Volume 9. Number 2 (2002)
Jon Rose, Ph.D. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Palo Alto Health Care System and San Francisco State University.
I'M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU?
Veribeth Brinker
I'm apprehensive, but a little hopeful, too. I'm meeting Bruce Cushna today for psychotherapy at the Child Development Clinic, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. I park my car in the parking lot next to the clinic and crunch the leaves underfoot as I slowly walk toward the front door. The director of the clinic offered me a few therapy sessions. I think I can use the therapy. I'm having a hard time managing my two hyperactive, mentally retarded, forever children, sons, plus my other four children. Kris (4) and David (11) are my two retarded sons, while the other three sons and daughter range in age from six to fifteen. Goodness, that is six children in eleven years. The rhythm method didn't work.
Comment
Bruce Cushna, Ph.D. Senior Associate in Psychology, Emeritus Children's Hospital, Boston Member of the Faculty of Medicine, Emeritus Harvard Medical School.
Dear Verabeth,
It has been a long while since I have written to you, and even a longer time since you sent me the essay "I'm Nobody". It is a very moving piece of writing, and I have to admit that it is very flattering to me. More so since it seems hard to believe that this therapy took place more than 40 years ago.
Let me congratulate you on all your accomplishments in this vast interim. It is no small measure that you are now enrolled in the University of Iowa Creative Writer's Workshop. And that this essay was the non-fiction example that helped that faculty recognize your creative potential. You are an extremely creative person. And I feel a somewhat vicarious but still genuine sense of pride in this particular achievement, not to mention the fact that after therapy you went on to a most productive nursing career, earning even a graduate degree and contributing very significantly to the mental retardation movement in general and the understanding of Fragile X Syndrome in particular.
UNCONDITIONAL COMPASSION: A STRUGGLE TO APPLY THE LESSON
UNCONDITIONAL COMPASSION: A STRUGGLE TO APPLY THE LESSON PDF
Barbara June Hunter, Ph.D.
On May 25 Molly read a newspaper account of a police officer, Justin V, who had pled guilty to a charge of ramming the broken-off handle of a toilet plunger into the rectum of a suspect, Abner L. Mr. L was a Haitian immigrant who, ironically, had fled his country to avoid the violent persecution regularly meted out there by uniformed armed officers of the government.
Empathy and the media: Can we really know people from the news?
Empathy and the media: Can we really know people from the news? PDF
Preface
Much of our interest in news media may arise from feeing a sense of relatedness to the people portrayed. The popularity of People Magazine attests to how much people want to now about and understand people who are in the news. Conveying an impression of human understanding helps to boost TV news ratings and helps to sell newspapers (Bagdikian, 1992). News media stories about crime, heroism, fame and infamy are more compelling to obtain when we imagine we know how those in the news must have felt when the event presented occurred, but how accurate can such attempts at empathy be? Is it possible to empathize with someone we only know about through the news?
When we say that we empathize with someone, or that a client empathizes with someone, what do we mean? What does empathy mean, and under what circumstances can it reliably exist? Is personal contact a requirement for empathy, or can it exist based on a conversation, a narrative, or from a series of news stories?
EMPATHETIC COMMUNICATION FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION AMONG CHILDREN
EMPATHETIC COMMUNICATION FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION AMONG CHILDREN PDF
Jeff L. Cochran State University of NY College at Brockport
Nancy H. Cochran Blossom Road Psychotherapy, Rochester, NY
Eric J. Hatch Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
This article presents an empathy-focused approach to conflict resolution among children that is applicable in schools and other settings. The authors illustrate the approach with a case example and with role definitions for speakers, listeners, and facilitators. The authors assert that complete communication (having children in conflict listen to one another and then empathically respond to one another without judgment or bias) is a highly effective and powerful means to conflict resolution. Important interpersonal and intrapersonal benefits include: increased self-efficacy and self-reliance, increased respect for self and others, increased empathy and emotional maturity, and increased skills in developing meaningful friendships. Further, this model may help prevent school violence resulting from children feeling ostracized and unheard. Additional applications are also discussed.
A DEARTH OF SUDS FOR DAVEY: A THERAPIST’S THOUGHTS DURING A CHILD THERAPY SESSION
A DEARTH OF SUDS FOR DAVEY: A THERAPIST’S THOUGHTS DURING A CHILD THERAPY SESSION PDF
Kathryn A. Moon
Introduction
My moment to moment experiences with a young client are shared here within a transcript example of a nondirective client-centered therapy session. Questions relating to the therapeutic relationship, therapist congruence, limit setting, time management, and nondirective intentions are raised in the course of commentary organized around the complete transcript of a therapy session. In the postscript, discussion of child therapy in the context of Rogerian theory (Rogers, 1951, 1957, 1959) and the concept of the therapeutic attitude of “congruence” addresses the tension that can develop between a therapist’s nondirective intention to accept the client and the reality of working with a child who is intensely engaged in a client-directed therapy session.
THE WISCONSIN WATERSHED – OR, THE UNIVERSALITY OF CCT
THE WISCONSIN WATERSHED – OR, THE UNIVERSALITY OF CCT PDF
Lisbeth Sommerbeck Clinical Psychologist, Dianalund Psychiatric Hospital Denmark
Abstract
This paper argues that the major reasons for the ambiguous and disappointing results of the Wisconsin Project were the failure of the researchers to take client motivation into account and failure of the therapists of the project to respond on a level of concreteness that matched the client’s level of expression.
The paper asserts that correcting for these two factors leads to the major hypothesis of the Wisconsin Project being, after all, true: Client-centered therapy does effect therapeutic change in persons diagnosed with schizophrenia. This result strengthens the hypothesis that client-centered therapy is a universal therapy.
John Shlien contributed in many ways to the author’s critique of the Wisconsin Project. The paper is also the history of his contribution.
Book Review. Dictionary of Person-Centered Psychology. PDF
Keith Tudor and Tony Merry London, England; and Philadelphia, PA: Whurr Publishers.
Advert. Carl Rogers. A daughter's tribute. (PDF only)
Front inside cover. (PDF only)
Back cover (PDF)