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This study focused on the use of bibliotherapy by school psychologists. A survey was created and distributed to 119 registered and licensed school psychologists in Utah to obtain information on this topic. Forty-one percent returned a completed survey. Results indicated that bibliotherapy is used by 82% of the participants in the study, and 31 of 34 (91%) use bibliotherapy with children grades K-6. Topics most used with bibliotherapy included self-esteem, bullying, divorce, anxiety, and grief. Efficacy varied depending on the topic of bibliotherapy. However, school psychologists regarded bibliotherapy across all topics to be very effective to effective.

This study focused on the level of job satisfaction reported by Utah school psychologists and their reasons for staying in their profession. An existing survey was modified and distributed to 119 of the 238 licensed school psychologists in Utah to obtain information on this topic. Sixty-nine school psychologists completed and returned the questionnaire (58% return rate). Based on their feedback, the top five reasons Utah school psychologists stay in their profession were (a) feeling the success and joy of helping students, (b) counseling with students, (c) working one-on-one with students, (d) taking vacation time during summers and holidays, and (e) working with other professionals and students in the school setting. Overall, Utah school psychologists are satisfied with their job. Participants were least satisfied with their salary and perceived an increase in salary as a critical strategy in retaining school psychologists.

Many schools advocate for addressing the diverse needs of students through a multi-tiered model of prevention and intervention known as the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. This framework often incorporates the use of universal screening to obtain data concerning students' academic and/or social-emotional and behavioral needs. School teams are expected to design and implement tiered strategies in response to data concerning students' social-emotional needs; this can be a challenging facet of MTSS. To aid in this endeavor, this qualitative study elicited school psychologists' recommendations for (a) tiered interventions that target secondary students' social-emotional competency needs and (b) professional learning opportunities that may be helpful in responding to the data from a district-designed social-emotional competency survey. Participants included 15 school psychologists from a school district in a northwestern state in the United States. Two focus groups were conducted using a video conferencing online platform. Focus group transcripts were used to identify emergent themes that were relevant to the purpose of the research. Four primary themes were identified as being important in designing, implementing, and meeting secondary students' social-emotional competency needs: (a) instruction, practice, and reinforcement in each social-emotional skill; (b) the building of staff-student and student-student relationships; (c) staff efforts being consistent, integrated, simple, and unified; and (d) adaptation of fundamental interventions by tier and social-emotional skill. To date, it is believed that school psychologists' ideas concerning tiered social-emotional interventions in response to data are not a part of the extant literature. The findings of this study build upon the current literature concerning the importance of collaboration, prioritization, alignment, explicit instruction, and professional learning opportunities in addressing students' social-emotional needs, suggesting that school psychologists are familiar with and apply current, verifiable research to their practice. The results of this study can aid school and district teams in designing, implementing, and meeting secondary students' social-emotional competency needs.

There has been a tremendous growth in popularity in the use of herbs especially those designed to assist with mental wellness and to reduce psychological ailments. Clients' widespread usage of medicinal herbs for psychologically related symptoms has created a need for psychologists to become more informed about the health risks associated with taking medicinal herbs. It is important that psychologists be familiar with the most current information regarding medicinal herbs to be able to initiate discussions about medicinal herbs with their clients to help mitigate potential health risks. This study was conducted to increase knowledge about psychologist's perceptions and knowledge about medicinal herbs and about psychologist's practices regarding discussions and recommendation of medicinal herbs with their clients. A total of 1963 questionnaires were responded to by licensed psychologists in the state of California. Most psychologists felt they either did not have enough knowledge or that more knowledge was needed about medicinal herbs. The results show that there is a positive association between psychologist's perceived knowledge of medicinal herbs and their willingness to initiate discussions about them. It was also shown that the more perceived knowledge of medicinal herbs by psychologists, the more willing the psychologists were to recommend them. There was hesitancy among some psychologists to talk about herbs as they felt they either did not have the expertise or that it was beyond the scope of their practice to do so. As many medicinal herbs have significant pharmacological activity and thus potential adverse effects and drug interactions, psychologists should be familiar with herbs, their therapeutic modalities, and safety, so they will be better able to discuss these issues with their clients.

The purpose of this research study was to explore what part the identification of processing disorders has in determining eligibility for services within the category of specific learning disabilities. The main objectives were to identify: how school psychologists view their roles in identifying processing disorders, who is involved in the decision making process used when identifying processing disorders, what criteria and assessment tools are being used in determining processing disorders, and what is the frequency with which a variety of processing disorders are being identified today. The data used in this study were collected in two steps. The first step involved identifying which of the continental United States have identification criteria for specific learning disabilities that contain processing phrases. For those 19 states included in this group, a review of how processing disorders are covered in eligibility criteria for a specific learning disability was conducted. The second step of the data collection involved sending out a survey, which addressed the main objectives of the study, to 1056 school psychologists within the 19 states. Of the 1056 surveys sent out, 316 or 32% were returned with usable data. For each of the survey questions, the frequencies of responses were reported and conclusions were drawn. Results of further data analysis suggested the following: School psychologists' views of their roles in identifying processing disorders did not differ by years of experience as school psychologists. There was not an association between school psychologists' views of their roles in identifying processing disorders and their education in school psychology. School psychologists who believed that a certain criteria would be justification for identifying a processing disorder did not differ in years of experience from those who believed that the criteria would not be justification. This study should be viewed as just the first step towards investigating what part the identification of processing disorders has in determining the existence of specific learning disabilities. Because assessing and identifying processing disorders can have a great impact on whether or not a student qualifies for special education services, more information needs to become available on this topic.

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