by Leung Chung-poon, Wong Ying-fai. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaf 98.

Therapists are continuously entering the private counselling sector, and as a result extending their occupational roles, becoming business owners and evolving in their professional identity. The purpose of this study is to understand the process of establishing a private practice while examining the development of the professional identity of private practice therapists. Specifically, the decision to enter private practice, the process of opening a business, and ethical and supervisory concerns within this field. Using systematic grounded theory, 10 female counsellors in private practice in Manitoba were interviewed. This inquiry led to the development of Professional Development in Private Practice: A Phase Model, providing an overview of therapists’ professional development in their roles as private practitioners. The five phases are seeking autonomy, logistics, transition and attitude, embracing the business and authenticity. The implications of this study are multi-faceted, influencing institutions, professional groups and therapists. / May 2016

It is widely assumed that the Private Health Sector in South Africa caters only for the 16% of the population who can afford to belong to a Medical Aid. However, a number of patients who consult private general practitioners self-fund their health expenses because they do not belong to a Medical Aid. This study measured the proportion of Medical Aid as compared to the Non-Medical Aid encounters in private general practice and the nature and cost of the encounters and medical management differences between these two groups.

Student Number : 8153027 - MA (Clin) dissertation - School of Human and Community Development - Faculty of Humanities / The aim of this study is to investigate depression in clinical, counselling and educational psychologists in private practice. Forty-one psychologists completed a survey questionnaire consisting of closed and open-ended questions. The questionnaire required no identifying details. This ensured confidentiality, and the information gathered was subjected to both quantitative and qualitative analyses, which forms the basis of this dissertation. The results confirm that psychologists do indeed suffer with depression. However, contrary to expectation, it is not always the work of a psychologist which creates the conditions for depression, but rather a history of depression or a vulnerability to depression, which is sometimes stirred up by different aspects of the work. Also, a psychologist’s personal experience of depression often seems to be helpful during the therapeutic process, where the therapist uses his/her subjective experience of depression, to understand and assist clients in the management of their emotional pain. In addition, the negative impact of depression on clinical work is explored. In the sample, there do not appear to be many differences between clinical, counselling and educational psychologists regarding their experiences of depression. With hindsight, it was thought that the division of the disciplines did not add anything meaningful to the study. The purposively drawn sample was biased towards clinical psychologists. Also, the investigative nature of the study made it difficult to draw conclusions which could be generalized to the population of psychologists in South Africa. Despite the study’s limitations, the results, when compared with existing literature regarding depression in psychologists, revealed many similarities. Areas of further research were identified.

This small scale research study explores psychotherapists’ experience of medical model thinking on their practice delivered in the two separate settings of GP surgeries and private practice. The study’s key philosophical theme is the difference between modern and postmodern perspectives and how they might manifest themselves in social practices (such as medical interviews), knowledge creation and the practice of psychotherapy. The researcher locates the concepts key to the research in existing literature in terms of theory, research studies and their historical development – this latter being in support of the use of a Foucauldian discourse analytic method which is selected as that which best supports a social constructionist, postmodern approach to research. Parker’s method of using the research interview as a text-in-progress is explained and implemented, with eight participants being interviewed twice by the researcher. A discourse analytic framework which draws on defined theoretical resources was applied. The findings from the two part study show that for those participants working in primary care the GP/patient relationship has at least four key impacts on psychotherapy delivered in that setting and that for those working in a private setting it is through their relationships with individual GPs and psychiatrists that participants’ have constructed the biggest impact of medical model discourse on their practice and perhaps more importantly on their clients. Links are made to the literature reviewed concerning notions of the power of doctors and ideas for future research focused on the prevalence of ‘splitting’ in the UK are discussed. The researcher concludes with some thoughts about the fact that whilst the medical models’ invisibility and taken-for-granted nature for participants working within a primary care setting was more severe than expected, it was discursively constructed as having less of a wide-ranging impact on the participants in private practice. The importance of remaining awake to the influence of the medical model is discussed particularly during a cultural moment dominated by modernist approaches to notions of research and increasingly, practice.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Research indicates that making time for effective reflective practices could assist professionals to overcome stressful challenges and enhance learning. Educational psychologists also experience stressful challenges which can negatively impact on the quality of their services. The purpose of this study is to provide insight to the problem statement: Investigating the value of reflection for educational psychologists in private practice. A multiple case study design was utilised. The purposefully selected sample was composed of three educational psychologists in private practice based in Gauteng, South Africa. The data collection methods included semi-structured interviews, reflective journal entries and weekly verbal feedback. Using an interpretive approach, the analysis and interpretation of findings were categorised into five themes: (a) The use of reflective practices in educational psychologists’ private practice, (b) Content of reflections of educational psychologists in private practice, (c) Challenges when reflecting, (d) The influence of reflection in private practice, (e) The value of reflection in private practice. Time management, content and convenience were some of the major challenges experienced by all the participants. The value of reflective practice within an educational psychologist’s private practice included acting in the best interest of the client, facilitating change, meaning making and developing an inner reflective voice. This research revealed that novice educational psychologists needed a structured method of reflecting. Experienced psychologists emphasised the need for a sustainable, integrated method of reflection. Recommendations are offered for educational psychologists in private practice, for training, and for further research possibilities. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

There is a need for Occupational Therapy (OT) entrepreneurship in OT practice, but few Occupational Therapists practitioners (OTPs) initiate entrepreneurship opportunities. The purpose of this study was to explore the major causes surrounding why so few OTPs venture into private practice (Coppard, 2018). The participants included OTPs and OT students who have or had a private practice and those who desire to have a private practice but have not yet started one. The study was an exploratory mix-method design, which utilized pre-and post-surveys, and a one-time, two-hour interactive live workshop. The survey questions detailed the psychological and performance components of entrepreneur readiness. Surveys were disseminated through email and social media with prior consent. Once the presurvey results were received and analyzed, a pilot program via an interactive workshop was developed and implemented to address psychological and performance barriers to increase readiness. Once participants completed the workshop, a post-survey was administered to determine if there was an increase in entrepreneur readiness (Adeniyi, Derera & Gamede, 2022). The results of the study showed an increase in the importance of psychological readiness and the realization that most participants did not realize they were not as ready as they had envisioned based on specific personality and character traits. The study also revealed that most participants did not realize that they had learned certain aspects of business management and health insurance fundamentals but were not taught the essentials for starting a business and getting paid through health insurance reimbursements. Results also indicated that the intervention, OT to OT Entrepreneur Workshop, made a positive impact on participants in the areas of self-efficacy, technical knowledge, and beliefs about entrepreneurship. The study was meant to serve as a starting point to discover what is needed to increase the percentages of OT practitioners becoming OT entrepreneurs (OTE) so that a variety of traditional and non-traditional OT services can be offered within the community to increase physical, emotional, and mental health and well-being. In addition, the study was meant to increase the OTPs’ ability to practice more comprehensively according to the OT Scope of Practice, to increase autonomy, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction and decrease burnout (AOTA, 2021; Adeniyi, Derera & Gamede, 2022; Anderson & Nelson, 2011; Park, 2021; Stoffel, 2017). The study outcomes will guide the researcher in developing a complete comprehensive readiness program to increase OT entrepreneurship. / Temple University. College of Public Health / Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

The success of a clinical trial is largely dependent on the clinical sites that enroll the subjects, complete the follow-up visits, and collect the data. Many clinical trials are conducted using multiple site locations. Choosing such sites to participate in a clinical trial is an important aspect of study implementation. In the past, multi-center clinical trials were conducted mainly using university-based centers. In the last few decades, private practice, or community-based, centers have been included more often in clinical trial research. As more community-based centers participate in clinical trials, it is crucial to examine how these centers might differ from university-based centers. The purpose of this project was to compare community-based and university-based centers participating in a multi-center randomized trial evaluating treatments for diabetic macular edema. Aspects of recruitment, retention, protocol adherence, data collection, and observance of study required procedures were compared. Data from 102 participating centers were examined with 40 centers categorized as university-based and 62 centers categorized as community-based. Various measures of trial performance were compared using Wilcoxon rank-sum test, repeated measures logistic regression, and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), depending on the variable being compared. Characteristics of the centers and baseline subject characteristics were compared to evaluate for possible confounding. We found that university-based and community-based centers performed similarly in almost all performance aspects compared. Notable differences included community-based centers becoming certified for participation in the study 90 days sooner on average and university-based centers having half the percentage of ungradable fundus photographs. Overall, it is recommended that community-based centers be included more often in multi-center clinical trials.