Ideas about creating artificial intelligence (AI) came into prominence not long after creating the first computers in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then, when scientists and other philosophical futurists discussed AI, many of their ideas seemed whimsical and fantastical, hardly the stuff of reality. But since then, the digital boom has been underway for decades, and […]
Child-Centered Play Therapy: A Viable Intervention?
In a recent article, “Patient Consultation in Child-Centered Play Therapy: A Model for Research and Practice,” published in 2015, researchers investigate and expand upon a type of therapy for children that has its roots in the work of Virginia Axeline in the late ‘60s. Axeline, who was a student of Carl Rogers, “developed nondirective play therapy as a […]
What is Consciousness, really?
Of all the phenomena in the observable universe, human consciousness, something that is so familiar yet so difficult to understand, remains one of the last true enigmas, one of the last standing mysteries that science, at present, appears unable to crack. To put this in larger historical perspective, in the past one hundred years, humans have walked […]
Therapists: Managing Your Online Reputation
In recent years, more and more of an individual’s personal information may be found online. Although this remains a problem for professionals and non-professionals alike, the discovery of online information by a client poses challenges for clinical therapists. This problem was highlighted earlier this year in an article titled, “Client Discovery of Psychotherapist Personal Information Online,” […]
Study: Therapists’ Interpersonal Skills May Influence Client Progress in Therapy
A therapist’s interpersonal skills may affect client progress in therapy, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology. Researchers took a sample of 44 clinical psychology trainees and attempted to discern whether the therapist’s Facilitative Interpersonal Skills, or, FIS for short, would have an impact on client progress. The […]
What’s Lacking in the Conversation on the 2016 Election : A Psychological Perspective
‘Tolerance of Ambiguity’ and ‘Locus of Control’ as Predictors of Political Orientation: What’s Lacking in the Conversation about the 2016 Election Often, when engaging in political discourse, people tend to discuss the “content” of an issue; in other words, they get into the nitty gritty of what an issue “is about.” They may also discuss […]
Client’s perceptions of Effective Therapy
Two researchers, Corrine R. Sackett and Gerard Lawson, published a paper earlier this year in the Journal of Counseling and Development that explores the therapeutic process from the client’s perspective. Their paper, “A Phenomenological Inquiry of Clients’ Meaningful Experiences in Counseling with Counselors-in-Training,” aims to emphasize the client’s perspective because “[t]raditionally,” according to the paper’s […]
Professional Practice in the Digital Age: E-mail as a means of Therapist-Client Communication
In 2012, Marion Mattison published an article in a noted social work journal that explains the opportunities, as well as the challenges, of communication with clients through e-mail within a clinical context. Clearly, as e-mail has become a well-established means of digital communication over the past two decades, it has raised questions about the ethics, […]
An Understanding of Understanding (I.Q.)
The concept of I.Q., or “intelligence quotient,” as it is formally called, has been around for about 100 years, but in the that time, debates have raged over how to measure it, different types of intelligence, and the extent to which it is influenced by genes and the environment. Once I.Q. testing began to take […]
Ethical Concepts for Professional Therapists
From Aristotle to Mill, Professional Therapists have Ethical Concepts to Help Guide Their Decisions As in most professions, therapists, psychologists and mental health counselors may face decisions that have a moral dimension, and knowing how to choose may not be easy. Luckily, there remains a number of sound theoretical approaches—sound moral theoretical approaches, that is—that […]