Counseling Center

Working with Parents in Play Therapy is grounded in research and lays out best practices for parent consultation and communication in play therapy. Readers will come away from this book with a variety of strategies for engaging parents, and in these pages, they’ll also find worksheets, resources, activity lesson plans, and a wealth of didactic material. Working with Parents in Play Therapy includes a parent consultation framework, designed with best practices from literature, that provides step-by-step instructions for play therapists to use when planning for parent meetings. The book also includes a guide that outlines frequently asked questions from parents about play therapy. This resource is designed in such a way that play therapists can copy pages, either to hand out at intake meetings with parents or set out in waiting rooms and lobbies so parents can browse information prior to the meeting. Each didactic chapter is grounded in research and literature, and ends with self-reflection questions or case examples so readers can immediately put the material into practice. This is a must-have volume for play therapists in training, seasoned play therapists, and supervisors alike.

Bowlby's Internal Working Model (IWM) is central to understanding adult attachment-related difficulties. However, what IWM concretely consists of remains unspecified, and no method exists for directly visualizing IWM. Because IWM is formed during the pre-verbal period, it is difficult to access through language-based psychotherapy alone. A woman in her 20s with a history of childhood stuttering and subsequent interpersonal difficulties participated in Transactional Analysis (TA) Developmental Collage Therapy. She created six collage works representing "myself and my surrounding environment" across developmental stages from birth to a future after therapeutic change. Pre- and post-intervention assessments included the Tokyo University Egogram Third Edition (TEG3), which measures five ego states based on TA theory, and the Experiences in Close Relationships inventory-Generalized Other version (ECR-GO), which assesses attachment anxiety and avoidance. The collage works visually depicted the relationship between the "Child" ego state (Free Child or Adapted Child) and the surrounding environment ("Parent") at each developmental stage. Collages 1-2 expressed stable attachment with Free Child; Collages 3-4 depicted transformation to insecure attachment with Adapted Child following negative experiences; Collages 5-6 showed re-emergence of Free Child and movement toward secure attachment. TEG3 showed decreased Critical Parent (CP: 49→35) and Adapted Child (AC: 50→45), with increased Free Child (FC: 57→59). ECR-GO showed decreased Attachment Anxiety (54→48) and Attachment Avoidance (51→45). This case suggests that TA Developmental Collage Therapy can visualize IWM and facilitate its transformation. The findings indicate that ego states may constitute structural components of IWM, and that combining non-verbal collage techniques with verbal approaches may provide an effective therapeutic framework that complements language-based psychotherapy.

要旨: 聞き取り困難 (LiD) に対して包括的評価を行い, 「聞こえにくさのチェックシート」との間にどのような関連があるのかについて検討を行った。

Objective: This paper is the first in a series of three that describe the context, rationale, and results of the American Psychological Association’s Division 40: Society for Clinical Neuropsychology’s (SCN) strategic planning initiative. Methods: In this paper, we provide a review of the SCN’s history, including previous organizational changes and strategic planning efforts, and discuss the rationale for undertaking the current strategic planning process. We discuss the development and work of the SCN Strategic Planning Committees (SPCs) and their multi-method approach to assessing the SCN’s strengths and weaknesses, the needs and preferred organizational priorities of membership, and opportunities for improving organizational inclusivity and member benefits. We discuss how the results of extensive qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used to develop the SCN 2023 Strategic Plan and guide organizational changes. Results: The SCN 2023 Strategic Plan was approved by the SCN Executive Committee in 2023. It includes six guiding principles, three operating principles, five strategic priorities, and specific organizational objectives. Based on the data collected, the plan includes a focus on strengthening professional advocacy and equity, justice, and inclusion within the SCN, increasing organizational effectiveness, and improving the SCN’s membership value proposition. To align the SCN with the strategic plan, subsequent implementation efforts include changes to the SCN Bylaws, policies and procedures, and organizational structure. Conclusions: The SCN 2023 Strategic Plan operationalizes the values, strategies priorities, and objectives of the organization, and in doing so, enhances the SCN’s capacity to optimize its value to members and societal impact.

Objectives: There is a need to psychometrically develop self-report measures of substance use in athletes, particularly those that assess the impact substance use has on sport performance. Method: In this study, a four-item measure assessing the extent to which alcohol and illicit drug use interfere with sport performance in training and competition, validated measures of psychiatric symptomology and substance use frequency, and a structured clinical interview assessing substance use diagnostic criteria were administered (N=285 athletes). Results: One-week test-retest reliability of the four-item measure was good, and positive relationships between this set of items and validated measures of psychiatric symptomology, substance use frequency, and age were found. Males demonstrated higher scores on the four-item measure, and its scores were not influenced by ethnicity and athlete type (NCAA, club, intramural). In a sub-sample of 74 participants who reported substance use and interest in pursuing psychological intervention, there was a non-significant trend for participants who were diagnosed with a substance use disorder to demonstrate higher scores on the four-item measure of substance use interference with sport performance than participants who were not diagnosed with a current substance use disorder (p = .08). Conclusion: Results suggest the developed four-item measure may be helpful in determining the extent to which substance use impacts sport training and competition in collegiate athletes.

Objective Yalom (1985) believed that working in the here-and-now of the group is essential to facilitating the “therapeutic factors” necessary for a successful outcome. Yet, we currently lack research examining whether a here-and-now in-session focus predicts the therapeutic factors, as theorized. Methods This study used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis to assess group member and leader in-session here-and-now focus by analyzing words spoken in a session. Results The results suggest that when group leaders use more here-and-now words in a speaking turn, group members use more here-and-now words in the subsequent speaking turn. However, contrary to expectation, group leaders and group members “matching” on here-and-now language in a session did not predict more therapeutic factors in between sessions, but rather less social learning. Instead, how consistent or variable group members or leaders were in their here-and-now focus generally predicted more therapeutic factors. Conclusion These results suggest that LIWC may be a promising vehicle to assess here-and-now language in group therapy sessions and that a here-and-now in-session focus has a complex relationship with the therapeutic factors.