Book Summary: Complements and expands upon the "Family Therapy with the Experts" video series produced by the same authors. Each chapter begins with a brief description of the theory and what makes it significant. The authors then delineate the clinical perspective

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This research study was performed in an attempt to fill an apparent void regarding the relative utility and comprehensiveness of three published, theoretically-based, idiographic, initial assessment inventories: Integral Intake (II), Life-Style Introductory Interview (LI), and Multimodal Life History Inventory (MI). “Experts” -- defined as professors of counseling or psychology and licensed practitioners who have been practicing as counselors or psychologists for at least five years - read through the inventories and then evaluated them by responding to both (qualitative) open-ended questions as well (quantitative) rankings and ratings. The researcher posed three primary research questions: 1) how do participants' evaluations differ regarding the overall helpfulness of the three inventories; 2) how do participants' evaluations differ regarding the comprehensiveness -- both relative to each of the eight dimensions of the client (thoughts, emotions, behaviors, physical aspects of the client, physical aspects of the client's environment, culture, spirituality, and what is most meaningful to the client) and overall -- of the three inventories; and 3) how do participants' evaluations differ regarding the efficiency with which the three inventories assessed the eight dimensions. Results indicated that participants consistently evaluated the II and MI as more helpful, comprehensive, and efficient than the LI - both overall and relative to the eight specific dimensions. The LI was consistently evaluated as the worst of the three inventories -- on all dimensions. The MI was evaluated as the best inventory on four dimensions: the client's thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and physical aspects. The II was evaluated as the best inventory on seven dimensions: physical aspects of the client's environment, client's culture, client's spirituality, what is most meaningful to the client, and, notably, on overall comprehensiveness, overall efficiency, and overall helpfulness. Another goal of this research was to obtain feedback from the participants relative to how to improve the II. This goal was also accomplished and the researcher will implement this feedback into subsequent versions of the Integral Intake.

According to Alfred Adler, founder of Individual Psychology, a feeling of inferiority is in some degree common to all people. People who are unable to overcome these inferiority feelings by striving for cooperation may become discouraged. Although there are three scales to measure social interest, no scales measuring discouragement for adults was found. Additionally, Adler held basic assumptions regarding homosexuality, and the findings suggest that the assumptions should be reexamined. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, three University of North Texas candidates developed a discouragement scale for adults 18 years of age and older, known as the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA). Discouragement was examined relative to the five life tasks. Second, this candidate normed the instrument for the scores of gay male subjects and compared it to the scores of the other subject groups. Since the emphasis was on developing the instrument and norming it for various subject groups, no hypothesis was developed. Data was collected on three subject groups, known as the general norm subjects, the discouraged subjects, and the gay male subjects. Analyses were performed on the scores. Among the analyses, it was found that gay male subjects were slightly more discouraged than the general norm subjects, and the discouraged subjects were far greater discouraged than the other two subject groups. Initial reliability and validity was found to be high, offering support that the DSA is a reliable and valid instrument. The recommendations for further research include cultural and gender studies, predicting behavior, counseling intervention, and exploring the relationship between discouragement and stressors, such as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The focus of the present study was to test through SEM the relationships between family influences (FI) and school influences (SI) on factors hypothesized to be associated with adolescent social interest: school belonging (SB), extracurricular participation (EP), and peer/romantic involvement (PRI). The final model consisted of FI and SI that contributed to the expression of adolescent social interest. FI included parental communication and parental caring. SI consisted of teacher fairness. SB consisted of a child's self-reported feelings of belonging at school, EP included self-reported involvement in sports or academic clubs, and PRI consisted of self-reported desire for romantic involvement or desire for participation with others. The proposed model suggested that FI contributed significantly to self-reported SB, EP, and PRI. Additionally, it was hypothesized that SI would contribute significantly to SB and EP, but not to PRI. The data used in the current study were part of an existing data set collected as part of the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. The total sample size for the present study was 2,561 male and female adolescents aged 12-19 years. The data consisted of adolescent and parent self-report information. Results suggested a significant relationship between FI and self-reported SB and PRI. As expected, a significant relationship existed between SI and SB. Also as expected, no significant relationship existed between SI and PRI. Neither the relationship between FI and EP nor SI and EP were significant. When analyzed separately, a significant relationship existed between SB and PRI; however, no significant relationship was found between SB and EP. Results also indicated several of the fit indices, including the average off-diagonal absolute standardized residual, the comparative fit index (CFI), and the Bentler-Bonett non-normed fit index (BBNFI), were a low to moderate fit. However, the final model was highly skewed and the model chi-square and chi-square were both exceptionally high, indicating the model appeared to moderately fit the data, but the need for further refinement is clear.

Reflections on the ideas of Adlerian masters. An interview with Heinz Ansbacher / J.R. Bitter and J. West -- On neurosis / J.R. Bitter -- Dreikurs' holistic medicine / C. Nappier Carr and J.R. Bitter -- An interview with Harold Mosak / J.R. Bitter -- Adlerian brief therapy with individuals. Adlerian brief therapy with individuals / J.R. Bitter and W.G. Nicoll -- Relational strategies / J. Bitter and W.G. Nicoll -- Adlerian group counseling. Adlerian group counseling / M.A. Sonstegard and J.R. Bitter -- Counseling children in groups / M.A. Sonstegard and J.R. Bitter --Adlerian couples and family counseling and therapy. Family mapping and family constellations / J.R. Bitter -- Communication styles, personality priorities, and social interest / J. Bitter -- Conscious motivations / J.R. Bitter -- The mistake notions of adults with children / J.R. Bitter -- Two approaches to counseling parents alone / J.R. Bitter -- Human conversations / J.R. Bitter and R. Byrd -- A Study on early recollectons. Early recollections vesus created memory / S.B. Barker and J.R. Bitter -- An Adlerian-feminist approach to therapy. Reclaiming a pro-feminist orientation in Adlerian therapy / J.R. Bitter et al. -- Reconsidering narcissism / J.R. Bitter -- Adlerian therapy and social construction. Integrating narrative therapy with Adlerian lifestyle assessment / J.G. Disque and J.R. Bitter -- Emotion, experience, and early recollections / J.G. Disque and J.R. Bitter -- Final thoughts. Am I an Adlerian? / J.R. Bitter. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1000/thumbnail.jpg

Starting with Adler’s original work with families in an open forum, there is a long history of both self-disclosure and storytelling in therapeutic practice. This presentation traces that history and identifies the purposes and goals of these interventions in Adlerian therapy. Demonstrations of effective use are provided. Participants will learn the purposes and therapeutic goals for self-disclosure & storytelling in Adlerian counseling & therapy. Participants will learn guidelines for appropriate use of self-disclosure and storytelling in therapy.

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Many couples have been encouraged or even required by their pastors or by the state to engage in premarital counseling (Calvert & Bridges, 2006; Schumm et al., 2010; Williams, 2007). The majority of premarital counseling is provided within church settings and is provided by the clergy or lay ministers of the church (Schumm et al., 2010; Stahmann, 2000). Although pastors can provide education and spiritual guidance, they may not be adequately trained or comfortable with providing the clinical interventions that some premarital couples may need. The authors propose an Adlerian model for therapists to use when providing premarital counseling with religious couples. In addition, they provide a brief overview of existing popular assessments and inventories for premarital counseling, and they present a case study involving a male-female, Christian couple.