This paper focuses on aspects of the relationship that develops between people offering daily support and those seeking those supports. We interviewed 16 personal assistants employed in two agencies in the Pacific Northwest. Both agencies are members of a community of practice among organizers of person-centered supports that is coordinated…

Romer and Walker's "Appreciative Inquiry," which obtained input from 16 capable personal assistants, challenges some influential assumptions about personal assistance and opens a way to think about the demanding work of developing capable and committed personal assistants. Attempts to depersonalize the relationship between people…

This article discusses the complexities associated with adopting a not-knowing stance in Child and Youth Care practice. By highlighting some of the challenges, it also clarifies the distinctions between practitioner lack of knowing how to proceed and an intentional, uncertain attitude when working with children, youth and families. Recommendations…

Focused on isolating variables that might be both measurable and essential to effective helping, locating appropriate measures for them, and factor analyzing the variables to determine whether the characteristics were truly independent or could be represented by a smaller number of variables. Subjects (n=99) were helping professionals. Results…

Addresses art therapy for homebound people, giving special attention to the set of needs for this environment; the desired personality traits of the in-home therapist; the structure of the therapeutic relationship; and appropriate art therapy goals. Presents two case studies of home-bound art therapy which demonstrate the complexities and…

Six therapist response-mode rating systems were compared in order to delineate a set of primary modes that would best summarize the domain of therapist actions. The modes rated were question, information, advisement, reflection, interpretation, and self-disclosure. These modes discriminated among the seven contrasting therapeutic approaches and…

Social workers must assist people in coping with complex, often apparently insoluble, problems. Data are presented on the relationship between intolerance of ambiguity and a variety of performance and preference measures of 212 social work students. (Author/MH)

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…

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…

Summarizes gaps between assumptions appearing in literature, research, and accepted standards for marital and family therapy (MFT) supervision, and the common practice of supervisors. Issues stemming from gaps are highlighted and recommendations made for closing them. In an effort to refine standard practice for MFT supervision, best practice…

Evaluates effect of the counselor's level of anxiety on students taking part in test anxiety desensitization workshops. Results indicate the number of sessions attended by students is inversely related to the counselor's level of anxiety. Implications for counselor screening in desensitization work are mentioned. (Author)

Investigates the relationship between therapists' perceived knowledge level in the area of child development and their actual knowledge level, as measured by an assessment instrument developed to measure child development knowledge within a therapeutic setting. Results revealed respondents felt they were knowledgeable in the area of child…

This account of the author's two contrasting experiences as a church counselor raises awareness regarding counseling in new venues and in response to congregational and community needs. Specific concerns related to church counselors are addressed, as well as effective use of discussion groups in building a sense of community. (Author)

Applied the concepts of symmetrical and complementary relationship patterns from interactional communication theory to a study of Haley's assertions. Analyses of counselor-client verbal transactions did not support the notion that successful counseling is characterized by a complementary relationship with the counselor in the control position.…

This article investigated the effect of the variation in individual worker definition of "former client" in relationship to workers' perceptions of appropriate professional behaviors during provision of social work services. Findings suggest there is a lack of consensus regarding the definition of a former client, and that this may affect practice…