<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>

<p> Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which a student speaks in one setting but does not speak in another where speaking is expected, most often school. Most cases are noticed when the child starts school for the first time, however they often are not referred for treatment until 1-3 years later and often are referred to private agencies or therapists. The longer selective mutism continues, the more difficult it is to treat. School psychologists are in an ideal position to support school staff in the identification and intervention of selective mutism(SM), however, there have been no studies that specifically focus on the role of school psychologists in identifying and intervening on selective mutism. </p><p> This study surveyed working school psychologists to determine how many were aware of the condition of SM, how many had worked with students with SM, what types of assessments they used, the interventions implemented and the treatment outcomes. An online survey collected data from 165 participants regarding their experience, knowledge and perceptions as related to selective mutism. All of those surveyed were aware of selective mutism, 97% had had some contact with a student with SM, and 81% had worked directly with a student with SM. The majority of assessment methods included observations, interviews, and the BASC2 internalizing scales. Most of the respondents did not use specific scales that measured speaking. The services most provided were interviews with parents and teachers, followed up with suggestions, referrals to private therapists, and comprehensive special education assessment. The interventions used most frequently included one-to-one sessions, play therapy, and smallgroup. Systematic desensitization, behavior modification and cognitive behavior therapy, interventions most supported by the literature, were used only 20% of the time. The results of interventions varied with 42% of respondents indicating no progress with one or more students, more than 60% making "a little" progress, and 30% indicating they were very successful helping one or more students to became completely verbal. The results indicated a need and desire from school psychologists for training on selective mutism.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to assess comparable or differential effects of a therapeutic art (AT) intervention, a cognitive behavioral (CBT) intervention, and no treatment (NT) on levels of Mood, Stress, and perceived Quality of Life in a sample of adult women. Positive results could add to the empirical research on the use of expressive arts in the therapeutic setting. Fifty four non clinical adult women from the Northern Arizona University community were randomly assigned to one of the three treatment groups. Data were collected electronically through questionnaires pretreatment, post treatment, and at three week post treatment follow up. Measures used were the International Positive and Negative Affect Scales - Short Form (IPANAS-SF), for mood, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales - 21 (DASS-21) for stress, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Form (WHOQOL-BREF) for quality of life. All three measures are reliable and have been validated in numerous studies with thousands of subjects. Mixed ANOVAs were calculated with General Linear Model in SPSS on raw scores and on Change Scores by group over time. Overall findings show that, for a one time brief intervention, art provided an immediate improvement in mood, stress, and perceived quality of life for the participants and was comparable to (or exceeded) the effects of the CBT intervention and the results from the NT group. Longer studies with other non-clinical adult women are recommended to further substantiate the findings.

<p> Many forms of distance clinical supervision (DCS) have been used in the last decade, but a sparse amount of research addressing (DCS) in counselor education exists to date. The author used random and snowball sampling to survey American Counseling Association members, with a analytic sample total of 96 participants. In the sample, 54.2% of participants were licensed counseling professionals and 39.6% were student or post-masters level interns. The average participant age was 43, ranging from 23 to 74 years. Participants had a mean of 8.1 years of experience. A total of 37.5% of participants had used DCS at some point for supervision sessions. Overall, participants have a positive attitude toward DCS, agreeing most that DCS is a valid form of supervision and that they are interested in learning about DCS. Overall, participants are being minimally exposed to DCS (<i>x&macr;</i> = 1.61). A moderate, negative relationship (<i>r</i> = -.39, p &lt; .001) exists between individuals whom have used DCS and attitudes toward DCS (Cohen, Cohen, West, &amp; Aiken, 2003, p. 52). Also, a weak, negative relationship (<i>r</i> = -.23, p &lt; .05) was found between individuals who have used DCS and their level of exposure to DCS. There is a limited amount of literature related to DCS and counseling professionals are being minimally exposed to distance clinical supervision. Despite limited exposure and literature, professionals are still using DCS to conduct supervision sessions. Therefore, it would seem important to increase research focused on DCS and develop relevant practices in order for DCS to be an effective form of supervision.</p>

<p> Trauma is ubiquitous in our society, taking a costly toll on the physical and psychological well-being of individuals across all social strata, and creating an ever-increasing need for better understanding of how to help the victim survivors. The purpose of this current study addresses an aspect of that need for understanding by examining the lived experiences of clinicians who have learned about trauma and who are addressing trauma survivors&rsquo; needs by acting as supervisors for other clinicians. This qualitative, phenomenologically oriented study used van Manen&rsquo;s (1990) four lived existentials, Bronfenbrenner&rsquo;s (1979, 2005) bio-ecological model of human development, and existing trauma literature as its base. Historically, basic trauma education has not been provided to master&rsquo;s or doctoral level students in counselor education programs. The rapidly expanding base of trauma literature has referenced knowledgeable, competent supervision as a necessity for therapists working with traumatized clients, yet little has been written about those supervisors, how they are trained and educated, and their lived experience in the process of becoming competent trauma supervisors </p><p> For this study, eight clinicians who have been supervising other clinicians who work with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse were interviewed. The results were summarized into five themes that focused on the ubiquity of trauma, the &ldquo;trial by fire&rdquo; learning that was required to become knowledgeable, the rise to supervisory roles for which participants were sometimes unprepared, what they needed but didn&rsquo;t get, and what they deem necessary to support them in their work. The author suggests ways in which the field of counselor education could be enhanced to better support supervisors in addressing the needs of their supervisees, and those of their traumatized clients.</p><p>

<p> This study was designed to determine if a mental health professional&rsquo;s web presence with use of social media icons (or badges) would impact upon the perceived competence of that therapist. The icons were those of the three major social networking sites, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. The 162 participants consisted of undergraduate students enrolled at two major universities located in the western United States. The participants were asked to think of themselves as help-seekers for purposes of this study. Three mock web pages were designed, one with no social media icons presented, one with social media icons which laid claim to a low number of Likes, Followers, and Pluses (terms of art used by Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus respectively), and one with social media icons which laid claim to an extraordinarily high number of Likes, Followers, and Pluses. Participants were evenly split between males and females, and then placed at random into groups of 27 that then viewed one of the three mock web pages. Participants were asked to rate the fictional therapist as to perceived overall competence, as well as to indicate their willingness to make initial contact with that therapist. The measurement instrument used was the Counselor Rating Form &ndash; Short Version (CRF-S). Results were not statistically significant. Findings and potential for future research are discussed.</p>

<p> Trauma and dissociation have been researched in many populations with a clear connection established between the two. This study further explored this connection in the difficult to study population of refugee children. They often are living in tumultuous settings with limited access. The study consisted of 45 children all of whom had been exposed to potentially traumatic events due to displacement. 26 of the children were male with 19 females and an age range from 6 years old to 14. 4 classroom teachers completed the Child Dissociative Checklist for up to ten of their students. The CDC was found to be reliable for this population (<i>&alpha; = .903</i>). Frequency statistics showed at least 40% of the sample scoring above the modified pathology score of 11 and the most often endorsed items focused on emotional labiality, memory and denial as primary dissociation responses. Hierarchical linear regression was utilized to determine the relationship of nature of gender, age and time since displacement on the development of pathological dissociative response. The study found that gender was an insignificant predictor of dissociation (<i><b>F (1,44) = .184, p > .05</b></i>), but together, age and times since displacement were significantly correlated to higher reports of dissociation. After controlling for age, time since displacement did not have a significant effect on dissociative response <i>(R² = .178, p > .05)</i> refugee children living in camps in Lebanon.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to write a grant to fund teacher and counseling staff training in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and provide for subsequent instruction of MBIs within the school context. The host agency is the Windsor Unified School District, located in Sonoma County, California. </p><p> The goals of the program include teaching mindfulness techniques to designated school staff and students, reducing school staff stress, and increasing the social and emotional learning of students. The objectives include delivering a 12-week MBI training to at least 40% of designated school staff in the district, as well as providing an 8-week, 20-minute MBI series taught to students. Program success will be evaluated through pre- and post-testing of school staff and students with respect to their stress levels and social and emotional skills. </p>

<p> The current study examined the effects of gender, ethnicity, number of years enrolled in a current university, number of years in graduate school, number of years enrolled in a current graduate program, Conscientious Perfectionism, Self-Evaluative Perfectionism, and satisfaction with life on campus connectedness among a sample of 345 graduate students. The number of years enrolled in a current university, Self-Evaluative Perfectionism, and satisfaction with life were all significant predictors of campus connectedness. Interaction effects indicated that students with high satisfaction with life scores but low Self-Evaluative Perfectionism scores were more likely to experience greater campus connectedness and White students were more likely to experience greater campus connectedness when satisfaction with life scores were high. No significant differences in campus connectedness were found among Non-White students. Limitations, future directions, and implications for both counseling and graduate programs are discussed.</p>

<p> This study explored the contributing factors to defending behaviors which are characterized as the actions of those who stand up for peers who are victims of peer aggression. These factors were cognitive empathy, affective empathy, appreciation of differences, peer group status, gender and age. The factors were examined in the context of a path model among adolescents aged 12 to 14. The results of this study supported the proposed model and it was determined to be a good fit to the data. Five out of seven hypotheses were supported. Affective empathy was found to mediate the relationship between cognitive empathy and defender status such that greater affective empathy indicated greater defender status. Cognitive empathy alone was not found to predict defender status. Peer group status mediated the relationship between affective empathy and defending behaviors such that higher peer group status indicated greater likelihood of defender status. Appreciation of differences did not mediate the relationship between affective empathy nor predict defender status alone. Age was significant in moderating the relationship between appreciation of differences and defender status such that it was a greater predictor for younger students than older ones. Gender did not moderate the relationship between peer group status and defending behaviors. Post hoc analyses indicated that the model was a better fit for males than females. Conclusions inform best practices for interventions to promote defending behaviors and the development of factors that contribute to defending behaviors.</p>