Crisis intervention is the most widely applied form of brief treatment used by mental health practitioners. All crisis intervention and trauma treatment specialists are in agreement that before intervening, a full assessment of the individual and the situation must take place. »
Addiction affects the whole family. Because of this, it is understandable why some would suggest that treatment should involve the whole family. It is often the case that addicted individuals seek treatment in response to a form of external pressure exerted by family members. Many therapists adopting family therapy to treat substance abuse today have broadened what constitutes family to include ot... »
Group therapy provides a unique and important way for clients to learn about themselves and their relationships, to gain confidence, develop new skills and abilities, and to give and receive support and feedback from others. For many types of problems, group therapy is the treatment of choice. In this article we overview skills and role of the group therapist. »
Ultimately, clinical supervision is a process of individualised learning for supervisees working with clients. The systematic manner in which this individualised learning or supervision is applied is usually contained and presented in the form of a “model.” Knowledge of supervision models is considered fundamental to ethical supervision practice. There are three primary models of super... »
The minute she arrived and displayed her beautifully lined and full of expression face on my eyes there was a bond. Immediately I had to check myself. This person in front of me is not my mother. She is the same age as my mother was when she died five years previously, she has the same coloured hair, permed and styled exactly the same; she is the same height and even has the same smile. An overwhe... »
You are a counsellor and approved supervisor working in your own private practice. One of your supervisees, Mary, who has been with you for over twelve months, has told you that her sister is going through a lengthy and difficult relationship breakdown. Mary has previously suggested to her sister that she seek counselling but her sister has rejected the idea outright. Recently, however, when they ... »
Parents can play the key role in initiating and generating behaviour change in their children. Parents have the potential to inspire their children directly (by applying reinforcers and other behaviour modification strategies) and indirectly (by providing a safe, supportive and encouraging environment). As counsellors, working with parents can enhance our potential to promote successful outcomes f... »
Behavioural therapists have identified two primary goals of group therapy. These are process goals and outcome goals. Process goals refer to goals that are related to the group process. For example, process goals can be to help members improve their comfort level in the group, to increase openness in the group, and to learn to confront members in a more productive manner (Jacobs, Masson & Harv... »
A critical incident, as opposed to a crisis, may be described as any event that causes normally stable and healthy people to experience strong emotional or psychological distress. It is an event which may be regarded as being outside the normal range of experience and has the potential to interfere with the individual’s ability to cope during the incident or in their ability to cope at a later tim... »
Losing someone you love can be like losing one half of yourself. The pain and emptiness felt during the grieving process can go on for months or years, however no two people will ever respond to the same situation in the same way. Working through grief is a day by day, week by week process. You may have bad days when you think you will never recover from this loss. You may also think that you ... »
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a cognitive behavioural therapy developed as a treatment for self harming, particularly in borderline personality disorder (Low et al., 2001). Underpinning ideas of DBT suggest that invalidating environments that may have occurred during upbringing can inhibit the effective development of coping methods to deal with sudden intense surges of emotion (Linehan, ... »
Chantelle is 14 and in foster care. Chantelle was removed from her parents’ care at the age of seven and has since had several foster placements. Her last care arrangement ended, one month ago, when her foster family relocated interstate. Child protection workers have found a new foster placement for Chantelle and you have been asked to counsel Chantelle through the transition into her new c... »
How can we move beyond ‘schoolism’ towards a paradigm that embraces the full diversity of effective therapeutic methods and perspectives? Mick Cooper and John McLeod propose a ‘pluralistic’ approach. »
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