<p> Standards for integration of spirituality and religion within mental health training continue to be ambiguous. Although increased attention has incorporated such diversity into multiculturalism, proficiency remains inadequate among non-religiously affiliated individuals and institutions. This study examined competence levels utilizing the Revised Spiritual Competence Scale II (SCS-R-II) and the Spiritual and Religious Competency Assessment (SARCA). Participants were 125 students attending accredited counseling, psychology, and social work schools in the United States. Counselor trainees scored highest on both measures as did students with very strong personal religious affiliation and attendees of Christian affiliated schools. Implications and future recommendations are discussed.</p>

<p>The top five sources of stress for graduate school students include academic responsibilities, fiscal issues, anxiety caused by stress, work-life balance issues, and familial issues. This research explored the perceptions of marriage and family therapists regarding stress management in these areas for graduate students. Five female therapists were purposefully interviewed in the Riverside County region of California. The interview included five open ended questions and five closed ended questions, totaling 10 questions. The top five stressors were addressed using two questions for each. The research resulted in five themes regarding stress management: (a) realistic expectations, (b) proper budgeting, (c) self-care, (d) healthy perspectives, and (e) effective communication. </p>

This study investigated the effects of a counseling module on SAT I verbal test scores. The junior high school subjects, who were enrolled un an Upward Bound Program, consisted of three males and two females. The subjects met the program's income and academic criteria. A quasi-experimental method was used consisting of a pre- and post-test design. The SAT I Prep Class constituted the module used. The duration of the class was 60 days using a total of 10.91 hours of contact time over nine meetings. The researcher found the pre- and post-test verbal test scores were 418 and 412, respectively. Th difference was 6 between these two means. The t-test value was .096 with eight degrees of freedom. This value was statistically insignificant at the .05 level of confidence. Therefore, the null hypothesis was not rejected. The use of this coaching module had no significant effects on these students' performance on the verbal component of the SAT I. Implications of the study suggest that verbal knowledge seems to be quite stable and not easily influenced by coaching. Furthermore, this type of coaching should not be recommended for these types of students. It is recommended that more carefully designed research be done in this area utilizing representative samples of populations about whom generalizations can be made.

<p> Attachment theory suggests that previous experiences direct one&rsquo;s interpretations of potentially stressful events and one&rsquo;s reaction to these events. As university students interact with a novel environment and face new demands, they may experience elevated levels of stress. Dependent on what resources they feel are available to them, they might feel confident in addressing these challenges, or they may believe they cannot meet the demands of the college environment. This perception of ability or inability can affect personal and academic success. Using attachment theory as a foundation, this study investigated the relationships among students&rsquo; attachment dynamics, coping styles, and perceived stress in a sample 174 West Virginia University students. Based on attachment theory and previous research, it was expected that both students&rsquo; attachment dynamics and coping styles would explain variance in perceived stress. As predicted, using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, both attachment dynamics and coping styles were observed to explain a significant amount of variance (26.8&ndash;45.5% variance explained) in the perception of stress, after accounting for demographic variables. Results of this study are explored with regard to how they can inform clinical work and future research with the university student population.</p>

<p>The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a rationale and framework for a systemic praxis for Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) that can be utilized to increase possibilities for therapeutic change. In a time in which &ldquo;common factors&rdquo; are valued and MFTs generally consider themselves eclectic or integrative, there is a need for therapists to learn to cultivate a systemic praxis that allows them to effectively &ldquo;juggle&rdquo; all of the elements of and responsibilities inherent in the therapeutic situation. Drawing from cybernetics, systemic theory, and radical constructivism, I develop a systemic praxis for therapists which incorporates systemic ways of perceiving and engaging, improvisation, and Recursive Frame Analysis (Keeney, 1990). I develop a theory regarding the nature, impact, and utilization of what I call &ldquo;systemic sensing&rdquo; and ways of engaging that go beyond adherence to various aspects of therapy models. Systemic Sensing constitutes ways of seeing, hearing, sensing, and intuiting that therapists can utilize to co-create, with their clients, opportunities for therapeutic transformation. </p><p> In this dissertation, I extend Ray Ison&rsquo;s (2010) framework for systemic practice to the practice of marriage and family therapy. Ison (2010) provided a metaphor of the systems practitioner as a juggler. MFTs can improve their practice by learning to juggle Maturana&rsquo;s (2002, 2008) notions of languaging and emotioning, Bateson&rsquo;s (1972; 1979) notion of distinguishing, and Ison&rsquo;s (2010) notion of naming; the practice of and responsibilities inherent in systemic sensing; and the tailoring and contextualizing of the practice of therapy to individual clients and moments in time. </p><p> What is needed in the field of marriage and family therapy is a way of envisioning and practicing therapy that increases possibilities for change. I call for a reformation that will shift the emphasis in marriage and family therapy from model-based training into more holistic, flexible, and systemic interpersonal practices that are based on inspiring therapeutic change and healing. </p>

<p> Over the centuries, the meaning of wonder has decayed substantially. An immense distance and complex history lie between Socrates' declaration that wisdom begins in wonder and the commercialism of today's Wonder Bread, Wonderbra and Wonderful World of Disney. Since few have considered wonder to be a psychologically significant experience, scholarship in this area has been negligible. Yet, amidst the travails of living, experiences of wonder can constitute transformational epiphanies and unlatch the flow of life through deepening subjectivity; magnifying perceptions; amplifying sensitivity to beauty; expanding horizons; recognizing the extraordinary in the ordinary; intuiting the sacred in the secular; and promoting possibility, delight, reverence, and gratefulness for the gift of life. </p><p> This dissertation contemplates the dimensions of the experience of wonder; wonder's connection to soul; and how we might attune to wonder. Since wonder is both the condition and the primary principle of the phenomenological reduction (van Manen, 1990, p. 185), several scholars concur that no adequate method exists for researching wonder, for it entails a recursive paradox of wondering about the wonderment of wonder, with wonder having the first and last word. Therefore, this work adopts a mixed method, combining depth psychological and phenomenological approaches with hermeneutically amplified heuristic inquiry. The researcher's experience of wonder provides the primary data, and multi-disciplinary texts serve to unfold this data. </p><p> The findings identify wonder's key themes, characteristics, valences, and nuances, and ways to attune and attend to wonder's presence, both inside and outside the consulting room. Ultimately, the study personifies wonder as a feminine voice of soul, and advocates her inclusion in depth psychotherapy as integral to its honoring of tending the soul, the etymological root of psychotherapy itself. Wonder reveals herself as an ineffable encounter with existence and the world, an epiphany of embodied, archetypal resonance between the individual's soul and the soul of the world, when "the universe shivers in the depths of the human" (Swimme, 1985, p. 32). This study, embracing knowledge as beginning and ending in wonder, grants her the final word. </p><p> Key words: Wonder, soul, resonance, epiphany, ineffability, attunement, attentiveness, unknowing, <i>aesthesis,</i> intuition. </p>

<p> Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals face significant mental and physical health disparities compared to their heterosexual peers. Such differential outcomes are often attributed to minority stress, chronic stress that is specific to one&rsquo;s marginalized status and which is distinct from normal every day life stress. Current research, which attempts to assess the relationship between minority stress and health, is stifled by lack of a uniform measurement tool to operationalize the construct. The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive tool that encapsulates all of the major dimensions of minority stress, as defined by Meyer&rsquo;s (2003) LGB minority stress model. The final LGBT Minority Stress Measure is a 25-item self-report scale, with seven subscales: identity concealment, everyday discrimination/ microaggressions, rejection anticipation, discrimination events, internalized stigma, victimization events, and community connectedness. Results from 640 participants, including 119 of which identified as gender non-conforming, supported the psychometric properties of the scale. Additionally, consistent with existing literature, greater minority stress was associated with increased psychological distress.</p>

<p>Research over many decades has considered how physical activity affects mental health and how physical activity is perceived and utilized by mental health professionals in the treatment of clients. Findings suggest that physical activity is useful for decreasing symptoms of some disorders, improving mood, and improving cognitive functioning. Further, mental health professionals generally endorse the topic of physical activity as relevant and useful in the mental health context. However, mental health professionals do not generally address client physical activity. Among other concerns, mental health professionals believe that addressing physical activity with clients could have a negative impact on the client?s perception of the counseling process. This study investigated whether addressing client physical activity with college students participating in an intake counseling session influenced client ratings of the session or client ratings of the counseling relationship. There were no significant differences found in client ratings of the counseling session or counseling relationship when physical activity was addressed. The results of this study can be used in making decisions about addressing the topic of physical activity in the mental health context.

<p> This is a study concerning the perception of consultation among school counselors, teachers, and mental health professional counselors (MHPCs) working collaboratively in the public school setting for the benefit of the academic and behavioral success of students. Although there are many consultation models and theoretical views (Brigman, Mullis, Webb, &amp; White, 2005; Caplan, Caplan, &amp; Erchul, 1995; Erchul &amp; Conoley, 1991; Erford, 2011; Kampwirth, 2006), this study utilized the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) framework for consultation in schools. </p><p> Although MHPCs are not considered school counselors by definition, and they are not compensated by school districts, they still serve as consultants with school counselors and teachers for the purpose of student success. This study explored the perception held by school counselors, teachers, and MHPCs regarding consultation conducted in the public schools. It also examined the perception of how the consultation process between these three professional groups affects students&rsquo; behavioral and academic success. This study utilized a qualitative design which used grounded theory methods of data analysis, collecting and analyzing data from interviews of school counselors, teachers, and MHPCs as they collaborate in the public schools. The participants included the MHPCs from one Midwestern agency and school counselors and teachers with whom the selected MHPCs had opportunity to interact in consultation in elementary and secondary schools.</p>

<p> The concept of multiculturalism has traditionally referred to visible racial and ethnic cultural differences among people, and has expanded to include other marginalized and oppressed populations in the United States in the past 25 years. However, in the context of counselor education, there appears to be an incomplete understanding of what constitutes multicultural competence, the characteristics a competent counselor embodies, and how counselor education programs are evaluated for their efficacy in cultivating multicultural competence. The hypothesis guiding the current study was that there are shared characteristics between a mindful counselor and a multiculturally competent counselor such as cultural humility, increased awareness, genuineness, cultural empathy, and a non-judgmental disposition. To explore this further, the researcher used a mixed method research methodology to explore the phenomena of multicultural counseling competence and mindfulness. The qualitative aspect of this study involved the use of a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to correlate the attributes that are shared between these two phenomena, while the quantitative aspect involved using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale and Everyday Multicultural Competencies / Revised Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy to statistically measure the magnitude of the correlation between mindfulness and multicultural competence. A grounded theory for the cultivation of multicultural counseling competence is presented in the final chapter as a synthetic outcome of this study.</p>