Family Phone Therapy in University Counseling and Psychological Service Centers: A Family Systems Approach

Abstract

This paper offers family phone therapy as a method for student mental health practitioners to overcome the obstacle of geographic distance between students and their families when family therapy is the treatment of choice. The issues of confidentiality, triangulation, diversionary conversation, and mixed communication, which present unique concerns when engaging in family phone therapy, are introduced and strategies to deal with them are discussed. A case example is presented to demonstrate the utility of family phone therapy in dealing with problems that students who use university mental health services can typically experience. Finally, implications of dealing with students' developmental tasks from an individual or family systems perspective are discussed.     

USING THE TELEPHONE IN FAMILY THERAPY

This article explores use of the telephone as a communication medium for engaging families in the therapy process. A review of related literature is followed by an exploration of some of the challenges involves. The author offers suggestions for conducting phone sessions, provides a case example, examines some of the ethical issues involves, and ponders the possible future impact of advanced telephone-related communication technology on family therapy.     

Transforming into the new era: public relations industry in Hong Kong and China

The public relations industry as one of the key industries in Hong Kong has metamorphosed into a new phase after the resumption of sovereignty to China. Based on in-depth interviews with eight experienced corporate communication practitioners from multi-national and sizeable local corporations in Hong Kong and China, the study traces the recent development of public relations and/or corporate communication (hereafter PR/CC) highlighting issues of role and function, language and communication strategy, and ethics and professionalism.     

SEX ROLE CONSIDERATIONS AND BEHAVIORAL MARITAL THERAPY: EQUAL DOES NOT MEAN IDENTICAL*

Despite the egalitarian position espoused in behavioral marital therapy, little attention has been paid to sex role issues and female-male differences. This paper explores advantages and disadvantages of behavioral marital therapy vis à vis the treatment of women and men. Features of behavioral marital therapy implicated as important in the consideration of sex role issues include underlying assumptions of egalitarianism, assumptions of external causality, and orientation toward action, as well as specific procedures such as goal setting, behavioral exchange and training in communication and problem-solving skills. Each of these features is evaluated with respect to clinical considerations as well as to research findings on female-male differences in marriage. The paper concludes with recommendations as to how behavioral marital therapy could become more sensitive to sex role issues.     

Convergence or mediation? Experts of vulnerability and the vulnerability of experts’ discourses on nanotechnologies – a case study

Since 2004, risk in the context of nanotechnologies has been criticized as being too abstract and an all-inclusive category. Moreover, the concept of risk is not precise enough to describe the potential issues related to the development of nanotechnologies. Instead, experts on technological development emphasize risk communication. In the field of nanotechnologies, this term was redefined in February 2005 in relation to the question of societal acceptance of nanotechnologies. Risk communication is about gaining stakeholder acceptance of policy decisions, whilst the public and stakeholders are encouraged to participate actively in the communication process through public consultations or hearings. Thus, on the one hand, the category of risk has been pragmatically nuanced to better highlight the vulnerability of the communication of nanotechnologies. On the other hand, this vulnerable communication is not the result of a deficit of information. It is based on the idea of participation, where vulnerability hinges on the social groups specialized in the design, application and diffusion of nanotechnologies within society. How is such participation possible, and what does it entail? We develop this question in the framework of a comparative survey of experts in the development of nanotechnologies in Grenoble (France) and Hamburg (Germany).     

European Communication Monitor 2009. An institutionalized view of how public relations and communication management professionals face the economic and media crises in Europe

The European Communication Monitor (ECM) is an extensive longitudinal research project to monitor trends in public relations and communication management and analyze the changing framework for the profession in Europe. The 2009 ECM edition identifies the main characteristics of individual practitioners and the organizations where they work. The aim is to monitor the challenges for communication management in the recession and media crisis; the development of the sub disciplines, instruments and strategic issues; and the influence on management decisions. Additionally ECM 2009 evaluates three specific areas: internal communication, research in communication and interactive communication.     

Environmental Concern and Situational Communication Theory: Implications for Communicating With Environmental Publics

Public relations practitioners will find Grunig's situational communication theory to be a useful tool for identifying environmental publics and their orientations toward specific environmental issues. The research reported here explores the utility of Van Liere and Dunlap's (1981) measure of environmental concern in differentiating situational publics. The data were collected by telephone survey from 1,002 adult respondents. Members of the routine public did not perceive environmental issues to be a problem because they favored economic development over concern for the environment. The fatalistic public reported watching television news about pollution and held a pro-environmental attitude. Problem recognition provided a cognitive measure of environmental awareness and was consistently associated with communication behavior. Level of involvement and environmental concern provided attitudinal measures of the respondent's orientation toward environmental issues; however, these variables were not consistently associated with communication behavior. Public relations objectives designed to increase awareness and knowledge of an organization's environmental position may be far more effective than attitudinal objectives designed to create a more favorable image for the organization in view of the fact that the relationship between cognition and communication is much stronger than that between affect and communication.     

The quest for legitimacy and the communication of strategic cross-sectoral partnership on Facebook: A big data study

Nowadays, many wicked problems such as environmental issues require organizations from multiple sectors to form cross-sectoral alliances. Cross-sectoral alliance networks can transfer resources and signal affiliations and value alignment between strategic partners. The communication of cross-sectoral alliances is a form of CSR communication that serves organizations’ strategic goals and objectives. Drawing on the literature on digital CSR communication and legitimacy theory, this article examines which legitimacy needs shape the formation of cross-sectoral ties on Facebook in addressing environmental and sustainable development issues in the United States. Combining data-mining, text-mining, social network analysis, and exponential graph modeling, this research investigates the structure of a network among 3071 organizations across multiple sectors. Findings show that organizations’ cross-sectoral tie formation is mainly driven by social legitimacy and alliance legitimacy needs.     

MARITAL THERAPY AND GENDER-LINKED FACTORS IN COMMUNICATION

Understanding the process of communication is important because communication is critical to all forms of psychotherapy. A proper understanding of communication is particularly important in marital therapy because communications is often a treatment target. A central question of this paper is whether or not communication training (CT) programs in marital therapy have been sufficiently sensitive to the complexities of gender in communication. A critical review of research on the role of gender in communication is presented. Existing data indicate that individuals tend to hold stereotypes of gender differences in language, but many of these purported differences have not been supported in empirical investigations. However, gender has been found to be linked to variables such as amount of conversation elicited, length of utterance, use of qualifying phrases, swearing, use of back channel cues, breaking of silences, function of tag questions, and compliment style. Numerous limitations of the empirical literature exploring gender differences in communication behavior are described. This paper advocates the development of models of communication in which gender is recognized as having significant implications.     

Systematic Interviewing Microskills and Neuroscience: Developing Bridges between the Fields of Communication and Counseling Psychology

Originating in 1966-68, Microcounseling was the first video-based listening program and its purposes and methods overlap with the communications field. This article presents history, research, and present applications in multiple fields nationally and internationally. Recent neuroscience and neurobiology research is presented with the important point—“counseling and communication change the brain and encourage the development of new neural networks.— Multicultural issues are important in the microskills framework. Over 500 databased Microcounseling studies exist with translations in 21 languages. The authors suggest that the communication studies field might wish to consider itself also a mental health profession as the teaching of listening skills and effective communication is central to well-being. Furthermore, communication studies can do much to increase multicultural understanding and cross-cultural communication.     

Public Relations as Negotiation: An Issue Development Perspective

In this essay 1 reconceptualize public relations as negotiation within an issue development perspective, Issue development is a communication approach to negotiation that focuses on the framing and reframing of issues. Theoretical characteristics of communication and negotiation models are utilized to identify shortcomings of the two-way symmetrical model and to advance notions of public relations as negotiation within an issue development framework. Issue development public relations is a management process of negotiating the organization public relationship. Theoretical implications and future research questions are indicated.     

The Use of E‐mail in the Therapy Process

The therapeutic letter has a long history, with roots in psychoanalytic work and continuing application in family therapy. The advent of e‐mail has allowed another form for therapeutic written communication which, while incorporating the benefits of therapeutic letters, adds to these. It has also opened up some potential risks. This article incorporates a brief review of the literature covering therapeutic written communication and offers a case example where e‐mail was used as an adjunct in face‐to‐face therapy with a client who experienced attachment difficulties. This therapy was informed by systemic and psychoanalytic traditions. The authors explore a variety of technical matters including the timing and crafting of e‐mail responses, the integration of written communication with face‐to‐face therapy, impact on the therapeutic relationship and management of crisis. Ethical issues such as confidentiality and duty of care are also considered.     

Virtual Worlds and Social Work Education

ABSTRACT

The introduction of computerised virtual worlds in the early twenty-first century was considered to be an innovation that would be widely used in higher education. There are a number of examples of virtual worlds used for higher education in medicine, nursing, and allied health, including examples in social work. The aim of this article is to explore the potential value of virtual-world technology to enhance the student learning experience for social work education in interpersonal communication skills in a virtual health centre. Findings of a study of Australian undergraduate social work students who engaged in a role play in a virtual health centre for skill development in interpersonal communication are presented. The study findings highlight issues for social work educators to consider when deciding whether or not to use virtual-world technology in social work education, and when designing further research on similar innovations.     

Is Family Therapy Including Children?

This paper presents a review of recent child therapy and family therapy texts and training courses in Australia. The aim was to determine the extent to which knowledge and information about child development and emotional and psychological problems in children and adolescents is included in the education and training of family therapists. The paper argues this is crucial to prevent the difficulties of young person's being ignored or exacerbated and discusses relevant ethical issues.     

Moving forward the dialogic theory of public relations: Concepts,methods and applications of organization-public dialogue

Advanced information and communication technologies and social media (Web 2.0) have significantly shaped every aspect of contemporary society since Kent and Taylor’s (1998) proposal of dialogic principles, which later evolved into dialogic theory of public relations. It is now time to move the theory forward. The special section aims to advance the dialogic theory of public relations by reviewing the scholarship in organization-public dialogue to pinpoint critical issues for its development and introducing studies that take the dialogue approach to examine a range of public relations practices in China. In this introduction, we first identify critical issues to be addressed for the development of the dialogic theory of public relations and then introduce the articles included in the section. We conclude by proposing research directions for the theoretical and practical development of the dialogic approach to public relations.     

Climbing the Family Tree: Working with Genograms

The genogram is a practical and widely adopted tool for mapping families in therapy. Its use can be easily learnt and is recommended for beginners in family therapy. The genogram promotes thinking In system and transactional terms, and shifts emphasis away from individual problems to relational issues. A family system can be given a visual focus, and this often reveals patterns and connections previously unnoticed. A set of conventions for constructing genograms is suggested, with ways of elaborating on this basic frame. The applications of the genogram in joining families, in planning interventions, as a clinical communication medium, and in learning family therapy are discussed. Other types of network diagrams are briefly listed, and a clinical example of a genogram is given. Finally, limits and cautions on the use of genograms are discussed.     

Religiosity and the Third-Person Effect

During the past decade, the 3rd-person effect has emerged as an important area of research in the field of mass communication. This study provides one of the first empirical measurements of the influence of religiosity on the 3rd-person effect. This study provides evidence that, on moral issues, religiosity is positively associated with perceived media impact on others. It also provides evidence that, on nonmoral issues, religiosity is not associated with perceived media impact on self or others.     

SUCCESSFUL STEPFAMILY THERAPY: CLIENTS' PERSPECTIVES

This study examined responses from 267 adults who sought therapy because of stepfamily issues. Concerns identified at the initiation of therapy and those aspects of therapy found to be helpful or unhelpful to stepfamily adjustment were investigated. Results indicated that issues around parenting/stepparenting and stepfamily functioning were of greatest concern at the initiation of therapy. Affective support, clarification of issues, and the process and structure of therapy were most frequently reported as helpful. The therapist's perceived lack of training and skill in treating stepfamily issues was reported most frequently as unhelpful in therapy.     

Key issue operatives in an issue-driven network: Public relations as a “pocket of strength” in campus sexual assault awareness and prevention

Within public relations, little research has been conducted on the relationship between networks and social issues management, particularly issues that are gendered and emotional. Through a social network analysis and in-depth interviews with individuals involved in a public university’s sexual assault prevention and awareness work, this study demonstrates a missed opportunity for public relations experts to serve as key issue operatives in an issue-driven network. Specifically, public relations issue operatives can bridge network structural holes in the development and dissemination of comprehensive sexual assault awareness and prevention communication at universities.