One or Two Session Psychotherapy with University Students

Abstract

One or two session psychotherapy has a long history, and well-known practitioners have made use of it. Favorable results have been reasonably well documented. Often it has been done out of necessity, less frequently because all were satisfied that it sufficed. Problems that lend themselves to one or two sessions are: psychological work which has already been done but for which affirmation is sought, requests for diagnostic evaluation, and less often but more challenging, intrapsychic conflict requiring uncovering work. Patient characteristics and therapist attitudes are discussed. For one or two sessions of treatment to occur the therapist must be alert to the possibility, must assess quickly when a case is in hand, set the process in motion, and determine a satisfactory stopping point. It is suggested that the college population lends itself especially well to one or two sessions of psychotherapy, not only from the standpoint of the limited resources of many student health services but also for the ego strengthening potential it provides.     

From person-centered to relational care: expanding the focus in residential care facilities

Long-term residential care facilities for older adults currently espouse a philosophy of person-centered care (PCC). However, these facilities operate according to a medical model with highly structured administration and regulation. As a result, there is tension between the priorities of the resident and the organization. A qualitative study conducted with 4 social workers and 1 physician employed in residential care facilities demonstrates not only the structural barriers to PCC, but also the importance of meaningful relationships to residents' socio-emotional well-being. The final section explores how organizational barriers might be mitigated through the complementary use of relational care.     

From Person-Centered to Relational Care: Expanding the Focus in Residential Care Facilities

Long-term residential care facilities for older adults currently espouse a philosophy of person-centered care (PCC). However, these facilities operate according to a medical model with highly structured administration and regulation. As a result, there is tension between the priorities of the resident and the organization. A qualitative study conducted with 4 social workers and 1 physician employed in residential care facilities demonstrates not only the structural barriers to PCC, but also the importance of meaningful relationships to residents' socio-emotional well-being. The final section explores how organizational barriers might be mitigated through the complementary use of relational care.     

Initial Communications with the Parents of Emotionally Disturbed University Students

Abstract

Communicating with the parents of emotionally disturbed university students is a relatively infrequent but consistent and significant activity of students' therapists. Therapist, parent, and student attitudes about such communications are discussed. Examples are given of crisis and noncrisis situations leading to parent-therapist communications and suggestions are made for the management of each situation outlined. In all such encounters, the therapist's guiding objective is to forge with the parents an alliance designed to promote the growth and development of the student.     

Deconstructing Housework: Cuts to Home Support Services and the Implications for Hospital Discharge Planning

Over the last decade, the home support resources in British Columbia have decreased. Specifically, nonmedical tasks such as housekeeping and meal preparation have been severely restricted and are no longer available for hospital discharge planning with elders who are returning to the community. This paper applies analytical deconstruction to three aspects of a case example of an elderly couple: the technical and bureaucratic aspects of who gets home support and what kind, the socially constructed aspects of gender roles and the performance of unpaid labor, and the personally informed aspects that involve an elder's life experiences, social supports, and personal values. The paper then employs a feminist poststructuralist framework to suggest discharge planning implications for social work, using the case as an example.     

The personal factor in evaluation use : A case study of a steering committee's use of a conservation tillage survey

In 1985 a statewide farmer survey about conservation tillage was conducted. It provided baseline data for a major energy conservation project. The data were used for 2 years, at which time a case study was undertaken to identify factors which influenced the tillage survey's use. The influence of the personal factor on evaluation use had been identified prior to planning the tillage survey. Therefore, the process used for conducting the tillage survey capitalized on the personal factor by using a team approach. The case study identified ways intended users actually used the tillage survey results, associated these findings with the team strategy, and generated important factors contributing to evaluation use when the personal factor was accounted for. Factors supporting the personal factor which appear to have influenced use were timeliness, intended users' ownership of the information, interaction among decision makers and the evaluator, methodological appropriateness and quality, and planning for use of the results.     

HEGEL AND CRITICAL SOCIAL THEORY: New Perspectives from the Marcuse Archives

Recently published archival material suggests the need to reexamine Herbert Marcuse's interpretation of Hegel's thought. Social theory generally will benefit from reflections upon Marcuse's historical attempts to understand contemporary societal domination, including its abstract forms, and his original social "translations" of Hegel's Subjective Logic. Following sections on Being and Essence, the latter often favored by Marxists, the final part of Hegel's Science of Logic was undervalued in the development of critical social theory before Marcuse's close readings in the years 1932–1941. Marcuse took the lead among Critical Theorists in explicating Hegel's texts. Just as significant, Marcuse was among the first to point out the sociological relevance of key categories in the most abstract final sections of Hegel's most abstract work. The newly published materials document Marcuse's unique attempts to conceive Hegelian dialectic proper as itself a practical force of social transformations. Most important, these articles concern the relationship between theory and social practice that Marcuse investigated in Hegel's dialectic of the idea of the true and the idea of the good—the absolute idea.     

Where Should We Look for Mental Representations? On the Need for Epistemic Ethics

Recent scientific studies of consciousness reveal the challenges involved in striking the proper balance between concrete fact and abstract theory. Christof Koch believes he is on the road to a scientific understanding of consciousness because he has a research paradigm which appears to create solvable puzzles. Unfortunately, work in other areas of neuroscience reveal that these puzzles rely too heavily on Aristotelian common sense to account for the unique nature of connectionist processing. William Ramsey claims that biological versions of traditional theories of representation, of the sort embraced by Koch, Fodor, and others, are so inadequate that we should give up all attempts to create high level abstract theories about human cognition. I argue, however, that what is needed is more abstract theorizing, not less. The intelligible entities described by Dynamic Systems Theory should be seen as embodiments of mental representations. These embodiments are physical in the sense that they are comprehensible in terms of modern physics, even if they are not material items that can be directly perceived.     

Psychotherapy and career counseling: toward an integration for use with college students

The authors suggest that psychotherapy and career counseling with college students can be identified as potentially concurrent and interactive processes. They seek to increase awareness of this connection and underscore the value of its application when it is appropriate to do so. Selecting a career is a crucial developmental task for young adults and is, to varying degrees, an integral part of their psychosocial adjustment. The literature is reviewed from five perspectives: the psychodynamic model of career counseling; case examples; integration of career counseling and psychotherapy; a review of the developmental theories of Erikson, Farnsworth, Chickering, and Medalie; and empirical justification. The authors discuss the rationale for merging student psychotherapy and career counseling and offer case examples.