Counseling outside the lines: Creative arts intervention for children and adolescents,individual, small group and classroom applications by Vernon,A., and Barry,K. L.

No abstract available for this article.     

Violent Marriages

This paper addresses the questions of why many people are violent toward those they claim to love and why many people stay with those who hurt them. Patterns of relationship within violent marriages, the characteristics of individuals involved and societal values are explored for answers. Some thoughts on therapy are presented.     

What about the family in family therapy research?*

Family therapists are frequently criticised for not publishing any substantiation of the effectiveness of their therapeutic interventions. This paper discusses why clinicians do not evaluate their work through examining current recommendations for family therapy evaluation, and the effects of these recommendations on the family under study. We provide some criteria specific to the family which will assist clinicians in selecting measurement instruments to evaluate family therapy. These relate to ethics, parsimony and design features of the study. The complexity of family therapy evaluation must be addressed if more clinicians are to do evaluation.     

Career Counseling and Possible Selves: A Case Study

Process-oriented case analyses, which are the natural next step in understanding career interventions, are beginning to reveal subtle process changes across sessions. In this case, a 37-year-old physical therapist, who expressed dissatisfaction with her current position, participated in 8 sessions of individual career counseling with an experienced doctoral-level career psychologist. The Possible Selves Questionnaire (PSQ; Markus, 1987), the Symptom 90-R Checklist (Derogatis, 1983), and the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, 1987) were administered at pretesting, after 4 sessions, and at posttesting. Four client- and 2 counselor-process measures were also administered following each session. Results revealed expected changes in traditional outcome measures, and an increase followed by a decrease in future possible selves. Anxiety and vocational information seeking followed a sine-shaped pattern, and sleep disturbance increased at midcounseling and posttesting. Session depth and smoothness were highest when anxiety and information seeking were lowest. These findings, which coincide with other case study results, were integrated using an activation theory model of career intervention in which moderate anxiety serves as a motivator for constructive behavior change.     

The Quality of Life of People 12 Years after Resettlement from Long Stay Hospitals: users' views on their living environment, daily activities and future aspirations

We report service users' views on three important domains of their quality of life in the community 12 years after resettlement for long-stay hospitals. These concerned their living environments, daily activities and future aspirations. We asked a series of open questions as part of a structured interview with service users with learning disabilities (n = 196) and mental health problems (n = 102). The study is the longest reported follow-up of deinstitutionalisation in the UK and one of the longest anywhere in the world. The most frequently self-reported positive aspects of users' quality of life were the living environment, the social milieu and independence. The most frequently mentioned problems occurred within the social milieu and included bullying, the social regime, the physical aspects of the accommodation, and the personal feelings of loneliness and boredom. The most preferred activities were outings, education and work, relaxation and leisure. The most disliked activities were household chores and having nothing to do. About half those interviewed did not or could not answer a question about their future; those who did mentioned a wish for greater independence, more outings and personal and sexual relationships. We remark on some implications for services and for staff training.     

Attachment styles, alcohol, and childhood experiences of abuse: an analysis of physical violence in dating couples

This study examined individual and partner characteristics that contribute to the propensity for physical violence in couples. In a sample of 171 heterosexual dating couples, each partner completed measures assessing experienced childhood abuse, alcohol use, alcohol expectancies, attachment, and relationship length. Physically violent men reported more abuse from each parent, greater alcohol use, anxious attachment, and a longer relationship. Their female partner reported more childhood abuse by the father and reciprocal perpetrated violence. Physically violent women reported more abuse from the father, greater alcohol use, aggressive alcohol expectancies, and a longer relationship. Their male partner reported greater abuse from the mother, greater alcohol use, and reciprocal perpetrated violence. This study demonstrates the importance of considering how each individual's characteristics within a dyad contribute to increased propensity for dating violence.     

What mattered ten years on? Young people's reflections on their involvement with a charitable youth participation project

Youth work in England is experiencing ongoing rapid and significant change, fuelling debate about its very function. This paper contributes to this debate by presenting original research on what young people themselves prioritised as significant in-service provision and highlights the longer-term impact that engagement with a voluntary sector organisation can have on the lives of vulnerable young people. Drawing on qualitative interviews with ten former youth participants involved in youth participation projects, the findings presented in this paper suggest that participants felt the support they received was, in many cases, ‘transformative’. However, they primarily defined their experiences and the impact through their relationships with individuals supporting them, through the sense of achievement and ability to effect change they developed and through finding a voice to affect community decisions.