Presents a brief historical look at child abuse and at helping professionals' developing awareness of the problem. Describes some efforts to rehabilitate abusive parents and suggests to human service professionals that their role goes beyond simple remediation to include prevention through the general improvement of social and family life. (SJL)

Explores whether a client's preference for a certain therapy effects treatment efficacy. Treatment of 64 agoraphobic patients with either exposure in vivo or exposure combined with hypnosis show that, although patients' preference clearly shifted in favor of a combined therapy approach, no effect of preference on outcome was evident. (RJM)

Describes a study of social work clinicians working with two types of trauma: sexual abuse and cancer. The effect of clinician's cognitive schemas and the confounding variables of personal history of abuse and years' experience are described. Clinicians who worked primarily with clients who were sexually abused reported more disruptions in…

Student essays were analyzed by the researchers to identify motivations fro pursuing a major in human services. Four major themes emerged: the self, personal experiences, goals, and program/curriculum. Findings are consistent with current career-development theories. Two subthemes unique to these participants were religion and working with…

A survey of 300 Nevada human services workers tested four areas of multicultural competence: awareness, knowledge, skills, and relationship. Women scored higher than men on three subscales. Graduate-degree workers scored higher than BA-level workers on two subscales. Cultural awareness was the weakest area overall, although minority workers scored…

Counselors who work with conservative Christians may ask how to respect a client's values when "God" seems to be saying something contrary to what the counselor believes is in the client's best interests. This article portrays conservative Christianity as a culture and articulates conservative Christian beliefs that may challenge the counseling…

Explores how an individual's privileged social or cultural group statuses (e.g., being White, male, or heterosexual) may work in combination with an individual's oppressed group statuses (e.g., being African American, a woman, or lesbian/gay/bisexual) in shaping the individual's multicultural experiences. (Contains 20 references.) (GCP)

Reviews literature from the fields of psycholinguistics, communications, and social psychology that has examined the effects of speech accents on interpersonal attitudes, casual attributions, and subsequent behaviors. Links selected findings to the filed of counseling to show that these findings can inform service delivery, particularly counseling…

Study assesses self-destructive behavior in a group of inpatients who have dissociative disorders compared to those who report few dissociative symptoms. Results reveal that these patients more frequently engage in self-destructive behaviors, use more methods of self-injury, and begin to injure themselves at an earlier age then patients who do not…

Interviews 6 months after 14 social services employees participated in inservice training identified job and work environment factors that impede transfer of training: short duration, lack of time and opportunity to practice, minimal supervisor support, and the perception that such training was more for personal development than application to the…

This article suggests a way in which family therapists can begin to develop a multicultural family practice. The authors view review literature regarding recommendations for working with diverse families, examine the therapist's adoption of Multicultural Competencies, and provide a model for components of a family practice that encourages diverse…

Asserts that in working with lesbian alcoholics, it is most important to be aware of shame and internalized homophobia as ongoing forces that will emerge and re-emerge within the client as she learns to live a life of sobriety. In recognizing the role that stress plays in relapse, it is crucial to teach stress management tools such as relaxation…

Examines effects of ancestry and severity of disability of vocational rehabilitation consumers. European Americans, individuals with higher costs, and persons who received assistive technology were more likely to be closed rehabilitated. Individuals from other ancestry groups, who were coded severely disabled, or who had been in the system for…

Assesses vocational rehabilitation (VR) services utilization and employment outcomes among different racial and ethnic groups of adults with disabilities. Minorities received different types of VR services than did European Americans. European American VR recipients had the highest rates of competitive employment, whereas African American VR…

Meta-analyses were performed on seven studies of ethnic match and psychotherapy. Results reveal a small dropout and utilization effect sizes, indicating that ethnic match is not a significant clinical predictor of decreasing dropout after the first session or increasing number of sessions attended. (Contains references and tables.) (GCP)