalt therapist and educator discusses some neglected areas of this popular approach to personal growth. The theory behind Gestalt Therapy is also examined in detail. (Author)

This study examined the age and sex characteristics of persons who would be sought for advice by different cohort groups. The results indicated a convergence of preferences for middle-aged advisors, with males being preferred as advisors more strongly by the middle-aged and older groups. (JMB)

This article points out some areas of possible confrontation for the counselor which may be helpful in the counseling process, but which will also involve somewhat lesser degrees of risk for the counselor who is less certain of his or her skills in this area. (Author)