The recovery-oriented approach to psychiatric care encourages decision making between patients and providers. However, one barrier to patients' involvement in their own treatment planning is the lack of meaningful communication with providers. Healthy Mind Messages, a collaborative art installation created by patients and staff at the Oregon State…

This article focuses on a narrative account of a therapeutic journey experienced by 2 of the authors: an individual (P.D.) with a diagnosis in adulthood of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a speech-language pathologist/researcher (I.W.). Instead of adopting a traditional expert clinician treating an impaired patient stance in a highly formalized…

Background: Therapeutic alliance refers to the interactional and relational processes operating during therapeutic interventions. It has been shown to be a strong determinant of treatment efficacy in psychotherapy, and evidence is emerging from a range of healthcare and medical disciplines to suggest that the construct of therapeutic alliance may…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a couple-based intervention on the quality of life (QOL) of early-stage breast cancer patients and their partners. A randomized controlled design was used to assign couples to either the hospital standard social work services (SSWS) or a couple-based intervention, the Partners in…

Psychiatric advance directives (PADs) are legal documents that allow individuals to express their wishes for future psychiatric care and to authorize a legally appointed proxy to make decisions on their behalf during incapacitating crises. PADs are viewed as an alternative to the coercive interventions that sometimes accompany mental health crises…

Although the therapeutic alliance is a consistent predictor of psychotherapy outcomes, research has not distinguished between the roles of patient and therapist variability in the alliance. Multilevel models were used to explore the relative importance of patient and therapist variability in the alliance as they relate to outcome among 331…

Negative self-images are a maintaining factor in social phobia. A retrospective study (Hackmann, A., Clark, D.M., McManus, F. (2000). Recurrent images and early memories in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 601-610) suggested that the images may be linked to early memories of unpleasant social experiences. This preliminary study…

Although group psychotherapy is the preferred method of treatment for short-term hospitalized clients, empirical evidence of the efficacy of such a treatment method is lacking. To examine the major themes expressed in an inpatient group over time, as well as to evaluate the methodology for selecting and implementing group psychotherapy, a total of…

Discusses use of alternate sessions, regularly scheduled meetings without the therapist, in analytic group therapy and proposes that opinions should be derived from a theoretical formulation, not in place of one. A decision against the use of alternate sessions is presented by delineating basics of psychoanalytic theory. (Author/BEF)

Psychiatric diagnoses are powerfully influenced by the contexts in which patients are found and the expectations of diagnosticians. The observations of Millon, Spitzer, and Weiner on Rosenhan's "On Being Sane in Insane Places" (AA 521 951) were examined for the implications they held for the meanings of sanity and insanity. (Editor/RK)

The therapeutic community and traditional mental health services have not been demonstrated to be effective for the drug user, the mental health patient, or the alcoholic. A variety of behavior modification techniques look promising. However, their applicability for drug users has yet to be determined. The means for adequate assessment are…

Although aversive therapeutic approaches can be very effective in eliminating undesirable behavior, many clients do not commit themselves to participating in an activity which is subjectively very unpleasant. The addition of a positive reinforcement system whereby the client is rewarded for engaging in aversive therapy is proposed. (Author)

Research supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH-8304.