A concept known as the therapeutic alliance has been shown to be a robust predictor of counselling outcome. However, the specific counsellor behaviours that relate to the alliance have not been clearly identified, and few prior attempts to identify these variables have been based on client-derived conceptualizations of the alliance. 51 adult clients participated in a cross-sectional study of the relationship between 15 client-identified counsellor behaviours and the strength of the therapeutic alliance. Results indicated that 11 of the 15 behaviours were moderately to strongly correlated with the strength of the alliance, and that two behaviours (i.e., making positive comments about the client and greeting the client with a smile) significantly predicted the strength of the alliance. The findings support the hypothesis that client-identified behaviours are related to and predict alliance; however, some discrepancy remains between the present results and prior research. Implications are discussed and future research is suggested.

Despite the substantial research illustrating the positive effects of physical activity on mental health, there are few studies examining the role of exercise in psychotherapy. This study examined factors associated with psychotherapists addressing physical activity with their clients. To examine this relationship, psychotherapists (N=118) completed questionnaires assessing theoretical orientation and mind-body dualism attitudes. Participants rated the likelihood they would address exercise with a client described in a case vignette and results indicated high rates of addressing physical activity with this client. The hypothesis that cognitive/behavioural and psychodymanic/psychoanalytic approaches would correlate with addressing exercise was not supported. Unpredicted relationships between exercise discussion and the humanistic/existential and constructivist/narrative/solution-focused orientations were found. The hypothesis that mind-body dualism attitudes would negatively correlate with the likelihood of addressing exercise was also not supported; however, this may be due to weak measurement of the mind-body dualism construct. / Counselling Psychology

A concept known as the therapeutic alliance has been shown to be a robust predictor of counselling outcome. However, the specific counsellor behaviours that relate to the alliance have not been clearly identified, and few prior attempts to identify these variables have been based on client-derived conceptualizations of the alliance. 51 adult clients participated in a cross-sectional study of the relationship between 15 client-identified counsellor behaviours and the strength of the therapeutic alliance. Results indicated that 11 of the 15 behaviours were moderately to strongly correlated with the strength of the alliance, and that two behaviours (i.e., making positive comments about the client and greeting the client with a smile) significantly predicted the strength of the alliance. The findings support the hypothesis that client-identified behaviours are related to and predict alliance; however, some discrepancy remains between the present results and prior research. Implications are discussed and future research is suggested.

The diploma thesis deals with school counselling/counseling in the Czech schools and the schools in the United States of America and in England. Theoretical part is focused on the historical development of school counselling, on the status of the school counsellor and the job requirements. The main aim of the practical part of this thesis is to compare the Czech, American and English school counselling. By filling in the questionnaire, our research focused on the school counsellors' job content and their opinion of the school counselling system.

In Ontario, career and guidance services are offered by teachers who have completed additional undergraduate studies. The training required to become a guidance counsellor appears to be insufficient to properly deliver the necessary guidance and counselling services. Many guidance counsellors are still operating as teachers within their new role as guidance counsellors. The aim of this qualitative research was to explore the professional identity of guidance counsellors’ working in Ontario, from their perspective. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed and twelve guidance counsellors were interviewed. Eight participants had completed the required undergraduate studies and four had completed a master’s degree in the field. The thematic analysis revealed four major themes that articulated and explained their professional identity: peer support, contextual factors, professional experience and formal training. The study’s limitations are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.

Although sexual abuse is a problem in all age groups, the group which is the most exposed is women between 16 and 24. Many of these youths, boys and girls, are contacting youth centres for support and help regarding sexual assault, mental illness and sexuality. Counsellors working at the youth centres treats youths with experience of sexual abuse in their daily work.This study’s purpose is to demonstrate the counsellor’s experience when meeting these young people. Issues concerned are how we talk about sexual abuse, which emotions are raised among the counsellors during these conversations and which of these emotions that the counsellors feel the need to hide in the conversation.  The study’s material is based on four different interviews with counsellors from youth centres. The questions are being analysed with help of Goffman’s sociological theory expound in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956) and Hochschild’s theory of emotional labour. The results show that the counsellors focus a lot on reducing guilt and shame among the children and youths. The result also shows that the meeting causes strong and heavy emotions among the counsellors. Opinions about which emotions that are okay to show and not okay to show when taking care of the youths are diverged.

This study is based on 6 in-depth interviews with professional social workers working as counsellors in two different municipalities in Skåne county, Sweden. The counsellors are all working within the field of cancer rehabilitation. The aim of the study is to investigate how the counsellors perceive the work-related psychological stress that their work entails. The study also aims to examine the coping strategies and personal resources related to resilience that the counsellors use to manage what is perceived to be psychologically stressful within the work. The result of the information collected shows that the counsellors experience the profession as psychologically demanding and that they frequently use different coping strategies. It appears that the counsellors use the support of colleagues and their workplace. They also use strategies related to self-care through self-reflection and self-awareness as well as different types of attendance exercises such as meditation and yoga. Some of the counsellors frequently use a local coping strategy which entail to “feel your weight in the chair”. The results also show that the counsellors consciously create an active and rewarding leisure time with a clear boundary to their working life. It appears that their abilities as well as their personal resources related to resilience have been developed with age and experience. The results of the interviews have been analyzed through the theory of resilience, the coping theory and a number of research articles.

In Zambia, it is true to say that people are politically free but materially still very poor, 49 years after independence which was attained in 1964. Many people lie below poverty datum-line and those that are, most hit, are the people living in rural areas. Many people are flocking from the rural areas to cities, leaving the old people, women and children in rural areas and in poverty. The levels of poverty in Zambia have reached a crisis, that even the president of Zambia, His Excellence Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata, acknowledged this fact during his parliamentary address to the second session of the 11th National assembly broadcast live on Zambia National broadcasting Network in September 2012. The church is challenged by conditions under which the rural dwellers find themselves in. As a church, our political liberation is to be transformed and driven by the will to restructuring and healing our society; thus ultimately developing those individuals who are suffering in the rural areas of the country. In Zambia, the church should accept that the missionaries who brought the gospel from western countries worked very well in the area of community development. The missionaries’ work and their care for the poor should inspire the churches today to be willing to help the poor rural people to be transformed. The good thing the United Church of Zambia could learn from the early missionaries is that the Christian church needs to be committed and involved in the plight of the poor. The church cannot ignore the socio – economic issues that affect rural poor communities. The United Church of Zambia should be transformed and made to understand that human liberation is not possible, if the political and economic issues are not equally addressed, a human being is not only the soul but also, consist of body and mind. The Christian church must bring a holistic ministry to the suffering people. The church; especially the United Church of Zambia, should understand that economic freedom is a reality which cannot be separated from people’s daily life. The church should learn to listen and act as ‘a midwife’ and a place of safety. She must be willing to suffer with the poor, for the sake of the poor. While the church is committed to development issues, let it also not lose sight of spiritual issues. Therefore, the church leadership should serve as a role model in human and community development. The Christian church should use the gospel to change the mind-set of the rural poor in order to help them transform their living standards. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Practical Theology / unrestricted

During the last couple of years studies have shown that drug use among youths hasn’t decreased although the government of Sweden have added a strategy about alcohol, narcotic, doping and tobacco (ANDT) in 2011. There have been major studies about the subject. Despite this it has not been shown that any efforts have had an effect. The aim of this study was to examine school counsellors' vision on drug prevention in Swedish high schools and senior high schools. The method that has been used is qualitative interviews with six school counsellors with different experience and origin. The result showed that the school counsellors deemed drug prevention in schools to be insufficient. There is no defined method that all the schools implement and there are no internal surveys conducted. The main perception was that drug prevention work has to be done more continuously and that the school boarder needs to prioritize it.

Dagens arbetsmarknad för studie- och yrkesvägledare kan ses som god och därför ville vi undersöka hur nyexaminerade studie- och yrkesvägledare upplever sin etableringsfas. Vi hade en förförståelse om att nätverk, arbetsmiljö, lön och geografi skulle kunna vara betydelsefulla faktorer i sammanhanget. Våra frågeställningar är: Vilken roll spelar den nyexaminerade studie- och yrkesvägledares nätverk under dennes etableringsfas till arbetsmarknaden? Vilka faktorer påverkar nyexaminerade studie- och yrkesvägledare enligt dem själva under etableringsfasen till arbetsmarknaden? Påverkar exempelvis lön, geografi, arbetsmiljö eller andra faktorer som vi inte har tänkt på? Vi gjorde kvalitativa intervjuer med sex studie- och yrkesvägledare som har tagit examen inom de senaste fem åren. Vi använde Krumboltz och Levins (2010) Planned happenstance och Patton och McMahons (2006) Systemteori för att analysera resultatet. Vi kunde se att respondenterna upplevde nätverk och arbetsmarknaden som två viktiga påverkansfaktorer. Även faktorer som arbetsmiljö, yrkesroll, arbetsuppgifter, målgrupp, elevantal och geografiskt läge visade sig vara betydelsefulla men underordnade framförallt arbetsmarknadens påverkan på respondenternas etableringsfaser.