This chapter explores how practicum training may be enhanced through effective collaboration between trainers and field supervisors. Successful practicum training requires strong collaboration between the trainee’s university or institution and the supervising field psychologist. Successful collaboration between the university and field site includes consideration of site development and maintenance, effective communication, and training and support across settings. Field placement and coordination play a critical role in the training of school psychologists. The individual fulfilling this role may be recognized with a variety of formal titles, such as field placement coordinator, clinical professor, or director of clinical training (DCT). One of the primary responsibilities of the DCT is the coordination and supervision of practica-related activities, including the placement of candidates in appropriate training sites. The chapter focuses on how supervisors can address trainee problems of professional competence, develop and use remediation plans successfully, and help trainees balance fieldwork with coursework.

This chapter addresses the key principles of sport, exercise, and performance psychology. It reflects the broadening of sport psychology studies to encompass more widespread human performance research. The topic of decision making has been covered in psychology, economics, and motor learning but addressed very sparsely in sport, exercise, and performance psychology. Rational decision making requires defining the problem, identifying criteria, weighing those criteria, generating alternative solutions, and ultimately computing the optimal decision. The chapter introduces the literature on decision making and provides examples of factors that influence the choices people make. The decision to act, move, or what move to make is decided in the response selection stage, and the final stage is when one’s brain and muscles are organized to make the actual move. The key to improve the decision-making over time is to increase personal awareness of own limitations and keep learning and collecting information from reliable sources.

This chapter provides guidelines for psychologists on the assessment of oral language proficiency (OLP) of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children and adolescents who study in their second language (L2). It discusses the issues that should be considered in the assessment of OLP, including the aspects of oral language that should be assessed in L1 or L2, the factors that should be considered in interpreting assessment data, and the advantages and challenges of assessing children in their L1. The chapter then describes specific methods for assessing OLP. It discusses issues involved in interpretation of data from OLP assessments, including a discussion of the diagnosis of a language disorder. The chapter also explains specific tasks and observational schedules that psychologists might find helpful when conducting assessments of OLP.

One of the best known psychologists of the 20th century was Jean Piaget. The memory he described was from when he was about 2 years old, a kidnapping attempt in which his nurse tried to protect him. According to the storehouse metaphor, memory is kind of a warehouse. When one remembers an event from one’s life, one looks through this warehouse. Remembering a past event is also a kind of simulation, a simulation of what happened in the past, rather than a veridical reproduction of the past. In fact, our best understanding is that brains are massively parallel simulation devices. Constructive theories deal with filling in gaps at encoding as the event transpires, whereas reconstructive theories deal with filling in gaps at retrieval as one tries to remember the event. When thinking about memory illusions it is important to make a similar distinction.

This chapter presents an illustration of the complexities involved in studying ethnic and racial influences on psychosocial processes and how they are intimately tied to physical outcomes in later life. It focuses on psychology as a discipline, minority aging research during the last several decades has revealed the need for multidisciplinary and intersectional conceptual and research approaches. The chapter also focuses on the age, gender, socioeconomic, cultural, and racial and ethnic graded influences on life course development that eventuate in unequal burdens of psychological and physical health morbidity and mortality for certain groups in late life. No section on psychology could be complete without a discussion of religion and spirituality among racial and ethnic minorities. Generational processes are clearly implicated in ideas about the cyclical nature of poverty and health behaviors that are intricately linked with environmental factors and social influence.

This chapter examines the cultural and relational contexts of postpartum depression. Postpartum depression (PPD) is a debilitating, multidimensional mental health problem that affects 10"-15” of new mothers and has serious consequences for women, children, families, and marriages. Although women’s experience of postpartum depression has been the subject of considerable recent study, nearly all of this work has been interpreted within a medical or psychological frame. The chapter looks at a social constructionist lens to this body of research through a meta-data-analysis of recent qualitative studies of PPD. Though hormonal changes as a result of childbirth are related to depressive symptoms after childbirth, biological explanations alone cannot explain postpartum depression. A social constructionist approach to postpartum depression focuses on how the condition arises in the context of ongoing interpersonal and societal interaction. Climbing out of postpartum depression is an interpersonal experience that requires reconnection with others.

This chapter presents an integrative approach to the psychological study of minority populations and the reduction of health disparities through positive nonmaterial resources. It provides a brief introduction to positive psychology and to the concept of early life origins of disease, highlighting the value of integrating these seemingly disparate literatures as a lens for studying health and broader aging processes among minority populations. Minority status whether based on ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), citizenship, religion, or other factors is a robust determinant of health, well-being, and success across the life span and intergenerationally. Positive psychology is relevant to health and development particularly physiological and psychological adaptation to stress across the life span, and even across multiple generations among humans in general and among minority populations in particular. Health inequalities are the result of unique challenges to successful psychological and physiological adaptation faced by minority group members.

This chapter presents a case study on performance dysfunction in the case of a 21-year-old African American female basketball player entering her senior year at a major Division I-level university. She described regret about not working out harder during the off-season, which she blamed for a poor start to her current season. In addition, she also reported feeling a great deal of worry over the possibility that she may have a poor season and ruin her chance to be drafted in the first round of the WNBA entry draft. According to the case formulation model, there are 10 elements that are necessary to consider prior to making an intervention decision contextual performance demands; skill level; situational demands; transitional and developmental issues; psychological characteristics/performance and nonperformance schemas; attentional focus; cognitive responses; affective responses; behavioral responses; and readiness for change and level of reactance.

This chapter and the intervention protocol that follows seek to better understand and ultimately influence human performance through understanding how internal processes interact with external demands. Many factors determine the effectiveness of human performance. The myriad of factors contributing to functional as well as dysfunctional human performance can be summarized as follows: instrumental competencies, environmental stimuli and performance demands, dispositional characteristics, and behavioral self-regulation. The chapter presents the model of functional and dysfunctional human performance that involves three broad yet interactive phases, namely performance phase, postperformance response, and competitive performance. The professional literature in both clinical and cognitive psychology suggests that individuals develop an interactive pattern of self and other mental schemas. The accumulated empirical evidence has led to similar findings in studies across many forms of human performance. Chronic performance dysfunction is much more likely to be associated with an avoidant coping style.

The multicultural movement in counseling and psychology has begun to provide scholars and practitioners with contextually relevant, systems-based ecological approaches to counseling as alternatives to the traditional theoretical models of human behavior and intervention that are based on Western dominant culture. This chapter provides awareness of the complexity of multicultural issues among individuals with disabilities and discusses culturally sensitive strategies to work with people with disabilities (PWDs). It reviews legislative mandates related to diversity and multiculturalism in rehabilitation and addresses the relationship between disability and culture in the scope of rehabilitation practice. The chapter introduces multiculturalism and multicultural counseling models as a therapeutic framework and provides guidelines to help psychologists increase their cultural sensitivity. It also provides strategies to work with individuals with disabilities from minority backgrounds.

This chapter provides selective review of research on religion and spirituality across three groups of racial and ethnic minority older adults African American, Asian American, and Hispanic/Latino. It discusses major denomination and faith traditions, as well as information about types and patterns of participation and their sociodemographic correlates. The chapter examines informal social support provisions within faith communities and the types of assistance exchanged. It also examines associations between religion, spirituality and physical/mental health, and psychological well-being. Religion and spirituality, through a variety of psychosocial mechanisms and pathways are thought to have largely beneficial impacts on physical and mental hea.

This chapter presents the most salient psychological theories of personality. Personality is a core determinant of individual differences in everyday behaviors. The chapter discusses the difference between what psychologists broadly refer to as normal and what they regard as abnormal or clinical/mental illness. If one looks for an Elvis among personality psychologists, Sigmund Freud would be the one. During the mid-20th century, behaviorism emerged as a dominant paradigm for understanding human behavior, including personality. Although the social cognitive theory of personality has its origins in the radical behaviorist tradition, it emerged in clear opposition to it. According to the lexical hypothesis, historically, the most important and socially relevant behaviors that people display will eventually become encoded into language. Indeed, personality disorders are defined as long-standing, pervasive, and inflexible patterns of behavior and inner experience that deviate from the expectations of a person’s culture.

So here the authors are, caught between two worldviews. In one camp, they have educators and academics, attempting to overthrow the “old guard”—those of them who define giftedness through the narrow lens of IQ tests. They are hoping to establish a raison d’etre for gifted education—a field with a wobbly foundation. In the other camp, the authors have parents and the psychologists who specialize in working with the gifted, railing against the externalizing of giftedness. They want the inner world of the gifted to be recognized and appreciated. Controversy has dogged the study of giftedness since its inception, and is likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Multiple views will somehow have to learn to coexist. The psychology of giftedness is a fledgling. An impressive number of people think they know more about the gifted than one does and they are delighted to share their opinions.

This chapter presents a case study on performance development with the case of a man who reported that he had been “ultra successful” in every facet of his business life and was happily married and living with his wife of three years in a large suburban home. He described himself as “feeling stuck”, which he described as the belief that he had gone as far as he could go without improving in fundamental areas in his life. The consequences of the avoidant behaviors led him to feel quite overwhelmed. Preintervention psychological functioning was assessed with a standard semi-structured interview and three self-report measures selected based on specific processes that appeared most likely to be relevant to the performer’s referral issue. The measures utilized included the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Revised, and the Profile of Mood States.

Improved nutritional status is an important component of efforts to improve the health of older adults, whose ability to consume a healthy diet is affected by comorbidities and behavioral, cognitive, and psychological factors. In addition to genetics and nutrition intake, nutritional status of the elderly could be affected by socioeconomic factors, such as education and income levels, and environmental factors, such as proximity to stores and transportation, that can affect food variety and availability. Nutrition and aging are connected inseparably because eating patterns affect progress of many chronic and degenerative diseases associated with aging. Anthropometric measurements are often used for nutritional assessment of older adults and are reliable across ethnicities. The Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) tool was developed to evaluate the risk of malnutrition among frail older adults. Dietary patterns may better capture the multifaceted effects of diet on body composition than individual nutrients or foods.

This chapter offers a brief and focused review of human development, with specific emphasis on cognition and emotion. It is essential that the reader distinguishes between cognitive development, cognitive psychology, and cognitive therapy. Both short-term and long-term memory improve, partly as a result of other cognitive developments such as learning strategies. Adolescents have the cognitive ability to develop hypotheses, or guesses, about how to solve problems. The pattern of cognitive decline varies widely and the differences can be related to environmental factors, lifestyle factors, and heredity. Wisdom is a hypothesized cognitive characteristic of older adults that includes accumulated knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge to practical problems of living. Cognitive style and format make the mysterious understandable for the individual. Equally, an understanding of an individual’s cognitive style and content help the clinician better understand the client and structure therapeutic experiences that have the greatest likelihood of success.

Perry’s theory of development has had a significant impact on the field of psychology and is essential to understanding the cognitive development of college students. This chapter provides an overview of Perry’s theory and describes the ways in which it still applies to college students on a diverse, pluralistic college campus. The chapter discusses how Perry’s theory continues to apply to the diversified college student population common in modern American institutions of higher education. It outlines the ways in which Perry’s scheme applies to Fatima, the contextual and pluralistic challenges faced at each position, and future development, should Fatima continue to courageously accept responsibility for her moral development and overcome the ambiguities of relativism. The chapter describes utilizing Perry’s scheme as a lens through which to view Fatima’s development, anticipate deflections from growth, and identify strategies and campus and community resources to foster inclusivity, personal exploration, and continued development.

This chapter suggests some new directions that personality research is, or should be, taking as well as the future agenda of this research. In contrast, personality psychology provides us with a solid evidence base that people can lean on when searching for answers about human nature. Personality refers to the stable and consistent patterns we observe in how people behave, feel, and think. Associations between personality and intelligence have been found on the measurement level and hypothesized at a conceptual level. It is supposedly human nature not to trust humankind to provide the unselfish responses in questionnaires, or to possess an adequate level of self-awareness. Admittedly, this trend has been changing. An increasing number of organizations are using self-report personality measures and even laypeople seem to accept the notion of questionnaires more kindly than before.

Over the past 25 years there has been a growing recognition of the importance of working with families of persons with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and treatment-refractory depression. Family intervention can be provided by a wide range of professionals, including social workers, psychologists, nurses, psychiatrists, and counselors. This chapter provides an overview of two empirically supported family intervention models for major mental illness: behavioral family therapy (BFT) and multifamily groups (MFGs), both of which employ a combination of education and cognitive behavior techniques such as problem solving training. Some families have excellent communication skills and need only a brief review, as provided in the psychoeductional stage in the handout “Keys to Good Communication”. One of the main goals of BFT is to teach families a systematic method of solving their own problems.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the third leading cause of dementia in large pathological series but tends to have an earlier age of onset than Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Lewy body dementia, the most frequent and second most frequent forms of dementia. Semantic dementia (SD) includes impairment in the understanding of the meanings of words and difficulty in identifying objects. Semantic primary progressive aphasia, also known as SD, includes difficulties with naming and single-word comprehension although grammar and fluency are often spared. SD is a disorder that involves loss of semantic memory, anomia, receptive aphasia, and an actual loss of word meaning. The chapter presents some assessment tools that are those conducted by a psychologist or a neuropsychologist. Such an evaluation should include a clinical interview and neuropsychological examination. SD has been associated with ubiquitin-positive, TAR-DNA-binding protein-43 (TDP-43)-positive, tau-negative inclusions.

The ideas of Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato all contribute to the foundation of our understanding of the nature of human intelligence. Their ideas on topics as diverse as the origin of ability, the mind-body relationship, and general inquiry methods continued to inspire thinkers centuries later and influenced those who shaped modern psychology and intelligence theory. This chapter provides an overview of recent research on how people’s beliefs about intelligence impact their behaviors, a body of research that has significant implications for education. The emergence of reliable genetic and neurological research methodologies is creating a new area of study in which environmental, biological, and psychological facets of intelligence are studied simultaneously. Structure of Intellect (SOI) model represents a very different approach to theories of intelligence. Recent technological advances have encouraged explorations into the relationship between brain function and specific types of cognitive functioning.

This chapter describes the various roles and functions of the treatment program or clinical management staff in the residential facility. It characterizes the roles of support staff and agency personnel. Teachers, physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, lawyers, and accountants in the TC ply their professions in the usual way. The relationship between staff and peer roles is rooted in the evolution of the Therapeutic Community (TC). In the TC approach, the role of staff is complex and can be contrasted with that of mental health and human service providers in other settings. An array of staff activities underscores the distinctively humanistic focus of the TC. The chapter describes how primary clinical staff in the treatment program supervise the daily activities of the peer community through their interrelated roles of facilitator, counselor, community manager, and rational authority. Other staff provide educational, vocational, legal, medical, and facility support services.

This chapter helps reader to effectively delineate the core components of comprehensive case reports and identify school-based report-writing strategies that facilitate problem-solving decisions. It discusses different types of comprehensive case reports to illustrate the key components essential to producing effective psychoeducational summaries that help inform schools, parents, and mental health professionals of an individual’s needs. Report writing is a core skill competency area for the practice of school psychology and multiple writing exercises are often intertwined into the practica requirements. The overarching goal of psychological and psychoeducational report writing is to succinctly, accurately, and respectfully communicate the needs of an individual. Astute parents and teachers generally know the referral concerns and low areas of performance prior to reading psychoeducational reports. Any school psychologist who can consistently deliver insight on academic and behavioral needs with solutions will be highly respected and sought out.

This chapter helps the reader to demonstrate an understanding of the benefits of peer supervision and gain knowledge of supervision models. Peer mentoring and peer supervision are vital components of the postsecondary educational experience for all degree tracks that can promote retention, acclimation to graduate studies, and a sense of community within programs. Generally, both peer supervisors and peer mentors provide encouragement, socialization to the graduate school program, networking connections, and informal advice. The peer supervision elements may include teaching by modeling skills and preliminary review of assignments. Some programs may formally match advanced students with incoming students across the program based on common specialization interests or degree tracks, whereas other programs may consider matching based on the logistics of practica placement or joint participation in a research team project. Peer supervisors may discuss numerous aspects of the supervisee’s experience in the school psychology program.

This chapter helps the reader to develop a professional internship curriculum vita (CV). Given the role of internship in graduate preparation and finding employment after graduation, internship is among the most important decisions in graduate school. Regardless of the anticipated internship setting, all school psychology graduate students should prepare an effective and updated CV. Both are designed to outline the education and professional experiences. The professional experiences include practica or internship experiences, volunteer experiences, graduate assistantships, leadership experiences, editorial work, or other related work experiences. Selecting an internship site presents an exciting yet potentially stressful opportunity. Some districts allow interns the opportunity to participate in brief “rotations” in specialized centers or settings within the district to help create a broad and diverse learning experience. Some doctoral school psychology students may plan to pursue internship settings that either blend school and clinical settings, or are almost exclusively clinical in nature.

This chapter provides practical and procedural information for students beginning practicum and the journey toward entry-level professional competency. The practice of school psychology is a complex and challenging career that offers tremendous opportunity to affect positive outcomes for children and youth. Practica provides the initial experiences into this profession and a glimpse of the many possible career choices within the field. A review of professional demeanor and appearance characteristics noted the impact of these nonverbal cues that can define professional identity from the very first day of practicum. Site supervisors and faculty can also be an important resource in advising on organizational and time-management techniques that ease the stress of multiple time demands. In preparation for entry into public school systems or restrictive clinical sites, background checks and identification documents are important and are common practices in preparing for practica work.

This chapter helps the reader to be familiar with the concept of an advanced specialization practicum. The overarching goal is to learn core competencies for assessment, intervention, consultation, and systems-level pedagogical supports. There is an increasing need for school psychologists with expertize in high school transition and postsecondary evaluations as well as dual enrollment collaborative evaluations. Clinic-based examples of specialized practica might include forensics evaluation through a law clinic or adjudicated youth programs, inpatient or outpatient hospital units, community mental health agencies, and private practice. The chapter describes important considerations for pursuing a variety of advanced practicum experiences, including coordinating postsecondary transition services, conducting forensic evaluations, and working within settings that utilize a medical model. To secure disability services at the college level, eligible students are required to submit acceptable documentation.

This chapter helps the reader to acquire knowledge of the portfolio approach to demonstrating competencies. School psychology programs are typically approved and/or accredited by state departments of education, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), and the American Psychological Association (APA) depending on the scope of the training and the degree track. Proximal data focus on changes that occur in the acquisition of graduate students’ skills, knowledge, and professional behaviors. Faculties also understand that students can be at different levels of skill acquisition across domains depending on the sequence of curricula and the length of practice with specific skills. Through the evaluation process, graduate students may be asked to sign consent for release of information form acknowledging the exchange of performance data between the practica site supervisor and the school psychology program.

This chapter helps the reader to describe the ethical standards related to practicing within one’s competencies. The school psychology internship represents the culminating, comprehensive, supervised field experience prior to engaging in full-time employment. Internship offers an opportunity to integrate and apply the range of skills acquired through course work and practica while learning new skills as well. Often, professional organizations and agencies for a variety of disciplines offer specific guidelines and standards related to ethical behavior. Within school psychology, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) as well as the American Psychological Association (APA) offers the primary guidelines for professional ethics. All school psychology interns should remember that while they possess professional skills, the intent of the internship is to provide a structured supervised training experience. Taking on a role as a professional, while appealing, can create practical and ethical challenges.

This chapter focuses on a snapshot of current immigration patterns and a profile of the US immigrant population. It discusses the impetus behind immigration. Immigration is not only a current national issue. Given the great diversity and myriad needs of the growing immigrant population, it is essential that social workers understand the legal and political as well as psychological and social issues surrounding immigration. Chain migration is a process of movement from immigrants’ homelands that builds on networks of familiar social relationships to construct neighborhoods or communities within the places of habitation, which reflect the cultural norms and societal expectations of the homelands. Social workers who work with immigrants need to understand the personal immigration history of their clients in order to best help them. At many schools of social work, students have learned to view immigrant issues through a human rights lens.

This chapter explores positive psychology’s attempt to identify significant human virtues. Early in the positive psychology movement it was recognized that in order to advance research on human excellence, there was a need to develop a classification system complete with measurable strengths that would be meaningful to the good life. The chapter describes and defines the six core virtues, and also explores some of the more specific human strengths thought to be clustered with each virtue. The author believe that the most significant achievement of the Values in Action (VIA) project was to identify virtues and strengths that appear to transcend time and culture. Finally the chapter emphasizes and recommends two other attempts to identify transcendent virtues that come from outside of psychology. To emphasize one virtue without the others is bound to result in an imbalanced life.

This chapter gives an overview of the conditions and child vulnerabilities that can disrupt relationship building. In the context of parenting and/or adult-to-child caregiving, theoretical understanding of the importance of human relationships, connections, and alliances has been guided by major models, including evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, social learning, social cognition theory, social development theory, and social control theory, bioecological systems theory and human behavioral genetics theory. Relationship formation is critical in positioning caregivers to serve in a “curative” role in assisting children to make gains and recover from the experiences of not having normal parental experiences. Kinship caregivers are in a unique position to help children develop relational competence. Relational competence is a person’s ability to appropriately interact with others and to develop meaningful relationships and connections. The caregiver can help the child reconnect or restore broken relationships.

This chapter helps the reader to learn happiness matters. Happiness is not simply a nice consequence of a successful life. Indeed, happiness itself is consequential. Research has shown that there are a number of beneficial by-products to experiencing positive emotions frequently: better relationships, better health, and better occupational success. Lyubomirsky’s theory highlights the importance of the intentionality of positive activities and this brings up an important point about happy people’s pursuits. As positive psychology and the study of happiness come more and more into the public eye, the author increasingly see the need for science to be at the heart of positive psychology. The positive psychology movement has identified six primary virtues that are essential to the good life: wisdom, courage, love, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Although these virtues vary somewhat in their relationships to subjective well-being (SWB), they all may be seen as critical to the life well lived.

This chapter shows that how positive psychology is in fact important to psychology as a whole. It attempts to explain the foundations of positive psychology. It looks at basic conceptions of happiness and subjective well-being (SWB) including all the debates therein, it explores the history of happiness, it debates the criticisms of positive psychology, it examines important theories of SWB and positive emotion, and finally it gives a taste of research in positive psychology. The chapter demonstrates the importance of the study of happiness and SWB. Moreover, as Fredrickson’s theory has shown, positive emotions are crucial, in that they broaden the authors’ momentary thought/action readiness and build essential personal resources for the future. Happiness and joy are consequential, as Helen Keller affirmed, “Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow”.

This chapter describes the interacting forces, understanding the self, identity and emotions. It examines adolescent self and identity, which will serve as a basis for understanding much about the social and emotional world of adolescents. The adolescent years bring with them the long process of departing childhood and emerging into adulthood. Similar to many aspects of development during adolescence that proceed somewhat differently based on gender, males and females differ in the process of self-exploration and identity formation as well. Sexual experimentation is common during adolescence as part of this gender identity struggle. An inability to develop a mature ethnic identity may entail denying one’s culture of origin, whereas a healthy identity process may result in adolescents who are proud of both their culture of origin and the culture they find themselves in currently.

Mindfulness and meditation were embedded within their religious and cultural roots, and as such they were rarely used by psychologists as interventions in a secular therapy context. In recent years there has been an emerging body of empirical research supporting both mindfulness and hypnosis interventions. Mindfulness and hypnosis have been shown to be of benefit for similar problems (i.e., stress, anxiety, pain, depression, irritable bowel syndrome), and in other research hypnosis may offer some advantages of brevity and effect on symptoms (i.e., acute and procedural pain, hot flashes, dermatological symptoms, sleep quality, habits). However, the mechanisms by which they achieve benefit may be similar in some regards (i.e., relaxation, focus of attention, awareness) and different in other aspects (i.e., hypnotizability, hypnotic state, expectancy, goal-directed suggestions). Also, studies provide substantive evidence that when hypnotherapy is integrated into standard cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT), therapeutic gains tend to be superior to CBT alone.

Active Minds offers many resources for individuals with mental illnesses and allies. Suicide prevention website provides information about wealth and how to support someone who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts. American Psychological Association (APA) is a national organization for psychologists that are also dedicated to improving public access to information and services related to psychology. The government website for mental health provides a directory of government mental health programs as well as general information related to mental health. A national addiction recovery program aimed at building skills that help to combat addictive behaviors offering meetings in many communities as well as online. OK2TALK is an online support community for young adults living with mental illness. Community members are supported in sharing and learning from the stories of others in a stigma-free environment.

This chapter investigates the genetic makeup of happy people, and draws some conclusions about biological contributions to happiness. It discusses the behavioral characteristics of those who are happy. The chapter delves into an important area of research in positive psychology: looking at the personality traits that predict happiness. It shows that happy people are active in their work and leisure life, and extends this to a more general conclusion: Happy people tend to be active people. Contrary to the stereotype of happiness producing “contented cows”, happy people appear to be actively engaged in life. Religious and spiritual people tend to be happier than those who are not. A healthy humility may have an important role to play in our happiness. Humility helps us accept who we really are, so we can get past ourselves to focus on others and the beauty all around us.

This chapter provides basic and fundamental knowledge that will be helpful in identifying if psychiatric symptoms are present and assisting when there may be concern about psychiatric stability. It discusses what one can expect from individuals who are being approached with concern about their current mental health status. The chapter facilitates connection to a treatment provider who can evaluate the signs and symptoms of distress. Paranoia can elicit denial if auditory hallucinations are present that threaten safety if any information is revealed. Negative symptoms and disorganization can also impair reality-based thinking through difficulty engaging with the environment. The chapter provides the idea of some important considerations and expectations after one have made the decision to approach someone about concern for psychotic symptoms. Empathy is critical to the practice of psychology and psychological intervention, but it is also very helpful to use in everyday life and conversation.

This chapter addresses supervision related to trainee knowledge and skills required for the provision of special education services in the schools, including eligibility determination and service delivery. While school psychologists engage in any number of activities to support regular education, a primary focus is still special education and related services. As such, practicum trainees need to understand the link between case study evaluations and the provision of special education services. Supervisees may best understand district procedures for compliance with federal and state special education rules and regulations by reviewing relevant district resources and participating in staff orientation and other relevant professional development. Supervisors may provide instruction with the following school procedures: the student referral process, evaluation assignment and procedures, the meaning and implementation of obtaining informed consent from parents, requirements and practices for parent involvement, summarizing results, determining eligibility, and individualized education program (IEP) development and implementation.

This chapter helps trainees to develop a broader understanding of the different types of systems school psychologists interact with and how to develop meaningful trainee experiences. Practicum candidates will benefit from a basic introduction to site-specific prevention and intervention activities early in the training. This may include a review of the basic processes and structures the site has in place to support student academic and behavioral achievement, as well as the school psychologist’s role in these processes. Most school professionals recognize that students respond uniquely to instruction and have accepted that academic instruction must be differentiated for each learner. To accomplish this, school professionals often design a system of instruction following the multitiered systems of support (MTSS) framework for academic achievement. As part of the multitiered process, decisions about how students are achieving are made using data. Screening practices support the appropriate delivery of different instruction and/or interventions.

Supervision activities in the early stages are likely to be highly structured and prescriptive and require close monitoring of skill development, as supervisees are more likely to be anxious and more dependent on their supervisors. Supervisors can help trainees to explore new school psychological roles, focus on professional behaviors that will help them gain independence, and develop a repertoire of self-care strategies. Supervisors may also support trainee role expansion by assigning new activities and responsibilities, particularly in National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) domain areas that are underrepresented in current practice. Supervisors can also assist supervisees in becoming more independent by encouraging them to take risks and maintain a healthy perspective about their work in the field. Practicum supervisors can support trainee self-care with two key activities: monitoring and modeling their own professional self-care, and encouraging supervisees to develop their own set of self-care strategies.

This chapter explores supervision activities to help the school psychology practicum candidate develop skills in case conceptualization across three main roles of school psychology: assessment, consultation, and counseling. Supervisors should expect to temper this enthusiasm by teaching their supervisees to follow a structured approach to client casework. Supervisors should assist their trainees in understanding the link between assessment and intervention. Supervisors can help trainees improve their clinical judgment by providing an explicit framework for evaluating their hypotheses with the data they have collected through case study evaluation. First and foremost, supervisors should carefully select counseling cases for practicum candidates by identifying students who have relatively mild social, behavioral, or emotional difficulties. That is, supervisors should assign the easiest cases to trainees and refer students who have more significant and persistent mental health concerns to seasoned school-based mental health practitioners or outside service providers.

Stigma is the foundation that distorts the many social constructs affecting how social workers view older adults. Many socially constructed optics produced by stigma can bias social workers’ views of older people. It is important for a social worker to understand that race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are social constructs that bias clinical care. Additionally, stigma associated with race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation produce psychosocial stressors that converge on older clients, which exacerbate their physical and psychological health statuses. The stigma of mental illness serves to increase the suffering of older people struggling with psychological problems while increasing the suffering of family members, loved ones, and caregivers who experience courtesy stigma. The stigma of suffering from mental illness may also prevent an older person from seeking treatment for his or her psychological problems. Older adults suffering from dementia also suffer from the negative reactions to them because of their diagnosis.

The start of the practicum for the school psychologist-in-training is an incredibly exciting time in professional development. In many training programs, the practicum is the first formal training candidates receive under the supervision of a credentialed school psychologist. Whether in an educational specialist (EdS) or doctoral program, it can be assumed that a candidate has completed at least 1 year of formal coursework in the foundations of school psychology and assessment practice. This chapter proposes that supervisors consider structuring their sessions so that they are goal oriented, addresses opportunities for supervisee growth and advancement, and offers feedback about performance. A developmental model of supervision is particularly useful in conceptualizing how the school psychologist-in-training experiences growth in clinical skills and professional identity over time. Supervisors are encouraged to find a formal system for providing feedback.

This chapter considers the major paradigm shifts that have occurred in geropsychology as it has progressed over the course of the 20th century. It also considers the consequences of increased interdisciplinarity for studies of aging within the discipline of psychology. The chapter describes the recent interest in research-based psychological interventions in the aging process, and of the more recent influence of advances in neuroscience. The study of aging, however, was early on recognized in the context of American psychology, and the division of adulthood and aging was one of the first 20 substantive divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA). The development of structural and functional Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has had a revolutionary enhancement of neuroscience, allowing for the first time the conduct of direct tests of the relationship between age changes in behavior and brain changes during normal and pathological aging.

This chapter discusses how pastoral counselors are different from other counseling professions. Pastoral counseling exists in a substantial community of related disciplines and professions. The two theoretical bodies of knowledge that combined to create pastoral counseling were the disciplines of psychology and theology. A review of pastoral counseling’s professional heritage sets the stage for the discipline’s contemporary identity dilemma. The formative nature of pastoral counseling training shapes the pastoral counselor’s self and is the rudiment from which the distinctive interventions of pastoral counselors organically emerge. Among the elements of training and formation most salient to shaping pastoral counseling interventions are clinical integration, pastoral formation, and the development of a spiritual orientation. The unique training and formation of pastoral counselors lays the groundwork for the development of interventions. Pastoral counselors share distinctive interventions that are born out of particular ways of being and a particular set of goals and objectives.

Older adults experiencing cognitive decline and any of the dementias are suffering in ever increasing numbers. With the aging of the baby-boom generation, the incidence of cognitive decline and dementia will exponentially escalate over the coming years. With this coming tsunami of dementia, older adults experiencing dementia, as well as their family members and caregivers, will need the services of psychologists. Psychologists are needed to help families recognize the importance of end-of-life planning for an older adult when first diagnosed with a dementia. When an older adult understands that he or she has responsibility for and choice in the decision to abuse a psychoactive substance, there is a greater probability of successful treatment and recovery from a substance abuse problem. Psychologists are in a unique position to assess whether older abuse is occurring and, when discovered, to intervene with advocacy initiatives.

This chapter presents common research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, including how the researcher influences what is being measured, challenges and opportunities in measuring religion and spirituality, and cultural implications of the measurement of religion and spirituality. When reading reports of research on the impact of religion and spirituality on psychological constructs, pastoral counselors must consider what the researcher intended to capture, as this may be different from the pastoral counselor’s personal definitions of religion or spirituality. Pastoral counseling falls in the broad category of the social sciences. There are two general categories of social science research: quantitative research and qualitative research. Research in religion and spirituality must consider the cultures of those who devise the research and the cultures of those who participate. Pastoral counseling research is complex because it crosses multiple disciplines and encompasses concepts that are difficult to define and conceptualize: religion and spirituality.

This chapter explores the diversity of professionals engaged in pastoral counseling, the characteristics of those professionals within the ever-expanding landscape of mental health care, and the settings in which pastoral counseling most often occurs. It describes the plurality present within the discipline, summarizes the discipline’s use of the adjective pastoral, and offers a broad, fluid understanding of pastoral counseling. Pastoral counselors at the center of practice in the 1950s to 1970s may have claimed to speak in a singular tongue and envisioned a monolithic tower representing the theory and practice of the discipline. Pastoral counseling is an approach to mental health care that draws on the wisdom of psychology and the behavioral sciences alongside spirituality/religion/theology. Pastoral counselors are bicultural because they have graduate training in both religious/spiritual/theological education and a mental health discipline. Religiously endorsed pastoral counselors are, like all pastoral counselors, bilingual and bicultural.

An indicator of the growth of research in the field of psychology and spirituality can be seen by examining the increase in the number of citations found over the past several decades in the PsycINFO database, which is the premier resource of the American Psychological Association (APA) that provides abstracts of peer-reviewed literature in the behavioral sciences and mental health. In addition to the field of psychology, data on the relevance of religion and spirituality is being generated by disciplines in the humanities and the physical and other social sciences to which spiritually oriented psychologists and other mental health therapists need to pay attention. One area that blends the psychological and the spiritual and offers an opportunity for collaboration between psychology and pastoral counseling is that of mindfulness-based therapies. The challenges for the world’s religions and spiritual traditions are the challenges for psychology and its allied professions, including pastoral counseling.

Anxiety is often a normal reaction to stress, and there will always be situations that create stress and discomfort. In social work practice, recognition of the primary types of anxiety-related mental health disorders and the medications used to treat these disorders is an essential first step for comprehensive treatment. When medication alone is not enough, psychosocial interventions can assist the client in controlling anxious feelings. This chapter emphasizes the importance of being familiar with the medications and supplemental psychosocial interventions that can be effective in treating these disorders. Social work professionals often provide key services, including assessment and diagnostic and treatment services, to those who suffer from anxiety conditions. In terms of direct intervention efforts, many of the techniques described in the chapter can be used to help clients suffering from depression because the symptoms of anxiety and depression frequently overlap.

The medical model of psychopathology currently guides psychiatrists and many psychologists who are treating older adults experiencing psychological problems. Use of this model causes contradictions and distortions for the treating clinician and limits the effectiveness of treatment for older adults experiencing psychological problems. There are three areas of concern that illustrate these contradictions and distortions. The first area of concern is the fact that only two classes of psychiatric diagnoses meet the characteristics of a disease. The second area of concern is how the current use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) continues a tradition among psychiatry, managed-care companies, and insurance companies that puts pressure on psychiatrists, psychologists, hospitals, and psychiatric rehabilitation facilities to treat in the most cost-effective and short-term manner. The third area of concern is the relationship that has occurred between psychiatry and pharmaceutical marketing forces.

Any discussion of medications in today's practice environment should include an introduction to complementary and alternative or integrative medicine (CAM) and other herbal treatments and remedies, with an emphasis on using this information to complement traditional treatment strategy. CAM can include the therapeutic use of animals and animal parts, but most often is defined as involving plants. Social workers are in a unique position to aid clients in their use of complementary and alternative medicine. Homeopathic medicine involves the whole person; it considers the emotional, mental, and physical symptoms and matches them to the needs of a particular client. Social workers can assist comprehensive care by providing stress management strategies, relaxation techniques, and psychosocial interventions that can be incorporated into alternative therapies. Keeping abreast of all forms of treatment is important to provide the best possible care.

This chapter comes from an integrative/holistic approach to play therapy. Although the foundation is influenced by the work of Carl G. Jung, it is integrative because it focuses on practices from many other schools of psychotherapy as well. The chapter concentrates on directive approaches of using trays of sand and small figures as a therapeutic tool in the play therapy room. Jung’s psychology, also known as analytical or depth psychology, is not a tool, methodology, or even a group of techniques, but a way to gain insights that can influence psychic healing. The child’s psyche leads the process in Sandtray-Worldplay. Symbolic images become concrete as they bring powerful insights into consciousness. The builder and the witness travel together through four stages in Sandtray-Worldplay: building and observing, experiencing and reflecting, joint experiencing, and photographing. The sandtray process is led by the builder and facilitated by the witness/therapist.

This chapter examines the relationships between pastoral counseling and spiritual direction with an eye to how the related disciplines can work together to provide holistic care for clients facing the complex problems of modern life. It explores the common ancestor of spiritual direction and psychotherapy in the care for the soul in Western philosophical and religious traditions, tracing their separation in the past century. The chapter considers ideas from an interfaith and contextual perspective and raises questions for the future of pastoral counseling based on cultural differences and emerging social trends. Positive psychology has provided helpful distinctions that are useful in describing how counseling, pastoral counseling, and spiritual direction are both similar and different. Many counselors both pastoral and clinical mental health are interested in promoting cognitive, psychosocial, and faith development, and these concepts also inform spiritual direction; both relationships would cover ideas such as images of God.

This chapter focuses on Buddhist approaches to the work of pastoral counseling and the role of the counselor. It explores the topics of Buddhism and pastoral counseling as separate entities, looks at how they can be joined, and presents unique elements of working with Buddhist and non-Buddhist clients. The chapter introduces the notion of the Buddhist pastoral counselor as the kalamitra, or spiritual friend. In Mahayana Buddhism, the teacher is often termed kalamitra, Sanskrit for spiritual friend. The kalamitra as counselor is one who has worked with his or her own mind and therefore knows the workings of the mind and how the mind creates suffering. Similar to all counseling, the Buddhist pastoral counselor will rely on the relationship with the client as the main process and intervention of counseling. Buddhism and mindfulness will continue to influence psychology, and therefore Buddhist pastoral counseling as a discipline will continue to grow.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, 2016c) under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security delineates the complex law and path to citizenship as it relates to immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. The USCIS (2016a) makes decisions based on policies and laws that were first introduced in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The INA was shaped by the McCarren-Walter bill in 1952, which created Public Law 82-414. An extensive policy manual exists (USCIS, 2016b), which provides full disclosure of all policies related to rights, responsibilities, and processes of naturalization, continuous residence, individuals and groups under temporary protected status (TPS), and overall policies related to immigration. This chapter provides transparency to all public, private, and governmental entities. It offers some guidelines to mental health professionals to begin working globally with the new culture of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Childhood bereavement support is provided by a variety of professionals including chaplains, social workers, mental health counselors, psychologists, child life specialists, nurses, school counselors, thanatologists, and educators. This chapter discusses the issue of professional accountability and ethical considerations when working with bereaved children and their families in order to offer a framework for standards for this important type of support. It is not enough to solely provide orientation training to volunteers, it is also important to offer continued training for both new and existing volunteers. Organizations that provide support to bereaved children should establish written, agreed upon standards of practice to which program staff and volunteers are held accountable. The parent or legal guardian of children attending individual support, peer support groups, or grief camps should be provided a clear description of services being provided. Services provided should fit within the mission, vision, and values of the organization.

This chapter reviews the current scope of practice in rehabilitation counseling and the impact that counselor licensure legislation has on the field concerning eligibility for counselor licensure and becoming an independent rehabilitation practitioner. It defines the foundational skills and scope of practice required for effective, competent, and ethical rehabilitation counseling practice. The chapter explains a psychosocial model for rehabilitation counselors (RCs) who want to structure therapeutic interactions with clients who have chronic illnesses and disabilities. The counselor uses the counseling relationship to help clients draw from their personal history, knowledge, coping abilities, resiliency skills, and overall life experiences to derive meaning. Counselors across a variety of work settings and theoretical orientations must be proficient, competent, and ethical in working with a range of people with disabilities who may be culturally different. There are both universal and specific counseling approaches, programs, and services used during therapeutic interactions for people with disabilities.

Social isolation and loneliness are distinct concepts with a research history that evolved separately over many decades in the disciplines of sociology, psychology, psychiatry, and epidemiology. This chapter provides a historical overview of highlights from the research on social isolation, loneliness, and social support, and considers the implications of that research on current practice. It also explains the diversity of perspectives in the way one analyze human social engagement and allows for more personalized assessment of social needs and more targeted delivery of social programs and services. Researchers continue in their efforts to find effective interventions for social isolation and loneliness and for effective delivery of social support, and while one await further guidance, one can use the concepts and theories developed over decades to inform our practice. Awareness of the long research history will result in more targeted and effective help for individuals who need it.

This chapter highlights the various roles that a forensic psychologist might play during the course and within the context of a criminal trial. It discusses the ethics of expert testimony, interrogation of suspects, and the psycholegal issues presented in criminal matters. The chapter presents cases made popular by television and social media to illustrate some of these issues. The cases highlighting these points are the murder trials of Jody Arias in Arizona and Brendan Dassey, who was living in Wisconsin but had his case deliberated in federal court. The chapter features profiles of two forensic psychologists. Although both work in the criminal justice system, their roles are quite different, and each has a position integral to the system. Interviews with Drs. Adam Yerke and Trisha Elloyan provide insight into the professional lives of a sex offender evaluator and a prison psychologist, respectively.

This chapter discusses the problems found in research that focuses on African American populations. It focuses specifically on the problems with theories developed without the inclusion of African Americans, the introduction of biases into the research, the problems with comparative studies, and the practice of studying African Americans as if they are a homogenous group. The chapter then addresses future needs to improve research concerning African Americans including increasing the number of African American psychologists, improving training to include an African-centered perspective, and increasing the number of African Americans who participate in research. It also addresses theories that are relevant to African Americans, focusing on the African worldview, African-centered theories, and Critical Race Theory. It provides an overview of the Black psychology and describes the studies of African-centered psychologists. The chapter concludes with an examination of García Coll and colleague’s Integrative Model to understand the development of children of color.

Treatment outcome studies in the discipline of social work, psychology, and psychiatry have demonstrated the efficacy and effectiveness of differential psychotherapy approaches in addressing the psychological needs of individuals across the life span. Throughout the last four decades, scholar-practitioners have engaged in a professional quest to find evidence to support the efficacy of psychotherapy in ameliorating an array of clinical symptoms and levels of distress in identified patient or client populations. This chapter presents an overview of evidence-based practice with ethnically diverse clients. Predicated on an integrative understanding of evidence-based practice and cultural competency in mental health and clinical care settings, and on the importance of intersectionality as the guiding theoretical perspective for effective delivery of patient-centered services, it presents selected conceptual frameworks for the cultural adaptation of evidence-based treatments. The chapter highlights culturally adapted cognitive-behavioral therapy as an exemplar of evidence-based treatment for ethnic and racially diverse patient populations.

This chapter introduces some of the challenges currently faced by African Americans in the United States. It discusses the problems with the deficit perspective in understanding African Americans and the role of African American psychologists in the 1960s to attempt to move us away from this perspective. The chapter then points out key aspects of African-centered psychology. It discusses individuals who were instrumental in the early days of Black psychology, helping us to understand their roles in addressing issues important to Blacks throughout the 20th century. The chapter then discusses the rise of positive psychology and how it can uniquely help us to better understand African American psychology through its focus on strengths and not deficits. It describes several empirical studies examining resilience along with interventions designed to increase resilience. Finally, the chapter discusses the complexity of resilience and possible negative outcomes to resilience behavior.

Despite the growing attention in the literature addressing the experiences of lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender (LBGT) youth and family acceptance, few researchers are examining these experiences in the relational context of being a grandchild or how grandparent–grandchild relationships enhance or hinder LGBT grandchildren’s experiences, especially when grandchildren disclose their sexual orientation to grandparents. This chapter discusses the important theoretical lenses used to understand and aids the study of LGB grandparenthood and reviews the literature on LGB grandparenthood and when grandchildren identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, and queer (LBGTQ). Perhaps more importantly to the advancement of the literature on LGB grandparenting, the chapter provides recommendations for future research on grandparenthood in the context of sexual orientation, and hopes that discussion is a call to action for family scientists, gerontologists, psychologists, and sociologists to closely examine grandparenthood when grandparents, grandchildren, or grandchildren’s parents identify as LGBTQ.

This chapter explains two essential elements form Sleep Therapy, which are based on sleep science and psychology principles. Many people find this background intriguing. What’s more, it is always easier to carry out techniques when one understands how they work. The elements of Sleep Therapy are: uncovering one’s natural sleep processes and associating one’s bed with sleep. By understanding how sleep comes and goes in the natural state one can see more clearly how to restore healthy sleep. Good sleep comes when our biological sleep processes can operate without interference. Associating one’s bed with sleep element of Sleep Therapy is based on something called “conditioning” or “learned associations”. These are connections one make in their mind (automatically) between two things that occur together on several occasions.

This chapter explores a range of topics related to obesity, including its prevalence, medical aspects, and associated complications. Other relevant areas include the psychosocial factors pertaining to societal attitudes and individual mental health issues, vocational implications concerning work/wage discrimination, Social Security regulations, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protections. The chapter also discusses the implications for rehabilitation counselors regarding vocational and mental health counseling. The implications of working with persons who are obese or overweight may be broken down into mental health counseling and/or vocational counseling. Obesity and related medical complications have soared to the forefront of medical conditions that lead to premature death, discrimination in employment, compromised quality of life, and negative psychosocial implications. Counselors who are aware of the medical, psychosocial, and vocational implications of obesity can assist clients in a variety of ways, keeping Olkin’s (1999) recommendations in mind regarding disability-affirmative therapy.

Contextual therapy originated from the work of Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, who was a prominent pioneer in the family therapy movement. Contextual therapy has not been as popular with training therapists in recent decades. The waning in popularity is not because the theory is not effective or robust, but the theory and approach has been criticized for being possibly too intellectual. This chapter attempts to provide historical information on the development of contextual family therapy and the recent evolution of the model as it pertains to restoration therapy. It discusses the concepts of contextual family therapy: entitlement; loyalty; parentification; revolving slate; and ledger of merits. The contextual therapy approach is historically an integrative process of four dimensions of reality: facts, individual psychology, systemic interactions, and relational ethics. The main conceptualization of the contextual family therapy is that the present dynamic is typically a continuation of past loyalties, injustices, and entitlements.

In the field of family therapy, there is a need for working with families struggling with medical problems. The collaboration of both medicine and psychology in addressing the particular familial and individual issues that occur in dealing with illness have led to the medical family therapy (MedFT) model. MedFT represents a meta framework that encompasses overarching principles within which any mode of psychotherapy can be practiced. What sets MedFT apart from other family therapy theories is the routine collaboration with medical professionals as well as seeing illness as part of the systems. Collaboration is a primary aspect; medical family therapists need to have an understanding of the medical system to embrace a multidisciplinary team approach with physicians and other healthcare providers. The hope is that the MedFT therapist will aid the family, along with the medical staff, traverse illness and journey united together in coping with the effects of illness.

While animal cognition researchers may look strange at playing parrot vocalizations on loud speakers in the jungle or presenting gorillas with trays of colored shapes, there very much is a method to our madness. That method is the scientific method whose steps are to develop a research question, design appropriate methodologies, collect and analyze data, then share the findings with the scientific community. This chapter presents some considerations and methods for studying animal cognition with the hope that, the reader will use some of them in their future observations of animal behavior—both human and nonhuman. Animal cognition is a branch of psychology, the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Some of the most famous and informative studies of animal cognition have been through the case study method. Most animal cognition research is conducted by scientists who are affiliated with colleges and universities.

Psychological factors involve internal experiences that an individual has. In this context, these internal experiences will revolve around one's perception about body weight, shape, and size; other mental health issues in addition to an eating disorder; personality characteristics; and the degree to which an individual has control over his or her emotions and behaviors. There are a multitude of psychological factors that can affect the development of, maintenance of, or recovery from an eating disorder. Personality disorders have often been associated with eating disorders and are believed to be the most commonly occurring comorbid diagnosis. Although many people think eating disorders are purely about food, the myriad psychological factors associated with eating disorders indicate that there is much going on within a person with such a diagnosis to state that eating disorders reflect an issue with one particular thing.

Testing and evaluation are typically one of the last areas of mental health practice claimed by psychology alone, but assessment is a critical part of work as a counselor. The wellness-focused approach of the profession is in some ways at odds with the labeling required of evaluation, assessment, and interpretation, but these are an undeniable reality of clinical practice in the era of managed care. The chapter includes seven cases related to a section of the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics examined carefully using the Garcia, Cartwright, Winston, and Borzuchowska’s (2003) Transcultural Integrative model. This chapter highlights the ways in which assessment in general can become a complex area of practice, including, but not limited to, using diagnosis as a tool for billing, validity of assessment instruments administered to clients, diagnosis and wellness principles, and scope of competence.

The specialization of forensic expert testimony in mental health has traditionally been precluded for counselors and dominated primarily by psychologists and psychiatrists. This chapter focuses on the applicable laws related to providing expert testimony and their impact on how counselors must prepare and present their findings in court. It outlines legal definitions and differences in deposing or discovery testimony versus trial testimony. Knowing the order and relevant issues involved at each procedural step becomes important regarding testimony preparation. A practical look at the specific skills counselors should have in order to effectively work in the forensic field is discussed next as well as specific strategies in preparing for and testifying in a courtroom. The growing need for forensic mental health evaluators plays a significant role in scientifically and methodologically providing the court with valuable knowledge in helping to render more informed decisions.

Alfred Adler’s individual psychology is a dynamic theory that offers counselors many opportunities to help clients find creative, socially focused, meaning-making, and growth-oriented strategies to heal and grow. This chapter discusses Adlerian theory and shows how expressive arts techniques can be used in Adlerian counseling. Adlerian theory, or individual psychology, emphasizes a basic premise that supports the assertion that each individual is unique. The theory postulates that there are four core concepts that shape the nature of human existence; these address personality development, the notion of superiority, psychological well-being, and the unity of the personality. The goals associated with the implementation of Adlerian therapy include relationship, assessment, insight and understanding, and reorientation and reeducation. Adler’s individual psychology accentuates the positive nature of humankind and focuses on assisting individuals to drive their own destiny through choice and change.

This chapter focuses on the commonality between domestic violence and other forms of violence against women. There are at least two major types of cultural issues that need to be understood in the United States by researchers and service providers: first, the cultural issues of those with less access to resources and the dominant cultural privileges, and second, the cultural issues of those who have emigrated to the United States from other countries, whether legally or illegally. Given the attention to cultural diversity issues in providing clinical services, there is a body of literature that deals with how these services, particularly medical and psychological treatments, must accommodate to cultural differences. Some researchers suggest that women of color in domestic violence relationships are less likely to seek help from mental health professionals because they perceive the helpers as insensitive to the racial and cultural context of their lives.

Any theoretical model of depressive disorders must be consistent with people’s broader understanding of human psychology, including the origins and functions of their psychological processes. A number of theorists have offered models of depressive disorders that emphasize the possible adaptive significance to their species of these conditions and related emotions. The purpose of such models is twofold: to provide a conceptualization of depression that is consistent with evolutionary theory, and to describe how the etiology of depression may be understood as involving normal processes of adaptation. If depressive disorders and normal experiences of grief, sadness, and guilt emerge from shared mechanisms, then perhaps depression shares with these normal experiences their adaptive functions as well. Many of the evolutionarily based models generated to explain the existence of depression focus on the interpersonal and social contexts of depression.

Energy psychology comprises a body of knowledge and a family of therapeutic modalities that are concerned with the interface between mind and body, mediated by working with the body’s subtle energy system. Although the mechanism is uncertain, research indicates that such methods do work, bringing about emotional, cognitive, and physiological changes rather faster than would be expected with purely talk-based psychotherapies. Another important component used by some practitioners is “energy testing” sometimes known as “muscle testing”, although it is not the muscles tested, but small variations in muscle tone are considered to provide information about both psychological and energetic states. This chapter discusses two case studies where, energy testing revealed significant internal objections to resolving their eating disorders (EDs). It concludes that energy psychology modalities form useful additional components of psychotherapeutic approach to EDs, helping to alleviate the intensity of emotional distress and facilitate the flow of energy and information.

The social justice counselor (SJC) is essentially a new breed of contemporary counselor who no longer works with blinders on regarding a narrowed vision of counseling that focuses on treating a client’s symptoms while ignoring any external contributing factors of client distress. This chapter describes social justice counseling, its emphasis, why it is needed, and why all counseling disciplines should stay abreast of the topic, its counseling strategies, and the premise as to why social justice needs to be considered in counseling. Social psychologists and sociologists have long studied the psychological ramifications of inequality regarding the reciprocal effect of individuals’ interactions with their environment. The chapter explores the economic, health, and psychosocial ramifications of inequality and oppression to provide counselors with insights regarding the worldview and daily lives of the poor and oppressed in American society.

We —hopefully—have a basic understanding of the what, who, how, where, and when of oppression. But what about the so what? The chapter discusses the “so what” by providing an overview of the psychological and mental health implications of oppression. The case of the Filipino man and his neighbor that was presented in the chapter suggests that Filipinos may be stereotypically seen as uncivilized savages who move to the United States and drain the country’s resources. It is very well documented that marginalized groups face various health concerns. The increasing body of research on racial health disparities, for example, suggests that members of marginalized groups often face alarmingly higher risks for developing health concerns and face more barriers in the system that keeps them from getting quality health care than members of dominant or privileged groups.